#middle right is my friend crowe's batman design

[emberglowfox]

bunch of smaller things from the art stream

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Treasure Hunter AU

I binged watch the Mummy trilogy while i had no wifi/internet for a while and I had an idea for a treasure hunter Mari with Daminette.

--------

Damian was bored.(age: 22-28 years old.)

At a gala party.

Meets Marinette who was equally bored.(abt the same age as D)

He finds out she was the finder of this famous artifact on display.

-----

Damian tugged at his collar, scanning the crowd. His father needed a plus one to show up with and everyone else were busy.

He grabbed a champagne flute and made his way to the edge of the room.

He found a woman in a black evening gown, looking as bored as he felt. short dark hair. Blue eyes.( I suck at describing people after the third time doing it. It feels overrated)

"Hello, stranger. You bored with mingling in with the assholes on their high horses?"

"Should I be offended?"

"We will see. Depends on you."

"How about you? A beautiful lady like you not kissing up their asses to climb the social ladder. That is strange."

She made a face. "Trust me. I don't want to be here but my friend wanted family time so I came in his place. What about you? Why are you here?"

"I am pretty sure my father wanted someone to get him out if the vultures came too close."

"Vultures, adept descriptions. I am glad no one realized who I am yet or i would be in their claws."

"Who are you representing, anyways?"

"Myself but Adrien or Kagami usually comes in my place but tonight, they have their son's play to go to."

"Adrien and Kagami. Aren't they the Agreste-Tsrungi?"

"Yep."

"You are the Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Globe trotting Treasure hunter and also world-class designer, MDC."

"Now you know. What's your name, handsome stranger?"

"You don't know?"

"Hey. Like you said globetrotting treasure hunter. I am not up-to-date on the news front. And when I am in Paris to do designer stuff, i am too busy to look at the news."

He gave her his hand, "Damian Wayne. Son of Bruce Wayne who is a billionaire and owns Wayne Enterprise."

She shook it.

"Pleased to meet you."

She stills design but like sent her designs to Adrien at least once every month, who had rebranded Gabriel to Miraculous Designs.

Some ppl thinks he did it to spite his father, who is in jail. Adrien and Mari has a partnership thing.

Mari also makes clothes but for a few months. And the rest of the time is spent travelling.

Exclusive designs from MDC are rare but the designs hand made by her are rarer so they are like a really big deal. They have the most amazing details. Really expensive and limited edition.

The rest of the time Mari spends finding Miraculouses (Miraculi ?) lost in the world so if she happens to find a few priceless artifacts that aren't the Miraculous. She donates it.

Alix helps and sometimes go find them with her.

She has Tikki and Plagg and maybe Wyazz all the time to look for curses and counter it.

She has also met John Constantine. They have an arrangement of sorts. A few magical artifacts that doesn't have to Miraculous business are given to him in exchange for any miraculous stuff he has or found.

Adrien funds her trips.

He is married to Kagami.

Kagami goes with Mari and Alix for a few months sometimes. Adrien likes being a stay at home dad.

Their kid is named Marin/Martin because it was Mari who got them together.

The few trips Mari dragged him on was enough to make him stay behind and run the business.

(Back to the story) Damian fangirled a little because Mari had been doing stuff like this since she was 18.

It was an amazing reputation she has.

She invites him to her next trip after questioning his skill sets.

------

"Are you good with heights, dark scary places and adventuring into the unknown?"

"Yes"

"You any good with guns, swords, knives, booby traps and keeping calm under pressure?"

"Yes. I have many experiences with them."

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes. Why are you asking me this?"

"Wanna join me on my next trip to the jungle of China? There are myths about some hidden temple."

------

Damian was a little conflicted.

He hadn't have the chance to explore the world much. He had been somewhere else for a mission (for the League of Shadows or JL business) but never for pleasure.

Being a vigilante by night and working at Wayne Enterprise by day gets a little boring after some years.

His brothers had a chance to travel the world on their own for a while. Sure, for reasons other than sight-seeing and looking for something to break out of the rut he was in. But still.

This was an exciting opportunity but a tad suspicious.

-----

"Why me?"

She looked surprised at that.

"Oh. Well, my friends enjoy coming with me on my adventures, treasure hunting and all that every now and then except Adrien but they have other things in their life to come with me all the time. I can mostly survive on my own most of the time but it gets lonely travelling on my own and it's nice if someone is there to watch my back. I understand if you don't want to come. It's just that I enjoy your company and you aren't like those assholes on their high horses. My gut feeling says I can trust you. You are not after the treasure or see it as one big game. You are looking for an escape. You would definitely catch me if I fall. As you know from my choice of friends, i have a bad habit of pulling rich kids from their stuffy lifestyle and take them on potentially life-threatening adventures." She joked. Then she lowered her voice, "Besides, it might be handy having a former assassin around."

She said in Arabic.

His hand went to his hidden knife and found it not there.

"Looking for this?" She said, holding it.

"How much do you know?" He hissed back in the same language.

"Relax," she gave back the knife, "my mother was one and I have accidentally came across a few in my adventures. I know one when i see one. I took a stab in the dark with your middle-eastern background. Speaking of, you know Talia Al Ghul by any chance."

He narrowed his eyes.

"She's my mother. Why?"

"You look like her. Met her a few times. Nice lady but scary. Mine's Sabine Cheng, goes by the Blue Reaper." She said it so casually like their parents weren't dangerous deadly assassins and had normal jobs.

"You aren't normal, are you?"

"What gave it away?"

"That you willingly gave away blackmail material to me."

"Normal people don't have assassins for mothers. And you and me aren't exactly meeting the minimum standards for normal. Besides, I just told you a family secret that you would have found out anyways with a through background search and a little digging. So far all I know about you is that your parents are Talia Al Ghul and Bruce Wayne-I wonder how an assassin got together with a billionaire-, you are a former League of Shadows assassin, you are great with weapons, keeping secrets and so far meeting the criteria for an adventure buddy. That's all I swear. And that you have some pets. A cat, maybe."

"How you know about my cat?!"

"Cat hair on your clothes." She was good. "If it will ease your mind about me, you can ask me 5 questions that I will truthfully answer. "

"So why are you doing this?"

"That's question 1. Well, I really want whatever this is between us to work. Partners, Friends, Companions, Comrades. Whatever you want to call it. Like I said, I get lonely sometimes and need some human interaction to at least keep myself sane. You looked like you want to be somewhere else and I thought this is perfect. I am not going to tell anyone about you or push you to join me. I swear on my mother's sword."

"Are we killing anybody?"

"Mostly I try to avoid that as much as possible. Sometimes I get into situations with no other alternative. " She looked away guiltily.

"Fair enough."

"Not judging me for that. That's a first for me."

"I am a former assassin and have killed before. I have no right to condemn you for your past."

"How much are you willing to tell me about this hidden temple?"

"That has to do with a secret. I would tell you more when there are less ears around. But this temple was said to hold a magic jewel that grants some powers and it is located really deep in the jungle. Getting there might take months."

"You forgot to mention that last one."

"Oh yeah. You think you can get away for some months. This kind of stuff usually takes a while. Like I said before, no pressure. Anyway, 2 questions left."

"What's my salary?"

"Aren't you a billionaire?"

"My father is. I have a trust fund and I get a salary for doing my job at the company. You are lucky that I just finished with most of my assigned projects so I might be able to come."

"I am so sorry about just assuming things about you. You can say no to the offer. The temple is said to hold some other treasures but I mainly want the jewel. We could auction off a few bits and pieces. I usually just donate them to museums and universities or sell them to those who really appreciate the history. I would also pay for the entire expenses for the trip."

"Can I think about this?"

"Sure. Here's my number. I leave on the 1st of next month. Gimme an answer a week before that so I can make the proper arrangements. It has been fun talking to you, Damian."

She walked away, going towards the buffet table.

------

Back in the car on the way home to the manor.

Bruce asked, "Who were you talking to for that long?"

"Who?"

"The one that gave you her number."

"Oh. MDC. She invited me to join her in China next month to find some hidden temple."

"She did?"

"Yes. Not only that she found out about mother and know what I did before I came here. She doesn't know about Batman, Robin or Crow. And she said she wasn't going to blackmail me but just wanted a companion to go with her. Ideally, it would be best to silence her before she digs any further into me but I trust her. I sincerely believe that she meant it when she said that she's not going to tell on me. And I am really tempted to take up on it."

"What do you want to do?"

"On one hand, i would be gone for months so there won't be Crow in Gotham for a while and I have a few projects I need to finish up. On the other hand. Father, I have been a vigilante for over 10 years now and I haven't really done much out besides that, school and now work. I have appreciated all you have done for me over the years. But I want to go with her. Do something that is not connected to Batman or Wayne or Al Ghul. Just a little something different for myself."

"You can go if you want. I am not going to stop you. I will make arrangements so the projects would be done by someone else. The others can cover your patrols. You are still young so it is understandable to want some fun every now and then."

"Thank you, Father."

Bruce put his hand on his shoulder.

"I am proud of you as Crow and as Damian Wayne. But if you want to go find some hidden temple in China just for a break from this life, to be just Damian, go for it. There are worse things you could do. Just tell me if you are going to go on any future trips like that." (I don't know DC much, sorry if that is a little OOC but I like good dad! Bruce.)

-------

Damian dialed the number on the card.

"Hello"

"I accept your offer, miss MDC."

"Damian? Right, text me your email address. I will sent you things you would need to pack and flight details. And can you come by to the Gotham Rose Hotel tomorrow? I will give more details on the temple."

-------

Damian comes by the hotel.

Marinette tells him of the kwamis and miraculous and makes him swear to not tell anyone unless they already know.

The hidden temple actually might have a miraculous.

Damian gets a little interested in the akuma situation she mentioned.

Mari doesn't say anything about it much.

When he got back, he goes to the Bat-computer and did some digging.

Ladybug looks a little familiar. Pulls up younger picture of Mari and look at that, she used to be a superhero.

Wonder Woman was kept informed of things and made sure no one goes to Paris without her knowing.

Zatanna helped capture the villain Hawkmoth and end his 2 year reign.

Fast forward, they are in Beijing now, sleeping off jetlag.

The next morning, They get out of the city somehow to the city limits and somewhere remote.

Mari uses Kalki and transports them to the jungle.

They set up camp. Cue Campfire stories.

-----

"I thought getting here would take months."

"No actually, finding the temple would. According to my research and the map I copied through less than legal means, it is somewhere in this general area. There used to a city around here too and the king or emperor pissed off some powerful priest or wizard, take your pick. There was a curse. The city crumbled down and the temple is the only thing standing because the king went there and prayed to the gods for protection. The one who answered his prayers and protected the temple in doing so the king was pressed into service of the god. The king did everything the god said for a while but later, he started to hate it and began disobeying the orders. The god cursed him for his disobedience. The temple he was protected in became his tomb and he was tasked to protect the chest inside the temple for the rest of eternity. Anyone who opens the chest would gain the ultimate power to rule the earth. Thankfully, we are not after the chest. Some powerful crack-head with a misused miraculous tried to find it and open the chest for more power. But he never returned. My theory is that the miraculous is still in the temple. As long as we don't wake up the king or go for the chest, we would be okay."

"What are the guns for? And How did you get them past security?"

"In case of emergencies, an army of undead was mentioned and guns are surprisingly good repellent. Well, most of the time. It's useless if there is a no weapons can kill 'it' rule. Then, it's just a stress reliever. I kept them in a pocket dimension. Makes it easier to get around."

Damian vowed to never let Marinette meet Jason. Judging by the pile of guns and occasional knives and other weapons she took out of the brown satchel which apparently holds a pocket dimension, Jason would adopt her. He wondered if that was all that was inside in.

-------

They packed up and started searching the jungle for hidden temple.

It was a month and a half before they found it.

They bonded a lot during that time.

They had a moment after drinking a little alcohol which Mari has in the pocket dimension. Or Drank a lot of alcohol and had sex.

It was awkward and they both agree to not talk about it again.

Soon after, they found the temple. But it is still a little far away.

But the temple is not the only thing they found. They also found a campsite with many people milling around. Some of them carried guns.

Somewhat rich bastard who overheard their conversation at the gala. Heard treasure and found out where Mari's next expedition is.

Had the help of some scholar who wants to be famous for the greatest find since King Tut.

They found the temple even though they had no magical help, they left 2 weeks before Mari did, so yeah.

Rich Bastard's name is 'Philip Anderson'(This sounds familiar to me for some reason and I can't find out why.) and Scholar is 'Harry Scott'

They have armed bodyguards and some 'hired' help to get the treasure.

Anderson is still rich but his company had been getting losses the past 2 years and this is a quick, easy get rich scheme.

Mari and Damian: "Rich asshole on his high horse."

Anderson doesn't know about the chest but Mari and Damian thinks he does and it was what he was after.

They set up camp a little further ahead of Anderson's

Unfortunately, they were found by Harry. Somehow.

-----

I am going to continue this when I am more awake.

[peppersonironi]

Batfam/Avengers Crossover Chapter Five: The Assassins’ Bond

Tagging: @the-fair-maiden-of-fandom

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Category: Gen

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types

Relationships: Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Natasha Romanov & Damian Wayne, Clint Barton & Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tim Drake & Duke Thomas, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Roy Harper/Koriand'r/Jason Todd,

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Justice League (DCU), Alfred Pennyworth, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Thor (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Alfred the Cat (DCU), Bat-Cow (DCU), Goliath (DCU), Selina Kyle’s Cat Isis, Kate Kane (DCU), Duke Thomas,

Additional Tags: Batbrothers (DCU), Avengers Meet The Batfam, MCU/Batfam crossover, Crossover, no beta we die like robins, rated T for Jason’s language, I bleeped it out though. Just to be safe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, canon? What’s canon?, Deaf Clint Barton,Deaf Character, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Happy Batfamily (DCU), Birdflash and joyfire are implied/referenced,

Summary: Nat sets out on her assignment to gather information about the bats, and ends up talking with Damian.

Natasha couldn’t seem to find anyone to investigate, which was weird. Usually, when she wanted to find someone, she did.  Nat hadn’t seen any of the other Avengers either, which was also strange.

So Natasha wandered the halls of the manor. She had already checked the Cave, though it was also empty.

After half an hour, Natasha turned to the gardens. She wasn’t really searching at that point, only enjoying the early afternoon breeze. But soon enough, she heard sounds of laughter.

Following it, Natsha wound through a shaded path to find a large lawn occupied by the bats, as well as Peter, Banner, and Thor.

They were in the middle of what seemed to be an extreme version of capture the flag. Nat looked for someone to talk too, but they were all invested in the game. Then she noticed Damian on the sidelines, inside a clearly marked square that must have been the ‘prison’. He looked angry, and seemed to be passing the time by doing drills with his katana. Once again, Natasha was struck by how precise he was.

"Hey kid."

Damian glanced at Natasha, clearly suspicious.

"Hello Romanoff, do you want something?''

Nat smiled. “Call me Natasha. And no, not really. You looked bored, so I thought I’d offer you some company.”

Damian scoffed and returned to his drills. Natasha sat down, and was soon joined by a large dog whom she had never seen before. "Is that your dog?" She asked.

Damian nodded stiffly. "Yes his name is Titus."

Nat looked at Titus with gentle eyes. "Hi Titus." She reached out her hand for the dog to sniff. Titus obliged, and then began to nussle  her hand, quickly warming up to Nat.

Damian’s whole demeanor changed at the sight. He relaxed significantly, and even had a soft smile on his face. “He likes you," Damian said as he set his katana aside and joined Natasha on the grass.

Nat smiled right back at him as she began to pet Titus. "Titus is a great name for him. Latin right?" Damian nodded. "You know the meaning?"

Damian scoffed. "If I didn't then I wouldn't have named him Titus. An honorable dog deserves a name that literally means `title of honor’."

Nat chuckled, surprising even herself. "I like you kid, you've got spunk.” She nodded over at the now abandoned katana. Time to see what she could get out of him. “And your fighting technique is impressive."

Damian’s face became a mixture of guarded and prideful. "Of course it is, I was trained to be the best."

"Well your father sure does a good job."

Damian pursed his lips and remained silent for a moment before replying. "He didn't train me. I … was trained by my mother."

Nat looked over at him softly. “The one that Jason blames for him killing?”

Damian scowled. “Yes. My mother is responsible for bringing my brother back from the dead using the Lazarus pit which is … not quite magic. The pit induces its user with enhanced aggression, and memory loss which she utilized to manipulate Todd to her will.”

Natasha sat still for a moment. She really didn’t know what to think. On the one hand, that did partially explain Jason’s references to murder. On the other hand … the woman sounded horrible.

“Why would she do that?” Nat asked quietly.

Damian stroked Titus for a long moment before replying. “My mother is part of a group called The League of Assassins - led by my grandfather - that is dedicated to … saving the world.”

Natasha almost raised an eyebrow at that. Assassins and world-savers really didn’t seem like they would go together well.

“Not like you saved the world,” Damian continued, “But through brutal, unforgiving justice. They wish to reform civilizations across the world into total submission to my grandfather.

“So my mother took it upon herself to take in a newly raised from the dead Jason Todd, train him, and set him upon Gotham. Her point to it all was to harm my father, who is very much against League ideals.”

There was a sudden shout of triumph from the game, and the pair looked over at Tim crowing over a downed Peter Parker. They were silent for a long time, watching the game play out. Finally, Nat took it upon herself to speak.

“I never knew my parents. I grew up in a top secret Soviet-Russian training facility designed to create the perfect operatives, or assassins.” She took a breath as she looked over at Damian.

The boy had shed his smirks and scowls. His eyes were wide and innocent. There was a quality of quiet hope in his face. Like he was amazed that someone else could understand him.

“You’re like me,” he whispered. Then raised his voice slightly. “I was trained from birth. Mother and grandfather wanted me to be the heir. The perfect heir. I was taught every conceivable way to kill, to torture, to withstand any injury.” Damian was no longer looking at Natasha. His eyes showed that he was in another place. Another time.

“We were chained to the bed at night to prevent escape,” Natasha replied. “Sometimes they would make us fight to the death. To weed out the unworthy.”

“Weakness was not tolerated. The moment I made a mistake I was punished. I was to take it willingly.”

“When we trained with guns, they gave us real people to use as targets.”

“Emotions were a liability. I was to never show any, I was never to trust anyone. Not my trainors, not my servants, especially not my own mother.”

“We weren’t to trust each other either. Sometimes they would randomly order to kill your friends, and you had to. Otherwise you were killed.”

Damian sighed. “The worst part was leaving. Mother dumped me with Father - for training she said. I was to learn what I could from him. And I did, I learned a lot. But not what she wanted me to.” He looked over wistfully at his family. “I learned to trust. I had to believe I wasn’t invulnerable. I … I had to learn what it felt like to be … wanted .”

Natasha nodded at him, though he wasn’t looking at her. “Clint was sent to kill me, after I had been an operative for a while. I was the best, so people began to take notice. So S.H.I.E.L.D. sent Barton to eliminate me. But when he found me, he didn’t. He … had mercy on me. Something I had never known. He recruited me. I worked with him, and S.H.I.E.L.D. to help people instead of killing them. I had to relearn almost everything.”

They sit in a comfortable silence for a while. Neither bothering to pity the other. Just enjoying the companionship of another like them.

Then Nat spoke up again. "I'm not good with …" Natasha paused trying to find the right words. "Comfort. But, I understand"

Damian looked at her, then nodded. “I understand as well.”

They sat together for a while, looking at the game progressing. They talked about their lives, and even started to explain their families as well. Damian talked briefly about Bruce’s tragic childhood experiences, as well as Dick’s. He went into detail of Jason’s death and then resurrection. Tim’s becoming Robin. His neglectful family. Damian explained Cassandra’s past, and how Duke lost his parents. He mentioned Stephanie and Barbara, and how they joined the vigilante life as well. He didn’t go into detail, though, saying that their stories were not his to tell.

In return, Natasha talked about befriending Clint. How Steve became Captain America. How Tony built his suit. Banner’s experiments, and how he became the Hulk. How Thor found himself on Earth. What she knew of Peter, and how he became Spiderman.

“Do you trust me?” Damian asked, looking over at Nat when she had finished speaking.

Natasha smiled. “Yes. I’m assuming that’s what your goal was?”

Damian had the nerve to not look apologetic. “We may or may not have overheard your entire conversation after lunch.”

Nat nodded, she had figured as much. The Boy had been almost a bit too loose lipped in the beginning. But she could tell that as the conversation went on, he spoke freely because he wanted to, and not because he was trying to supply info.

“Did you draw the short straw?” Natasha asked.

Damian scowled. “T-t, no. Father said that if any of you were to question us or our motives, we should hold nothing back. You had the nerve to approach me first.”

Natasha laughed freely and ruffled the boy’s hair. He frowned, but didn’t push her hand away.

“Do you trust me now?” He asked, tentatively.

Natasha paused and tilted her head. “Yes, I think I do. You didn’t lie to me, I know that.” Damian rolled his eyes, and Natasha smirked a bit. “But also, you and I are similar. I don’t think I could distrust you if I tried.”

Damian nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Good, I would not want to disappoint Father.”

Natasha smiled. “I don’t think he would be disappointed if I didn’t trust you. He seems quite reasonable.”

Damian outright snorted. “Say that again when I have a slight cold and he won’t let me on patrol. He can be quite unreasonable in mother-hen mode. Not unlike Grayson, unfortunately.”

Nat chuckled. “He loves you. That’s important.” There was another shout of victory from the field, then Natasha continued. “What about me? Trust goes both ways, you know.”

Damian frowned in concentration. “Yes, I believe you have earned some trust. I don’t know about Stark though, he seems … unstable.”

Natasha couldn’t help but outright laugh at that statement. After a moment of surprise, Damian joined in.

“That,” Natasha said between huge gasps of laughter, “Is by far the best thing I have heard in a long time.”

“Do you deny it?” Damian asked.

Natasha was almost crying from laughter. “No, not in a million years.”

Damian smiled at Nat. “Thank you, Romanoff. For talking. I believe you will make a valuable ally.”

“Call me Natasha, kid. Or Nat. Or Tasha. I don’t care. But not Romanoff. Friends aren’t so formal.”

Damian furrowed his brows for a moment before relaxing. “Very well, Tasha. We are now friends?”

Natasha smiled at Damian. “If you want to be.”

The boy pet Titus for a few thoughtful moments. “Very well. I accept. Together, we shall be a formidable force.”

Nat chuckled, ruffling the kid’s hair once again. This time, he didn’t bother frowning.

Just then, a voice called from the field. They both looked over to find Dick running up to them. “Dami! I’m so sorry! I thought someone had gotten you out! Well, the game’s over. Want to join in the next round?”

“T-t. Of course you forgot. If this had been in the field, I could have been killed by now.”

Dick smiled easily at his little brother. “So, what do you say?”

Damian glanced at Nat before replying. “Very well, I shall partake once again in your childish games, Grayson.” Then he smirked. “But I demand that Tasha be on my team. Since you are clearly untrustworthy.”

Dick looked curiously over at Natasha, a small smile on his face. “Sure Lil’ D. Let’s go.”

He motioned for the pair to follow him, then turned and ran off back toward the field.

Damian looked over at Nat. “You will be on my team?” He looked like he was trying to hide how hopeful he was.

Natasha got up and offered her hand to Damian. “Together, we shall be a formidable force, right?”

Damian grinned at her and accepted her hand. “Our reign of terror shall be legendary.”

[gldngrl7]

Karamel Fic: Permission to Flourish (2/11)

Title: Permission to Flourish

Author: gldngrl7

Date Started: February 12, 2017

Rated: T

           Oh, she don't see the light that's shining

                 Deeper than the eyes can find it

                          Maybe we have made her blind

           So she tries to cover up her pain and cut her woes away

                   'Cause cover girls don't cry after their face is made

          Alessia Cara – ‘Scars to Your Beautiful

  Chapter 2/11

  “We’re not going to get anything out of him…her…it,” Kara cringed, resigning herself to an evening wasted on interrogation.

“Give me five minutes alone with him,” rasped the stone-gravel voice of the Batman as they closed the door of the DEO conference room.  “I’ll get it out of him.”

Supergirl pinned The Dark Knight with a glare, crossing her arms at her chest, her body language speaking volumes about her feelings on the notion of torturing any sentient being.  Torturing this one made it that much easier to torture the next, and the next one might be more ally than foe.  But, despite the company he kept and the allies he’d made, Bruce Wayne was notoriously wary of aliens – of all kinds.

“I think we can all agree that this was just a small incursion looking to secure a beachhead for full scale invasion,” Bruce continued.  “It’s safe to say we can expect an invasion force…and soon.  We need numbers.”

“We’re not getting anything from this one,” Martian Manhunter pointed out.  Involuntarily, Bruce took a step away from J’onn.  Aliens like Clark, Matthews and Kara were one thing, but it was difficult to get accustomed to the Green Martian.

Reading Wayne’s discomfort clear as day, right there on the surface of his mind, the Martian shape-shifted back into his Hank Henshaw persona.

“How can you even know with the gibberish it was spouting?” Bruce grumbled, toying with the flechettes built into the wrist of his gadget-heavy suit.

 “Gideon, the AI on board the Waverider, provided us with an audio translation program.  Winn’s been back at the CIC doing simultaneous translation,” J’onn informed him.

“Guess I was out of the loop,” he seethed.  His steel-blue eyes reminded her of Mon-El’s, except instead of the soft affection she dreamed of seeing, she saw only hard chips of ice with pinpoint pupils like laser beams.

“It’s not my fault you were late!” she defended. She flinched away from the unrelenting bore of his stare.  She hated the idea of Mon-El becoming anything like this unbreakable, broken man. Feared that her actions so long ago now, did just that.

“Well, maybe if I’d been given a heads-up!  How long did you know this was coming?” Bruce turned his well-honed and ruthless interrogation tactics upon her.  He was a man without fear of reprisals, even from those far stronger and more powerful than he.  “You had enough time to gather your little league of superheroes from other dimensions.”

“Parallel Earths,” she corrected.  “Dimensions are a whole different….never mind,” she waved away her babbling explanation.  Discomfited by the Batman’s intense stare and prosecutorial tone, she crossed her arms over her chest as though to protect herself.   Confused by why the blatant sneer beneath his black bat cowl was directly focused upon her, she gathered her courage, dropped her arms and stepped directly into his personal space, nose to nose with him.  “What is your problem?” she demanded.

Bruce Wayne reached up and tore off the Kevlar cowl designed to strike fear into the hearts of criminals.  Unashamed, he revealed his true face to her, the crow’s feet gathered around his cold blue eyes, and the streaks of silver in once mahogany hair; because what he had to say, should be spoken between people and not personas. He breathed deeply, expelling the air in his lungs with barely concealed rage.  “I don’t like people who hurt my friends.”

His fierce expression dared her to deny it, but all she could do was drop her arms in defeat.  She’d known instantly of whom he’d been speaking.  Clark and Bruce were friends, after a fashion, so it made sense that The Dark Knight would have become allied with Valor.  She’d even seen news footage of them stopping a terrorist attack on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.   If the definition of ‘seeing’ the footage was expanded to mean watching it over and over every day for three weeks, examining it for every detail and drinking in the sight of him as though he were a tall glass of ice water in the middle of endless Kaldarvian desert.  

Kara recalled how proud she’d been of Mon-El for what he’d done that day – and every day afterward.

One hand went to grasp at the glyph over her heart, the broken instrument that had never quite ticked the same after Mon-El left, or with the same passion.  More than anything, she wanted to don her glasses to hide the emotions his accusation brought to the fore.  Like Bruce Wayne, she was unbreakable and broken.  Pleading eyes turned to J’onn.

“I’ll be outside if I’m needed,” he said, as though he could read her mind, and ducked quickly out of the room.  For a moment, she breathed a sigh a relief that, for once, her weakness would go unwitnessed by the man she thought of as a father figure.

Seeing a chink in her emotional armor, Bruce went for the coup de grace.  “Furthermore, it strikes me as hypocritical that a woman so unwilling to torture a hostile, didn’t hesitate to destroy a man she called ally with so little effort…and even less remorse.”  His comment cut her to the quick as though each word were constructed of razor sharp Kryptonite.

Her eyes fill with tears, and the air caught in her lungs.  “Re-re-remorse?” she stuttered.  “H-how dare you?  You think I don’t regret the things I said that day?  That I don’t regret the stupid girl I was?  So afraid of someone showing me any real affection that I pushed away the one man who ever loved me for me?  You think I don’t regret?” Her eyes flared white-hot for a moment before shifting back to the steady cornflower blue.  “I assure, Mr. Wayne, I am nothing but remorse.”

Kara dropped into one of the chairs at the table, wiping at the tears streaming down her face, all the fight having left her. Bruce Wayne, seeing her true face for the first time, no longer saw a heartless bitch he’d imagined when he’d heard the story, too full of herself to care.  Instead he saw a heartbroken little girl, dying on the inside.  The boiling rage he carried on Matthews’ behalf dropped to a simmer at her genuine tears, and the sight of her fingers worrying her red cape between them, like a little girl clinging to a security blanket.

A crisp white handkerchief appeared in front of her face.  How many things did he have hidden in that suit?  She accepted the handkerchief gingerly, as though it came with ulterior motives attached.  “I didn’t mean tho-ose things I said,” she explained, with a hiccough.  “I was scared and everythi-ing I said just came out…wro-ong.  And it was like…I couldn’t stop it!  He scared me,” she confessed.

“I’ve known Matthews a long time,” Bruce said, crossing his arms.  “Longer than you now,” he realized as he said it.  “And he is about as scary as a fluffy bunny.   There’s not a mean bone in his body.  Even Clark gets angry from time to time, and clearly so do you…but not him, not really. And believe me…I’ve tried to stir it up in him.  He doesn’t even get angry at the criminals.  He just cracks a joke—usually about the marital status of their parents—and then hands them over to the police, like he’s sending kids off to the principal’s office.”

Wayne’s words, though delivered with a comforting voice, or his version of it anyway, did not comfort.  Instead, they served to enflame the grief inside of her.  Grief that, rather than fading over the years, had only grown stronger.  “All I wanted was time,” she wept, wiping at her tears with the Batman’s handkerchief. “To figure out what I wanted.  I thought I couldn’t be Supergirl and have a relationship, but just when I started to feel like I had a handle on Supergirl, everything began to spin out of control again.  My sister was slipping away, my best friends were going behind my back to create Guardian, and I knew Mon-El was holding something back from me. I didn’t know who to trust.”

“You could have left it alone,” Bruce said calmly. “He said his piece and walked away. You could have left it alone.”

“It was so awkward!” she exclaimed.  Standing up from her chair, she wrapped her cape around her like a protective shield.  “I just wanted to make it…less awkward.”

“Well done,” he deadpanned.

“I never said I was good at it!  At any of it!  I’ve never been in a relationship before.  Not one that lasted more than five minutes, anyway.  You have no idea what it’s like to live your whole life with a secret—not like this.  Mon-El was the first man who never knew anything but me…just as I am.  He knew all the parts of me, and in that moment, nothing in the world was more terrifying than that.  And what’s worse was that…I felt like…I didn’t know him at all.”

“Because you were too caught up in your differences, instead of all the things that made you alike,” Bruce allowed.

“Right!  But Alex helped me see.”

“See what?” Bruce sweeps his cape aside in a gesture far grander than he had intended, before taking a seat in the chair opposite to hers, ready to hear her side of the story.

“She made me see that I was just pushing him away because I was scared of being hurt.  Scared of being bad at it.  Because I did feel the same way, I was just too much of a coward to admit it, even to myself.  And when I did admit it, I wanted to tell him…tell him…that I had been an idiot. A blind idiot.  I had been so locked into my view of who I thought he was supposed to be that I blinded myself to who he actually became.  He stopped drinking, worked really hard at his job, kept helping people even though I had stopped training him….”

“Went to college and got an education,” Bruce added, providing her with a tantalizing glimpse of Mon-El’s last six years.

Kara’s head snapped around to look at him, she dropped back into her chair, focusing her intense gaze on Bruce.  “Really?” she asked, grateful for this tiny piece of information.  “He did?”

“University of Metropolis,” Bruce confirmed with a nod. “School during the day, tending bar at night.  He helped Clark when he could, and did his homework behind the bar on slow nights. Summer school, too.  Got his four year degree in three by keeping his eyes on the prize.”

For some reason this knowledge, these golden nuggets of information, sent tears rolling down her face again.  “Please,” she pleaded softly, “Tell me?”

Bruce drummed his fingers on the conference room table and worried his lower lip between his teeth, an action that seemed wholly unlike The Dark Knight.  Coming to a decision, he shook his head slightly and Kara’s heart dropped into her stomach.  “Matthews made Clark promise not to reveal details of his life to you.”

“I know!” she sighed, tears tracking down her cheeks. “But I don’t understand why.”

“He said…he hoped that if you weren’t getting any information that eventually you’d stop asking and your life could go back to the way it was before he arrived.  He wanted it to be like you’d never met.  He said he wanted to give that to you.”

“But that’s not what I wanted.  I never wanted that!”  Kara bent over and placed her head on her knees, the ache in her heart so intense she wanted to curl into a ball.

“He said your life as Supergirl had many burdens, and he was done being one of them.”

“Burden?” she asked, horrified by the word.  “He was never a burden.”

“He crash landed on this planet and crowded you. He took your time, tested your patience, and disappointed you at every opportunity.  He said it made him happy to give you back to the space he took from you the night his pod crashed.  Personally, I think that’s a load of bullshit, about it making him happy, I mean.”

Clinging to a tiny shred of hope, she begged, “Please, I need to see him.  You can talk to him…get him to understand.”

Bruce shakes his head again.  “He thinks he’s doing what’s best for you, and if you truly knew him…even a little bit…then you’d know that—“

“He’s always going to do what he thinks is best for me,” Kara finished.  “But don’t I get a choice?” she countered.  “He imagines me happy and that my life went back to the way it was before he arrived, but that isn’t true—none of that is true.  And after all this time...there’s no reason to think it ever will be.  What about my choice in all of this, Mr. Wayne?”

Drumming his fingers on the table again, Kara clearly saw the conflict warring in Wayne’s eyes.  “He said you always had to have the last word.”

Kara groaned, frustrated and heartbroken over her lack of progress.  After six years, most people would give up, to be sure.  For the first year she could get nothing, not even with Winn’s help, because Mon-El had taken pains to go off the grid.  No bank account, no phone, no permanent address; only a PO Box in Metropolis, where the DEO sent his stipend checks.  But even after a few months he stopped cashing those.

Clark provided monthly updates to the DEO, but those were disturbingly lacking in detail, and after Valor made his official debut alongside Superman, the updates stopped altogether.  When his official, suited debut came, Kara was shocked to discover that Valor apparently had all the abilities of Superman and herself. Suddenly, he could fly, and there was heat vision as well as arctic breath.  Somehow, Clark’s training had drawn all of those latent abilities out of him, making him a hero in a way she never could – had never really tried.

Just another reminder of all the ways she had failed him.

She had underestimated him in a hundred different ways, by allowing herself to see only Mon-El’s surface potential.  In the beginning, she had wanted him to be a hero because she believed it fulfilled her destiny to make him so, and not because it might have been his.  Clark had not been blinded by such ego; he had seen only a lost man in need of guidance.  If only her eyes had been opened sooner.

Such had been a recurring theme in her life for the last six years since his departure.  If only….

Resigned to the knowledge that Bruce Wayne will never divulge the information she needed to hear, Kara leaned back in her chair, her entire aura pulsing with misery.  “Every morning when I get to work, I sit at my computer and check the Philadelphia Inquirer for any news on Valor,” she confessed.  “Every day…usually more than once.  After the first year J’onn ordered Winn to stop helping me run internet searches on his alias.  Said he deserved to be left in peace.  Winn seemed to be relieved.  There was a job opening at the Inquirer for a reporter so I sent them my resume last year. ‘Thank you for your interest, Ms. Danvers, but your skillset doesn’t match our needs at this time.’  They were looking for someone who could report on mergers and acquisitions, movements in the stock market and that sort of thing…not my specialty, but I figured what the heck, right?”

“You would have left National City?” Bruce gaped, his mind spinning at this revelation.

“Leave National City?” she scoffed, bitterly. “I’d be tempted to leave the suit behind if he asked, retire her for good if it meant earning his forgiveness.”

“He would never ask of that of you,” Bruce replied, his voice nothing but confidence.  “It’s not his way.”

Kara smiled for the first time since Bruce had met her.  Not the sunshine smile that Matthews spoke of with such reverence, but a small half smile, an upward tick of her mouth.  “I know that…now,” she said, sentimentally, as though recalling a long ago memory. “It’s one of the things I love about him.”

“So you do love him?”

“Oh yes,” she sighed.  “Although, after all this time, I do wonder if it’s him I love…or just the memory of him.  The strange thing is that I didn’t see him clearly before he left, but now…it’s like I see him in my mind with fresh eyes—see him with my heart.  The way I always should have seen him.  I just don’t know if that’s…true.  Or if it’s just the romantic dreams a silly little girl.”

“I doubt he’s the same man you remember,” Wayne said. “He’s thoughtful, quiet around new people – withdrawn even.  He seems most comfortable with children.  Says they don’t judge and they love without prejudice.”

It stings, the implication that her prejudices so changed him on a fundamental level, but her heart somersaulted at the image Wayne provided anyway.  Kara gave him a full smile, though it didn’t reach her eyes.  ‘Comets’, he’d heard Matthews refer to them – but he just didn’t see it.  “I never would have imagined that,” Kara said.  “Mon-El around children.  He always seemed like a….” the smile slipped from Kara’s face and she chuckled, sadly. “I was going to say ‘bad influence’, but he was never that, was he?” she asked herself more than the man sitting in front of her.  “He was only ever just trying to find his way.”

A knock on the door preceded Clark’s entry into the room, his hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his khaki slacks, his bespectacled blue eyes saying everything with his sadness.

“Clark?” she greeted, a hint of a question in her tone. Bruce spun his chair in Clark’s direction to face him.

“I’m sorry, Kara,” he answered, shaking his head. “I tried to get him to stay.  I really did.”

Her throat tightened again, but this time she fought against the gathering tears.  For some reason it was easier to show her emotion to Bruce Wayne, a virtual stranger, than it was to lay herself bare before her own flesh and blood.  “I know,” she told her cousin.  “I know you tried.” Clark approached her and pulled her into a hug, which did nothing to bolster the tenuous strength with which she clung to her emotional control.  “I won’t…I won’t ask about him again, okay?  I know that puts you in an impossible position.”   A single tear slipped down her check, but she swiped at quickly, not wanting to make Clark feel any more torn between them than he already did.

“I didn’t know when I made that promise to him that it would go on this long.  I thought you’d at least find a way to be…friends.”

“I don’t think that’s what either of us wanted.” She blew out a deep breath as she wrangled her control.  ‘Friends’. It was such a lukewarm word, so unequal to the depth of feeling she swam in with every thought of him.

“But it would be something, at least.”

“Would you have been satisfied to be ‘just friends’ with Lois?” she asked, truly wondering if such a thing was possible, or acceptable.  Would it be easier to put Mon-El behind her, to put him on a shelf somewhere like a project that never got completed, or settle for a tepid life as friends? Always wondering, but never daring to cross that line.  She believed that putting him on that shelf might be far kinder to the both of them.

“We tried friends,” Clark said, seeing her dilemma clearly.  “It didn’t work out.”

“I wish things would ‘not work out’ for me and Mon-El the way they didn’t work out for you and Lois,” she shrugged, attempting a smile but failing miserably.

“I’m sorry, Kara.  I truly am.”

“No one’s sorrier than I am,” she replied.  Like a thousand times before she wished she had just grabbed him that night in her apartment when he confessed his feelings to her.  Grabbed him and kissed him until their skin created sparks.  But wishing to turn back time never solved anything – if the last six years had taught her anything, they had taught her that.  “J’onn once told me that I made my choice and that I should own it.  Maybe it’s time I start doing that.”

Kara offered Bruce his handkerchief back, but he waved her off telling her to keep it.  

“Where are you going?” Clark asked.

“I think everything is well in hand here,” she replied stiffly.  “I think I’ll just head home and get some rest.  It’s been a long few days.”  It was an excuse and everyone in the room knew it. Kryptonians didn’t get tired, not without employing Herculean effort, but they did get emotionally weary and Kara was showing clear wear and tear around the edges.

Alex caught her on her way out of the building and by the look her sister’s face, Kara knew that Clark had briefed her before coming to the conference room.  “I heard,” was all she said.

“I’m okay,” Kara nodded, lying just a little.

“Do you want me to come home with you?  We can have a slumber party, like old times,” she suggested, a forced smile on her face.  Alex didn’t like the idea of her sister going home to an empty apartment – not in this state.

“No,” Kara shook her head quickly.  “I think I just need to be alone right now.”  Better to get used to it, she told herself.

“Okay,” Alex agreed.  The pity shone so bright in Alex’s eyes that Kara was forced to turn away from the glare of it.  “If you change your mind.…”

At the top floor exit—the exit created specifically for her to come and go—her feet rose from the ground.  “I know,” she said to her sister as she hovered in the air. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She was home in less than a minute, slipping into the fourth floor window of her living room she always left unlatched.  In the shower she cried until the water ran cold before stepping out and struggling into a nightshirt.

Wearily, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her head, her blinking eyelids like sandpaper to her sensitive, overwrought eyes.  Exhaustion dragged her down to sleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

 TBC