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Karen stared down at the mess of polaroids spread across the helipad, her hands shaking as she took in the sight of the people she treasured most in this world, her parents. They may not have known her for long, but the Kents had shown her nothing but love since she arrived on this planet. Her stomach turned at the sight of the ugly words written on their aged skin; Heretic and Witch. Her father and mother. Rage boiled in her, heat throbbing behind her eyes as she glowered up at Lex Luthor.
“Where are they?!” She snarled, barely restraining the urge to burn a smoldering hole through the man’s chest. Askew blonde bangs falling jaggedly into her eyes.
“I don’t know! I would not let them tell me!” He exclaimed with a manic glee in his eyes even in the face of her trembling fury.
“Now,” Luthor tutted condescendingly, “If you kill me, they die - If you fly away, hmm , they also die,” Karen could feel her glowing gaze follow the hypnotizing waggle of his finger.
“But if you kill the Bat,” Lex goaded with a snatch of his bandaged hand through the air as though the safety of her loved ones was just within her reach, “They’ll live.” His voice softened to something resembling consolation, a trembling hand coming up to her cheek as the young Kryptonian hung her head in defeat.
“There we go, there we go,” Luthor purred, windswept hair obscuring the sharp lines of his face as stroked her hair back, taming her like a wild animal. A pale, spindly finger hooking under her chin, urging her gaze up.
She glimpsed the way he hunched over, hands braced against his thighs as he lorded above her, drunk on his superiority.
“And now god bends to my will.” Lex said finally, a pleased smile on his lips fanning the flames of her indomitable hate for him.
Bring me the head of the Bat
She had tried to warn Bruce before, practically begged him to hang it up, and bow out of this ridiculous game Luthor had spun them in. Though in a way Karen supposed she had known he couldn’t give up his cowl in the same way she couldn’t give up her cape. Why couldn’t he see that she was trying to help?
Yet, as she hovered above, a streak of white in the tempestuous blackened Gotham sky, with the crash of thunder booming above her and the flash of lightning reflecting over the metal of his new suit, she knew it was inevitable. She had never wanted it to come to this.
Descending down until her boots met the rain-slick asphalt, a harsh tremor rocking the ground upon her impact. The eerie glow of his suit’s eyes cut through the darkness like a lighthouse calling a ship to port.
“Well...here I am.” He purred, his voice devilish and guttural through the cowl, the sound raking down her spine like pointed teeth.
“Bruce,” Karen sighed, stepping forward as he began stepping back, it felt like they were at Luthor’s charity function again, dancing around one another - dancing around this.
“Please,” She began, feeling unbidden emotion swelling in her, she wanted to hurt him as much as she wanted her parents dead, “I know I was wrong,” She admitted.
Her tongue felt clumsy and words eluded her, this whole situation felt outlandish, being tugged along by the strings Luthor had tangled her in. She felt naive to not have seen this sooner, she’d been so worried about the threat the Bat possessed, she had never once given thought to the threat he was chasing.
“Luthor, he…” Karen paused, breath stuck in her throat, “he wants me to kill you.”
His mechanized suit whirred, joints hissing as he stood tall beneath the rain, the opening in the cowl allowing her to see the firm press of his lips. He scoffed, a daunting, hollow sound when vibrated through the cowl like a predator’s growl. She didn’t find the situation particularly amusing, and she knew just as well that he didn’t either.
“Well, you certainly wouldn’t be the first to try.” He rasped, backpedaling further, the distance only making things more frustrating. Though, Karen supposed he wouldn’t want to get close to her again. Even now with threats looming above them and the unflinching resignation of his expression, she could still recall the taste of his lips, the fiendish clasp of his weathered hands on her body.
“Please don’t make me do this,” She pleaded, not as Power Girl, but as Karen Starr, as the young woman that had become hopelessly smitten with someone like her; with him.
She could hear the elevated thump of his heart, the dizzying froth of adrenaline pumping through his veins, even above the calamity of the enduring thunderstorm. Of all her gifts, Karen couldn’t read minds, but she could read him, the hard set of his shoulders beneath his suit, the determined jut of his chiseled jaw.
“I’m not the one forcing your hand.” He growled in return, face and scuffed cowl illuminated by the flicker of lightning through the churning black clouds, soon followed by another booming clap of thunder overhead.
Raking a hand through her wet hair, Karen let out a sigh, they didn’t have time for this. They didn’t have time to debate, they weren’t talking in code or hypotheticals anymore, this was real.
“He has my parents, Mr. Wayne,” She admitted mournfully, her eyes flickering up from the swampy soil beneath their feet, “I had hoped that you of all people would understand what that feels like…”
Inky wet strands of her hair fell limply against her forehead, glimpsing the glow of his eyes through the darkness, drawn by the allure of it, not the cold metal, but the warm flesh that resided beneath. Stepping forward as she watched him process the information she’d offered, likely looking for deception where there was none to be found. He was too jaded for his own good.
“D-don’t,” He stammered, Bruce never stammered, hurriedly holding up an armored hand in deterrence, “don’t come any closer,” He warned, voice gravelly and electric.
Spine stiffening as she watched him reach behind his back, muscles tightening reflexively as she anticipated some ill advised attack.
“You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met, I guess I had hoped you wouldn’t buy into Luthor’s witch hunt…” Karen lamented, throat tight as she watched him, her gaze illuminating the dark to match the glow of his.
The rain roared down over them, she hardly wanted to strike first, but they were running out of time.
“I didn’t.” Bruce said finally, an earnest quality in his voice despite the hellish rumble of it, carefully lifting the hand that had been behind his back to reveal a compact remote in his grasp. With the swift press of a button, a deactivated mechanical hiss sounded beneath the ground…
Letting out a breath, Karen glanced around, a vaguely amazed smile lifting on her lips as she finally noted the series of traps surrounding the place. The brilliant bastard. She’d been so preoccupied with what was happening that she hadn’t even bothered to check for any tricks he might’ve had up his sleeve.
Her heart gave a worrying flutter in her chest as another crack of lightning glinted on his armor, splintering striations refracting across the cowl and chest as he strode through the mud. He towered well above her, breathing rumbled out like a purr through the mechanized voice modulator.
Unable to banish the memory of the bliss of feeling his lips on hers with him looming so close. Rao , she didn’t have time to get distracted.
“You said he had your parents?” Bruce asked, the chill inducing growl seeming more comforting than it had ever been.
Karen nodded swiftly, feeling fear swell in her once more at the mention of her parents.
“They’re good people, Bruce, I don’t want them to die because of me…” She admitted, a quiet sob bubbling in her throat at the thought. They’d taken her in when her stasis pod crashed on their property, they could’ve just as easily turned her into the government, yet they hadn’t. They had given her the love she had never been able to feel from her biological parents. They had treated her, a fully grown alien, like the child they had never been able to have.
“Hey,” Bruce purred, gently coaxing her from her worry, an armored hand clasping firmly at the back of her neck, “We’re not going to let that happen.” She could nearly feel the warmth of his skin bleeding through the unfeeling metal.
“Okay?” He asked encouragingly, thumb stroking down her nape while Karen nodded in agreement.
“Don’t just nod, Karen, say it back to me.” Bruce growled, voice staticky and warm, ricocheting around her head like a stray bullet.
“We’re not going to let them die…” She said finally, feeling hope tingle in her chest at the sight of his sharp smirk.
Sailing down through the sky, the sound barrier imploding behind her as she raced to Metropolis. Karen dropped down through the roof of the cordoned off, defunct Kryptonian ship, rubble crashing to the ground with her.
“‘Late, late’ says the white rabbit,” Lex purrs, turning on his heel to face her, electricity crackling behind him as he toys with the timer in his hands.
“Right, wabbit?” He tuts comically, humming enigmatically.
“Out of tricks, out of time,” punctuating his statement by lobbing the timer over his shoulder, even as the familiar voice of the ship’s AI droned behind him, “And one bat head short.”
Karen felt a chill burrow beneath her skin as an old dial-up ring sounded, as jarring and out of place in the alien spaceship as Lex himself was.
“Ah, that would be the cook,” He jested cruelly, loping over to the phone, “Excuse me, Gotham roast, well done.” Luthor goaded as he smugly answered the call, leaning against the jut of a table like he wasn’t standing before the most powerful woman on the planet.
“Hello,” He answered eagerly, “break the bad news.”
Karen felt her stomach coil tightly in apprehension, Rao , she really hoped Bruce made it in time. It was like he had once said, Gotham was a big city, and he was only one man.
“I’d rather do the breaking in person.” A familiar gruff voice rumbled through the speaker, a hard shiver rippling down her spine while her head swam with relief. Damn, when this was over she was going to rock his world. An intoxicating spike of vindication flowing through her as she watched Lex’s expression wilt.
“You’ve lost.” Karen pointed out, arms folded across her chest triumphantly as she leered down at the little madman.
“I don’t know how to lose.” Lex remarked sternly.
“Time to learn.” Karen snarked, watching as his body trembled with spite.
“Time to learn?” He echoed, with a feigned bark of amusement. His expression darkened with hate, stalking in her direction.
“I don’t hate the sinner ,” Lex drawled, thumb jerked in the direction of the phone, no doubt referring to Bruce, “I hate the sin ,” he hissed, pointed finger gesturing wildly to Karen herself.
“And yours, my dear, is existing.” He spat, brimming with an indignance so generous, Karen was sure that was what flowed through his veins in lieu of blood. His hair hanging limply in his eyes as he drew nearer.
“I cannot let you win,” Lex said doggedly, “I gave the Bat a fighting chance to do it, but he was not strong enough to resist your charm.” An unfettered resentment burning in his eyes where he leered at her.
“So, if man won’t kill god…” He paused, only then in the brief reprieve did Karen note the sound of the ship’s AI once more.
3...2...1…
A surge of power flared behind Lex as the man stalked away from her with a manic bounce in his step.
“The devil will do it!”
Dread unfurled in her stomach as a tortured cry rang through the air, the floor trembled beneath Karen’s feet as the ship shook precariously. Wires sparked and the vessel jostled with the monstrous strength of Luthor’s hellish creation, as the creature tore free from a grotesque amniotic sac, the kind which usually bore Kryptonian young.
“Lex, what did you do?” She whispered in horror.
The deformed monster howled in mindless fury, stumbling as it shattered the paltry confines it was trapped in. Its unsightly greying flesh rippled with power as the creature lunged wildly at anything within it’s sight, first and foremost, Lex.
Karen shot forward without hesitation, vaguely registering the madman cowering in her shadow as she caught the gargantuan fist of the beast he had created. Her teeth bared at the strength it took to keep the monster from pulverizing it’s creator.
Hurling the monster back, it bellowed when it’s hulking body collided with the genesis chamber’s wall, stumbling against the blow she’d dealt it. The creature snarled, a hellish shower of sparks crackling behind it, the ship shook again as Karen darted at it once more.
She gritted her teeth when one enormous, decaying hand, ill-formed, curled around her. Its grip was devastating, virtually iron-clad as she struggled to break free. She had no such luck as the monster tore through the ship’s ceiling, with her still imprisoned in its grasp.
The damn thing threw her, hurled her through the air like an asteroid, moving too quickly even for her to stop before she collided with the ground, gouging an ugly gash in the asphalt. The young Kryptonian hissed out a groan as she scrabbled through the rubble, before feeling a shock wave where the beast thumped resoundingly against the ground.
The whirr of a helicopter sounded overhead, a single light bearing down like a spotlight on the snarling abomination. Its mountainous silhouette standing before the statue the city had erected in her honor...
It was only then with the ghoulish features illuminated amidst the darkness did Karen feel a pang of horror sweep through her. The thing was Kryptonian, not just any Kryptonian, beneath the metamorphosed flesh she saw a familiar face.
“Zod?” She murmured in shock. The monster merely snarled in response, jagged teeth bared from rotting gums, lip curled in disgust. Oh yeah, that was the monster she remembered. Sucking in a breath, Karen charged forward, rearing her fist back before throttling the beast with a blow that sent it sprawling back against her monument.
The monster caught a fistful of her cape, swinging her against the pillars with the names of the dead, feeling the stone crumble beneath the brute force. Grunting where she harshly met the ground, her hands braced against the polished marble flooring, vision swimming she stiffened at the roar of the beast behind her.
Her bangs hanging in her eyes just in time to see it bear a whole slab down on her body. The stone broke against her, shattering around her like a bullet through glass, except she was the bullet. Still, it fucking hurt.
Panic swelled in her as she felt the familiar gnarled curl of its grip around her calf, unearthing her from the rubble it had previously buried her in. Ignoring her sluggish attempts to tear free from its hold on her, to hurl her effortlessly through the air. Wheezing out a pained breath as she wrecked everything in her path, pulverizing her own statue and punching through a building, a hail of glass and rubble raining around her.
Trying to shake off the pain, Karen belatedly noted the monstrous blur of the desecrated general Zod howling through the sky like a cannonball. A plume of fire and destruction followed it.
Licking her lips, Karen realized what she needed to do. She needed to get the thing out of the city, off the planet, if that’s what it came to. Planting her feet against the building, trying to find the invisible lip of gravity and vault over it, it took a few tries, but eventually she was hovering once more.
Taking off through the sky after Luthor’s unholy creation. Her eyes widening as an overwhelming crimson surge of power bloomed out from the beast, imploding windows and toppling buildings.
The thing roared it’s bone-chilling, leathery roar before Karen rushed up beneath it, cracking through the buildings roof like a quail egg, taking the beast with her. They soared through the sky, her head swimming and muscles straining, feeling the precarious pull of gravity at her heels while the monster bellowed in through the clouds.
Damn, she was getting worn down, but she just needed to get higher. She needed to get him away from people, and there was nothing more isolating than the cold, darkness of space. Karen had spent the first 20 years of her life hurtling through it.
Feeling that tug of gravity, Karen tried to brace her heels against it, holding her breath and pushing off of it like a swimmer propelling off of a pool wall. The force rocketing them both higher.
There was a serenity to seeing the stars again, even with the gargantuan form of a bastardized Kryptonian thrashing against her grip. They were weightless here. So, when the monster’s deformed fist smashed into her, it sent her careening back through the void, the pull of gravity nipping at her neck once more. Gritting her teeth, Karen surged back at the beast, throwing a punch of her own sent her hulking adversary spiralling through space.
She rained blows on him, again and again, even with the impossibly large bulk of a nuclear warhead bound right for them. Darting around the creature, her arms struggling to fit around its massive neck, she instead settled for digging her fingers beneath the sloped brow of one eye. Her face screwed up in exertion as she watched the nuke get closer.
The harrowing sound of its cry dulled in space, until it all went deafeningly quiet…
Bruce felt fear curdle in his blood, the potent kind of mortal fear that could only be conjured by facing down a power beyond recognition. His mind was still reeling from the hellish nuclear haze he’d seen in the sky over Striker’s Island.
Gut tightening as his hand fumbled with the clasp of his seatbelt, essentially tied down, fish in a barrel for the monstrous Kryptonian creature. It seethed, peeling at its decaying flesh, making room for the twisted jut of jagged bones to sprout horrendously.
Its beady eyes and warped face glowed with what he knew to be heat vision.
“Oh shit.” He exhaled breathlessly, body tense as he expected to be singed to ashes. The ungodly hum of the power the monster channeled through its eyes spewing through the dark, though Bruce never felt the sting of it. Blinking owlishly at a statuesque silhouette standing before him, a dark curtain of hair swept between powerful shoulder blades as the woman lowered her arms, curls of steam billowing off of her.
She shouted a fierce battle cry before knocking the abomination back with a power of her own. God, Bruce was starting to feel a little out of his depth.
The creature staggered and he took the opportunity to slip free from what had almost been his makeshift coffin, leaping to his feet. Watching as the monstrous creation reared its foul face at his new ally with a throaty snarl.
Distantly Bruce heard a sound that made his tattered heart sing, his hail fucking mary tearing through the sky...like a bat out of hell.
There was something unfathomably poetic about seeing Karen’s silhouette painted against the fiery backdrop of the explosion she hurled the monster into.
“Why did you bring him back to the city?” Bruce heard their new ally ask, the data thief, he knew she was familiar.
“The port is abandoned,” He explained as he plucked up the modified grenade launcher he kept in the Batwing, “and there’s a weapon here that can kill it.”
His pulse jumped as Karen impacted the floor mere feet from him, she looked unreasonably perfect for someone who had just gotten nuked. If he was being honest, he was lightheaded with relief at the sight of her pretty face, cute freckled nose and big blue eyes.
“Fill me in, traffic was a bitch.” Karen huffed cutely, her hands planted firmly on her strong hips.
“This thing, this creature, it seems to feed on energy.” Their sword toting ally remarked rather seriously.
Bruce nodded in agreement, feeling Karen’s gaze on him as he loaded a Kryptonite-smoke grenade into the chamber of his weapon, thankfully he had a few to spare. The smoke grenades would be the glass sprinkled on fresh meat, meant to perforate the intestines of wily prey, allowing the poison to seep in quickly and deadly. Their poison was the spear.
The young Kryptonian fell into step beside him as the outraged roars of the monster echoed in the distance.
“This thing is from another world,” Karen explained as she came to stand beside the statuesque brunette, “my world.”
“I’ve killed things from other worlds before.” She stated matter-of-factly, proudly unsheathing a sword and raising her shield.
He could feel Karen’s gaze on him once more and turned to meet it, smiling despite the calamity of their current situation.
“I like her,” Karen announced with a grin, “I mean, you’ve definitely got a type, but I like her.”
And fuck him, the kid made him laugh, actually laugh, which came as a big relief seeing as he was probably going to die soon anyway. The levity soon faded as a massive shockwave of energy large enough to level the port erupted from the beast. The crackle of energy turned rubble to dust.
He was sure the surge knocked him off his feet, hitting him like a punch to the gut, when he blinked, registering the indestructible body curled protectively around him.
“You okay?” Karen asked immediately, brows drawn together in concern that practically melted his hardened heart to butter.
“Yeah…” He bit back gruffly, distantly watching their sword-toting ally charge headlong at the devilish creature.
“Good.” The blonde snarked back, contrasting her jagged tone by hunching herself against him, like a living shield at the crackle of rubble above them. They were never going to make it through this if she spent the whole time worrying about him, as endearing as it was.
“Don’t-” He growled when she dusted some gravel from his brow, “Don’t worry about me, we don’t have the luxury right now.” Bruce said in a hoarse growl, trying not to feel a pang of guilt at her dejected expression.
“The world needs you, Power Girl.” He added, feeling pride burn hotly in his chest as she swiftly rocketed through the air and toward their adversary. In an instant the two women were battling the beast in tandem. Karen pummeled the creature down into the ground, while their ally slashed at it with her sword and knocked it back with her shield.
Even then, there was no denying how incredibly powerful the monster was, hurling both women around like ragdolls. If he had been out of his depth before, Bruce was undoubtedly drowning in his inadequacies now.
He winced as he was virtually helpless to watch as Karen skidded through debris, her invulnerable body breaking through the ground effortlessly, grunting with each jagged piece of craggly earth that cracked against her.
Still, they fought on.
Bruce felt his heart constrict in his chest as the beast’s eyes flared with heat vision once more. The blinding beam of pure energy carved through the asphalt, like a hot knife through butter, as the monster roared wildly. He was stricken with awe as he witnessed the young Kryptonian rise from smoldering ashes, taking to the sky like a goddamned angel.
Her heat vision cutting through air to combat his, the ground shattered around them, air sweltering with the energy they exerted. She shouted a strained sound, the crimson pinpricks of light shooting from her eyes intensified, giving it absolutely everything she had. Even then, the creature bellowed before it’s deformed grey head glowed a molten red and a deluge of power shot forth, sweeping away Power Girl with it.
Bruce held his breath, trying not to let his festering panic overtake him as he waited for Karen to emerge from the rubble.
And eventually she did, tearing through a building like it was made of styrofoam, shoulders squared bravely. She sailed through the sky, dropping prematurely to land by Bruce’s side.
“We need that spear.” She admitted, seeming alarmingly exhausted. Bruce knew she was right, it was just a matter of getting a hold of it quick enough. The Batwing was inoperable, but Bruce knew Gotham better than anyone.
“I know.” He replied with a growl.
“I’ll get it, just tell me where it is.” Karen said firmly, already making a move to shoot up into the sky.
“No,” Bruce said as he caught the hem of her cape, grounding her for the moment.
“Bruce-” She hissed in exasperation.
“Just let me do this,” He persisted, loathing the idea of Karen coming into contact with a weapon he’d foolishly made to kill her, then she’d know, then she’d see the kind of man he really was.
“We don’t have time!” She argued, and he hated that she was right.
“It’s by the signal...by my signal.” He admitted reluctantly, watching recognition flash in her blue eyes as she floated off the ground.
“Keep him busy for me,” Karen said with a coy toss of her head that he could read right through, she was scared, scared and tired.
“Oh, and don’t die,” She added, to which could only nod, it was an impossible request and she knew that. But, after what they’d been through, he owed her.
“Don’t just nod, Bruce, say it back to me,” Karen said with a sad smile and playful glint in her gas-flame blue eyes, and Bruce was entirely sure he’d fallen in love, right then, right there. Standing in the eviscerated remains of Gotham’s port, with an alien monstrosity battling a superpowered warrior in his peripheral. The feeling so foreign it nearly took him off his feet.
“I-” He croaked with a lump in his throat, “I won’t die.” Bruce uttered finally, watching as she swiftly took off moments after. Swallowing, he realized his only objective was to figure out how to live without her for the next few minutes…
It was just a few minutes...he could handle that. Besides, it was about time he socialized anyway.
He had to time his shots, the first round he fired stunned the beast. He watched distantly as the ghoulish creature rasped pained coughs, inhaling the poisonous fumes long enough for their ally to lop off a malformed hand. The ugly severed appendage thumped against the ground as the creature howled in agony.
Though their success was short lived as energy crackled through the air, devilish lightning bounced off its grotesque body as the creature seethed, an unsightly jut of bone spawning where its hand had once been; long and jagged.
Bruce used his grappling gun to close some distance, narrowly dodging a few more hunks of debris and a few blasts of heat vision with nothing more than a few bruised ribs and a singed cape.
He watched as his remaining ally tried to wrangle the mutated Kryptonian in some glowing lasso, it seemed to work just barely. As he heard the brunette cry out in exertion, he fired his last shot, watching as the monstrosity struggled marginally slowed by the Kryptonite-laced breaths it inhaled.
The gas dissipated before long and the creature lunged, it’s glowing bindings falling away as it swatted the brunette aside.
Bruce let out a shaky breath, weapon abandoned to the ground with no ammunition left.
“Fuck,” He swore breathlessly, feeling the collection of injures he’d sustained beginning to wear on him, “come back to me, Karen…”
And like a benevolent god hearing his prayers, she did . Ripping through the dust-laden sky with a shout, silhouette burning with the baneful glow of pure Kryptonite. He blinked and they impacted with earth shattering force. Watching as she buried the spear into the creature’s desiccated flesh, large veins like the roots of a tree burned a toxic green beneath the bloodless grey skin.
It howled in agony, the beast’s hulking, remaining hand curling around the young Kryptonian, and Bruce felt the swell of hope leave him as he watched her strain weakly against the crushing grip.
His heart stilled in his chest as he watched the creature rear its arm back, pointed jut of bone harshly thrust forward...into her chest. A sob burned in his throat at her tortured cry where it rang out through the air. Karen gave one final push, thrusting the spear deeper, until the glowing tip protruded from the creature’s back.
“Oh, god…” He wheezed.
Rappelling closer, Bruce watched in horror as a blinding bloom of green light exploded around them, the twin cries of both Kryptonians echoing through the air. The sound so overwhelming, Bruce was sure he’d lost his hearing when it finally stopped. The silence was deafening as both bodies collapsed limply against the ground…
His physical pain dulled as he sprinted the distance to them, to her. Dropping to his knees despite the prickling ache that radiated through his entire being, Bruce stared breathlessly at the young woman.
There she laid, horrifically divine against the slab of debris, posed with a heart wrenching artistry befitting a stained glass window one might find in a church, even with a gaping puncture wound marring her chest. He blinked back tears at the jarring serenity on her painfully youthful face.
“Please-” He tried to swallow his sob as he tenderly gathered her into his arms, a gloved hand gently sweeping back her hair.
“Come back to me…” He pleaded in a broken voice, delusionally hoping she might hear him one last time, that she might perk up in his arms with a grin. His grip on her tightened as he heard the scuffle of footsteps behind him. Tears staining the front of his cowl as he clutched her to his chest, dizzy where he felt the careful squeeze of their remaining ally’s hand on his shoulder. A solemn expression on the brunette’s face.
“I’m sorry…” Was all she said, and Bruce struggled to suck in a breath.
“Me too.”
Bruce then realized he was going to have to figure out how to live without her now, a lot longer than a few minutes. Power Girl had existed a mere fraction of the time that the Bat did, yet, she changed the world , she changed him.
Perhaps the best he could do now was to carry on her mission, to lead by her example, to inspire hope instead of fear…
Though, there was one person who could still use a reminder of what it felt like to be helpless...to be hopeless. And thankfully, the bastard had already been arrested.
“Master Wayne,” Alfred began carefully, trailing behind Bruce as he headed towards the newly repaired batmobile. The weathered vigilante tried to ignore the pang of sadness he felt at the metal chassis no longer bearing the dent left behind in the shape of Karen’s body, a reminder he couldn’t dredge his fingers in or trace the contours of.
“Master Wayne!” Alfred persisted in exasperation, knowing far too well how Bruce’s grief often turned into rage.
“Make a call to Arkham, Alfred.” Bruce said sternly, pulling back the hatch on the batmobile, climbing into the driver’s seat.
“Where are you going?” His butler and surrogate father asked, dark eyes concerned behind his tortoiseshell glasses.
“To end a witch hunt.”