Prologue: Ace in the Hole

A/N:

Howdy folks. Like that pesky rash I'm back again. Long overdue, but here I am with a little early Christmas present for you all; the prologue, acting as a teaser for the story which will begin posting in earnest in mid-January.

And yes, this is the third big one in my series of Justice League stories, as promised. Only reason I didn't specifically advertise it as such in the description was so as not to scare off new fans. If you haven't read the rest (why the hell not?) you ought to be able to leap right in here, just be aware of spoilers for my older stuff throughout. So go to me profile, pick out the earlier entries and read them first if you want (not forgetting to drop a comment or two along the way!). If not, dive on in here!

Before we go any further, let's get some notes out the way. This one might get a bit darker than the others in places so if you ever think I need to bump up the rating to "M" just give us a shout. Credit goes to the writers (specifically Dwayne McDuffie and Bruce Timm) of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon for the very few scenes (ought to be only the one section right at the very start) lifted straight from that awesome show. And as usual, the disclaimer:

All characters, settings etc. that I have made up myself are mine. The rest, including Batman, Wonder Woman, Joker, et al are definitely not. Unfortunately…

Now, in what may (hopefully) be considered bad news for a lot of you here, I'm very seriously considering making this the last of these fanfics that I do. I'm not abandoning the fandom, not by any means, but the problem is time. There are other things that I want to do, things I can't do as much as I'd like if I'm devoting time to the weighty fanfics that I put out like this one. I promised to do this story so here it is, and I will 100% see it through no matter what, but chances are there won't be any more, despite having ideas in the bank to follow this one up for a long time after. What I will say is this though: coming back for more isn't absolutely ruled out as an option, it may just be that I take an extended break (more so than the one I've just had). And if you do want me to come back for more, there is one main way to try and make it happen: review, review and then review again! Get them flooding in guys, get that counter ticking well through the triple figures! I seriously can't get enough of them! Heck, if we can get near to hitting four figures there's no way I won't come back. That'd be amazing!

And now, without any further ado, Shadows in the Dark begins. Strap yourself in friends. It's hopefully going to be one hell of a ride.

"Did you like playing with my new Royal Flush Gang?"

"Can't say that I did."

"Yeah. They aren't any fun at all. I gave them their powers and they still hardly ever play with me."

"Can't imagine why."

"When I was little, Cadmus used to make me play all kinds of games, but they weren't any fun either. They'd strap me into machines and poke wires into my brain. Ace can you move this object with your mind? Yeah… I can move it. They weren't really games, you know. They were turning me into a weapon, for justice, they said. They got their weapon. I got cheated out of my childhood."

"I know what that's like."

"You do, don't you? You don't have to answer, I've read your mind. That's how I knew you weren't going to use Mrs. Waller's weapon on me."

"No. I wasn't."

"You were going to try and talk me into fixing what I've changed…before I die."

"Yes."

"I'm dying very soon."

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"Could you stay with me? I'm scared."

"He didn't move, didn't leave her. He stayed there, sat with her until the end, even after the world got put right. Stayed there until Ace just…stopped breathing. He held her too, like a parent would their child. Like in that moment she was the only person in the world that mattered. Despite everything that little girl had done, despite everything she might have done, he did everything he possibly could to make her death easier on her. To make sure that even she had a friend right at the very end. When he went in there, we all thought that it was to kill her before she could do more damage. Instead, if anything, right at the end he saved her. He gave her just that hint of the love of a real childhood. It was… Well, it was moving, actually. A side to him that the rest of us don't exactly get to see that often. Is that the Batman that you get to see when he finally puts his brooding exterior away?"

Diana didn't know whether to smile or cry. Shayera had been right. Wonder Woman had not been there on that mission, but just hearing the story of the girl Ace's death was moving. Diana hadn't been there on the other Justice League mission involving that girl either, but she still knew that it was easily to be put off by certain aspects of her personality. Given the girl's power too, it would have been easy to be scared of her and simply use the weapon designed to take her out. And yet Bruce had done no such thing. He had stood by his principles. He had utilised that very human heart that was publicly hidden away. Where for almost everyone else there would have only been the best of the bad options, Bruce had found a good one. He had found a way to help the troubled child as well as the world. He had done the right thing, the decent thing.

The human thing.

Exactly the sort of thing that had made Diana truly fall in love with him. For such a warrior who spent so much of his life living in darkness, to hold onto that heart was incredible, especially given all the stories she had heard of Man's World during her life on Themyscira. This was a man who was truly remarkable, enhanced ever more by the fact that with all else stripped away he was just an ordinary man. An ordinary man truly deserving of an Amazon's love.

"It might be," she replied, cryptically on the surface but laced with the right emphasis that her answer ought to have been very clear. She had finally conceded and let the smile grace her beautiful face. "But I don't think it's a side to him he really wants bandied about."

"Doesn't exactly go with his usual image, does it?" Shayera returned with a laugh of her own. The two of them were sat together, sat around on the Justice League's Watchtower. Together they were in an otherwise near deserted commissary. Shayera had just gotten back from the mission down on the Earth against the latest incarnation of the Royal Flush gang. Batman himself was still down there, but Shayera had not wasted any time in telling Diana what had happened. She was clearly quite in awe of what she had just witnessed down there. "Seriously, I don't know how you saw it through all those layers he puts up. Now that the two of you are actually together, I can admit that I thought you were mad when I first spotted that you had eyes for him."

"Everyone has some good in them," Wonder Woman commented back, a point she firmly believed held true. Everyone. If it didn't then her mission of promoting the Themysciran ideals of peace was even further from success than she thought. "It's just a matter of looking for it. With all that he's done for the innocents below, it didn't take me long to find it in Bruce."

"I bet he's done plenty of good for you too, hasn't he Princess?"

"Shayera!" Diana blurted out, hardly believing what she had just heard her friend say. She wasn't the naïve woman she had been when she had first arrived in Man's World. She now understood completely what Shayera was referring to. And she was sure that it was hardly the sort of thing that should be discussed this openly, even between friends. Shayera only smiled all the more.

"You'll learn to embrace the girl talk soon, Diana, trust me," she said through it, before slightly changing the subject. "So when are you going to see him again?"

She was beaming down virtually the moment she and Shayera had both left the commissary. It wasn't a prearranged meeting, but what she had just heard had inspired her to want to see him again as soon as she could. She had had Mr. Terrific send her right into the heart of the Batcave, certain that that would be where Bruce would be found. Sure enough, Diana had been right.

He was up there, still dressed in his cape and cowl, sat by the Batcomputer, typing away. He didn't turn around when she re-materialised, continuing on with his work. Wonder Woman was therefore left to move to him, noticing what it was Batman was working on as she did so. He was updating Ace's file. He was marking her as deceased.

And it was then that Diana noticed the mud layering his gauntlets, along with the shovel discarded not far away from his seat. It didn't take a genius to put those pieces together. Ace hadn't had a friend in the world. She had had no family, no one to mourn her, no one to miss her. She had had no one to bury her and see to it she passed on with respect. No one except the Batman, who had sat with her at the end.

Bruce's giant heart was on show all over again. There was no end to it. Neither was there any end to the amount of pride Diana felt for him right then, nor the amount of love.

She said nothing as she drew level with him, noticing then that his fingers had stopped typing on the keyboard. Gently she laid one soft hands on his caped shoulder, using it to spin him around to face her. For a moment they just stayed there, staring out at one another. His eyes were still shrouded behind the lenses of the cowl, beyond view. Yet Diana still felt she could see through them, through his eyes and into the very essence of the man below. More than that, she could just tell that Batman had read her too, that he knew she was proud of him for what he had done. That just made her smile all over again.

And then, with still not a word being said, she kissed him, and he returned it in full.

"So old Acey's bit the big one, eh? It's about time…"

"Yeah, she's deader than a dead dodo!" his partner quipped, laughing away as she did. He was definitely glad himself. Initially he had growled out the words, but laughter was great and infectious. He couldn't resist joining in. However, every great joke had to have a great punchline, and they hadn't gotten that far through the gag just yet. There was still plenty of fun to be had. This was just an added bonus, a bonus that tied in nicely.

"Rewind the tape, Harley," he ordered when the laughter had finally stopped. He had been watching it pretty much non-stop since he had broken out of Arkham the latest time. It was everything, the key to his entire plan. The key to the greatest joke of his life. "I want to see it again while we're waiting for old Pengy to give us his answer."

"Right away, Mr. J," Harley chirped, immediately rushing off to hit the button on the remote. But his own eyes stayed on the screen were he had the footage being projected. It was only weeks since it had happened and the rest of the world may have become convinced that it was the side effects of their then efforts to save the world from a largely mental enemy, but he had seen through it. He had seen through the lies. He knew that it was for real. He knew that they really were a duo. Boy, was he going to make old Batsy regret letting that become public.

He munched down another handful of popcorn as he laid back to watch the footage play all over again. Footage of Batman and Wonder Woman, locked in a duel of the tongues.

Oh, yes. The Joker was going to have his fun.