What If

Chapter 1 'Who's Batman?'

This story contains graphic scenes of a troubling and explicit nature. Please maintain a NC-17 attitude toward it. Thank you - The Author

Okay I will be the first to admit that I sometimes come up with some really screwy ideas, but hear me out. I'm basing this in JLU (Personally I feel more comfortable with the shows versions of the characters, and it isn't that hard to add Donna). Darkseid was stopped by Bruce, but Diana (having went with Batman) took the blast from Darkseid. So now we join Diana once she has returned to her own time and sees something very, very wrong.

My head still hurts from the life times I've seen. I wasn't connected to my own family, but I was connected to his. A friend who helped those in his family protect the innocent. Bruce isn't the first Wayne to step into the role of a guardian, and I have no doubts that he will be the last. I bite back the pain and smile as my sister, my friends, and everyone else in the league with the exception of Batman greets me. I know that Bruce is most likely still believing that it is his fault I was lost to time.

"Diana it's great to have you back." Clark says as he smiled warmly.

"Thank you Kal, where is Batman?" I ask looking at my long time best male friend.

I notice the way his face shows confusion and then he looks at the others. Finally my sister speaks up.

"Who is Batman?" Donna asks.

"Batman, you know Batman tall dark and brooding. Hera, Donna you are friends with Nightwing who was trained by him. The two of you should have dated as close as you were." I say as I study her face.

"I don't know a Nightwing Diana." Donna says as she looks at me closely.

"Thank you all for the party... I've got to go." I say as I take off and head direction to the teleporter. I type in the location of the cave that Bruce had given to me so long ago.

For a moment I see the blue light of the transporter and then suddenly I'm inside of the Batcave. My hand covers my mouth as I look in terror at the sight around me. Bullet holes are present through the supercomputer and the displays Bruce kept. I walk carefully and the automatic lighting comes on. I turn and my heart falls into my stomach as I look at the skeleton wearing a tuxedo. I know... I know it's Alfred and I can no longer stand. My knees give out as I look upon the body of the man who raised Bruce as a son. For him to be like this meant that Bruce had to leave quickly. It is possible that Alfred drew the fire for him to escape.

Hera, no please no. I think as I walk toward the stairs and climb. I reach the top of the stairs and force the steel door open.

There before me is the charred ruins of Wayne manor. There is almost nothing left of the house. I look through the debries trying to make sure that he escaped. The fact that he is Batman doesn't seem to matter anymore. I cover my mouth as I uncover another skeleton. I see a bullet hole in its forehead. I reach out and realize that I am looking at Tim.

"You won't find him here Diana." A voice says from behind me.

I turn and look at Aphrodite. I can see a terrible sadness in her eyes and that only makes the need to find Bruce that more important.

"This happened years ago. This was before you came from Themyscira to help repel the invasion. It took longer to do this time. The world suffered greatly." Aphrodite says as she nears me.

"Where is he?" I ask.

"Lost. Lost to himself, lost to us." She says as she looks at Diana and then looks toward the sky.

"Is there nothing that I can do?" I ask

"You can find him Diana, but time has not been kind to him." Aphrodite tells me as she steps back and disappears.

(Skies above Gotham)

I look at the buildings below trying to figure where Bruce could be. I think back to when we spared and wonder if anything he said could help me in some way.

"Sometimes having powers isn't enough Diana. You have to think like the person you're fighting." his memory seems to say to me.

I know that I have to think like Bruce now. I have to put together where he is, and what has happened. I float toward the ground and look at the dirty alley ways. The last time I was in Gotham this section had been reclaimed from violence. Bruce had brought light into the lives of those here, but all I see is the filth of the city. Those he fought so hard against had stolen what was his. I look toward a building and above it I see a number. The number was one that Bruce had me memorize when I would help him in Gotham. The building was a safehouse.

I move toward it and pray that he is in there. I try the door and it opens slowly. The sound of the hinges could bring the attention of every would be thief in the area. After the door opens I look at a room filled with cobwebs. I shut the door and walk toward a computer.

"Please, please, please" I pray as I try the power button.

The computer comes on and makes a small shrieking sound. Tim had told me before that when a computer does that it means that it doesn't have long to live. The monitor comes on and I look a prompt for a password. I type in the date of his parents death and the computer seems to mull over my answer for several minutes. Finally it opens into a desk top and I look at files, reports, and information from the main computer. I notice a file that was opened last and click it. I look to see the cave and gunmen entering it.

(10 years ago Bat Cave)

Bruce looks to see Tim heading into the manor. The sound of gun fire can be heard and he heads toward the steps. Suddenly he stops and jerks violently backwards as something strikes him. He stands and moves his hand to reveal blood. He looks to see Alfred running toward the intruders screaming for him to leave. The Englishman manages to strike a would be assassin and his automatic weapon rips through the super computer. Bruce stumbles and a figure helps him. They head toward the batmobile, but something fires from across the rooms and ignites the car in flames. Seconds later Bruce is on a motorcycle with the figure in front of him gunning the motorcycle out of the cave. Moments later a man steps into the cave.

(Present in the safehouse)

Diana holds her breath as she watches the screen. She knows the man. She knows the woman who is dragged into the room behind him. He turns to her and slaps her face violently. Bruce had insisted that she learn to read lips and she reads his now.

"You failed me Talia!" Ra's shouted at his daughter.

"I love him! he was right you are a monster!" Talia shouts defiantly.

Ra's doesn't wait for a response. He lifts a revolver and shots Talia in the head. The second in command of the League of Shadows falls into the abyss of the cave.

"She we recover her body?" A follower asks.

Ra's shots him for his stupidity. The others follow Ra's out of the cave.

Grief runs over Diana as she holds her hand over her mouth. Her body begins to shake violently as sobs escape her.

Time has not been kind to him. She thinks of what Aphrodite said to her. Lifting herself up she walks over to the closet. She will not search for him as Wonder Woman. She digs out clothes and pulls them on. Finding a trench coat she pulls it on as well. She will honor his wishes and search for him as a mortal.

And when she finds him, and finds Ra's she will unleash a vengence upon the mad man known only to the gods and goddesses.

(Outside of the safe house)

I close the door to the safehouse and pray that I find Bruce. My lifetimes with his family, each time of being reborn into a different time only to find someone who reminded me of the man I let push me away. I would do this no more. I couldn't live without him anymore. It had taken me several mortal lifetimes to realize that I had lied to myself. My decision to find Bruce and be with him stopped as a I saw a shadow on the rooftop. I jumped onto a rain gutter and climbed. My heart raced as I tried to reach the figure.

"Bruce?" I ask softly to the figure now crouched in the darkness.

"Who are you?" a soft velvety voice asks.

I know her, I know about her. Catwoman had become something of a hero, and now she faced me.

"A friend of Batman's" I say as I near her.

A whip dances out to me and wraps around my wrist. She pulls quickly knocking me off balance and I fall.

"Lair!" She shouts as she steps from the shadows.

I see her and my eyes widen. Her catty nature is still there, but she is armored. Her chest is covered with Kevlar. Her chest has the emblem of the Batman on it and she wears gauntlets much like his own. Her face which was beautiful and still is has a scar down the left side of it.

"He disappeared and you are working for that bastard!" She says with venom in her voice.

I feel my heart fall for a moment. He has been through so much, and I wasn't here with him.

"I am a friend... A different time we were almost something more. But something happened... Something changed the world from what I remember." I say trying to reach her with my honesty.

She stands rigid for a moment and then she moves almost seductively toward me.

"DarkWraith says to bring you in. We leave now." She says as she looks at me and the shoots a grappling hook toward a taller building.

I follow her and within minutes we stand at what appears to be an entrance to a discontinued railway station. I follow her into the station and soon she stops. She hands me a piece of cloth.

"If you are the friend you claim to be then you know his rules. Blind fold now." She tells me.

I wrap the blind fold over my eyes and feel another set of hands behind me. Soon I am on something that is moving and I hear the faint clicking of the tracks. After a few minutes I look to see the inside of a subway station obviously far from where we had been. The tunnel is dark both ways and I am certain there are traps set for intruders.

"My love." Selina coos into the ear of the man that should be mine. He turns and I see his face. He has a strip of cloth covering one of his eyes and a scar from an attempted Glasco smile is present on part of his face. He stands and walks with the help of a cane and I can see that his right leg had been had been broken in several places.

"Leave us." He says as he walks toward me.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" He asks me.

"I'm here because something happened to the timeline... Someone changed your past, the world's past. I want to fix it. I want to fix things between us as well." I say as I reach out for him and stop myself.

"If you want to help, leave. Those who get close to me pay for it." He says as he turns his back toward me.