Chapter Text
Batman strides through the Zeta beam into the cave, dropping the new tool on the desk beside the Batcomputer as he folds himself down into the seat.
“So it appears there’s more out there than we thought, Master Bruce,” a voice cuts through the silence behind him, Alfred padding up to sit a plate with meatloaf and a glass of water down beside him.
“Hm,” he acknowledges, accepting the water and downing it in one go. He knows that’s the only way Alfred will bring him coffee rather than insisting he sleep after the week long JLA mission.
Alfred gives him a small smile, and prompts, “Do you have any injuries, Master Bruce?”
Bruce shakes his head and focuses on undoing the security catch on the back of the Multiverse Detector he’d had to build. It had taken a couple days for them to realize this version of Darkseid wasn’t actually their version, and that’s why he was doing inexplicably well in his plan to conquer their planet.
After Bruce had finally finished creating the Multiverse Detector, it had been a relatively simple matter to augment it to allow him to return people to their proper universe.
“I suppose it’d be asking too much for you to retire and enjoy a good night's sleep before continuing your pursuit?” Alfred’s voice rings out behind him and he shrugs, his specialized screwdriver clicking into the latch and popping it open.
Alfred sighs quietly and Bruce tries not to listen to his footsteps echoing across the cave. The clock shuts with a finality, and Bruce throws himself into the task at hand. He needs to analyze the results to ensure Darkseid got returned to his proper dimension, and wasn’t lying in wait here or banished to an unsuspecting realm like theirs.
As he plugs it into the Batcomputer he leans back, closing his eyes for a moment. The last few years, it’s been so much harder after a long mission like this one. Irritation bubbles up and he sighs, suppressing it and trying to reach that smooth nothingness of meditation as the device processes on screen.
His boy would be nineteen now, he thinks suddenly. It’s stupid, the little ways the grief sneaks back into his head. Jason would be off at his first year of college, probably ready to get into all sorts of mischief behind his studies.
He’d be a dedicated student first and foremost, Bruce knows. Jason had always talked about school with a sort of respect, college with a reverence. There was nothing more important to the boy than being properly educated. Hopefully, Bruce would have been able to tempt the boy into quitting their nightlife too, to transition to a safe and happy civilian life.
Beep beep - beep beep - beep beep
Bruce jerks out of his thoughts and opens his eyes, frowning as the detector starts idly alarming. Something in the vicinity must be reading as out of this universe. He frowns and grabs the detector, angling it around to narrow down the area. It brings him around the cave a bit, until finally he stops, standing in a corner he frequently thinks of but seldom visits.
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep
The machine is blaring now, as loud as when it was pointed at Darkseid himself earlier that same day. Bruce feels it slip from his fingers, hitting the ground and falling silent as he faces himself in the mirrored reflection of the glass case.