Author's Notes:If you've noticed the title, this now has six parts instead of just five... I've split chapter 5 into two parts. It's going to take me a few more days to get this completely done and I was afraid y'all would completely forget about me by the time I was done, so I decided to split this chapter in two.
(...and, umm, Sue? I'm sorry!
)
~.~.~
~[K]nightfall~
Chapter 5 - "Like a Bat out of Hell." ~.~.~
Gotham, Wayne Manor - Day six after Nightfall"Look, for the last time, I can't let you in!" Tim insisted, exasperated.
He'd been arguing for several minutes with the woman he'd found standing at the front door of Wayne Manor. He wanted to kick himself upside the head for not being bright enough to choose a different entrance. He knew of, at least, three other ways in - why couldn't he have used one of those?
Suddenly, the door opened, revealing a rather amused Bruce Wayne, sitting in a wheelchair.
"It's OK, Tim," he said. "You can let her in."
Tim shrugged off a glare from the woman and moved out of the way to let her through.
"Miss Lane," Bruce greeted her, bowing his head slightly. "I've been trying to reach you all morning. It didn't occur to me that you might be on your way here. I must say I'm impressed with your investigative skills."
Immediately, Tim understood who she was. She had introduced herself – she had tried, anyway - but everything had come out in a mad rush of jumbled words and sentences and he hadn't been very successful at understanding her at all, save for the part about wanting to come inside. He smiled, thinking that she was lucky to have Superman for a partner - no matter how fast she spoke, he was one of the few people whose brain functioned quickly enough to be able to follow.
Meanwhile, Lois was staring at Bruce, perplexed. He'd been trying to get in touch with her?
"Well, come in," Bruce said, seeing her frozen in place on the doorstep. "I'm glad you're here. We could use your help with a project."
Lois stepped forward, still staring at her host. She was even more confused, now. A project? There wasn't time for projects! She needed to find out about the piece of asteroid that had fallen on the man's property - all other projects and plans could wait until she'd asked him the questions that were burning her lips.
"I'm here on assignment from the Daily Planet," Lois started, speaking at near super speed again. It was a wonder she didn't choke, Tim thought to himself, she hardly ever stopped to breathe! "Well, maybe not so much on assignment, but I work for the Planet and I've come all the way from Metropolis because I'm investigating a report that a piece of debris from the Nightfall asteroid landed in your backyard and -" she stopped cold, realizing that Bruce was trying very hard not to break out in a grin.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I was just thinking that if the DoD had been anything near as determined as you are, they'd have been digging through my garden days ago. Do come in, Miss Lane. This is one story I'm sure you're going to want to hear."
"You mean, the reason they haven't been here to investigate is because -"
"I denied them access to my property, yes," he explained. "Hey, it's my right, you know. It's in the Constitution."
"Don't you understand what's at stake here?" Lois all but shouted. She was livid. How dare this man interfere with the search for Superman?
"Miss Lane... Lois... Believe me when I tell you that I completely understand what's a stake here. In fact, I probably understand better than you do." Bruce turned his attention to his young protégé for a second. "Tim, would you put on some coffee? I think the three of us need to have a little chat."
"Sure thing, Bruce," Tim replied before heading off to the kitchen.
"Come on, Lois. I promise everything will make a lot more sense once I've had a chance to explain."
~.~
"Lois, what I'm going to tell you is completely off the record," Bruce said, once they had all assembled in the study. "You understand?"
"Off the...? No way!" Lois protested. "If you've been hiding information that could help locate Superman, the world deserves to know what it is. You can't ask me to put a lid on anything like that!"
"Look, I know how it sounds, but it's not what you think."
"Are you or are you not hiding information that could help locate Superman?" Lois shot at him, impatiently.
"Yes," Bruce admitted. "But only so I could protect other people."
Lois stared at him for a second, eyes wide and mouth gaping open, before she found her voice gain. "You mean...? Do you... do you know where he is? Is he...?"
"He's alive," Bruce said, nodding.
"How long have you known? Why haven't you told anyone?" Anger was starting to bubble inside her. She couldn't believe that anyone in their right mind would want to keep this sort of information to themselves.
"We've just barely figured it out, I'm sorry to say. In my defense, though, I did try to get in touch with you this morning. Only, it appears you were already on your way here."
"Where is he? Is he okay? I need to see him!"
"We're not quite sure where he is right now," Tim offered. "Or if he's okay, actually."
"What do you mean, '
not quite sure'?" Lois was getting more annoyed with these people by the second. They were wasting precious time being obscure and playing guessing games with her. Couldn't they just give her straight answers so she could find him, for crying out loud?
"Well, we haven't actually seen him face to face yet," Bruce explained, calmly. "But... Lois, for some reason he's taken on Batman's identity. Under the circumstances, I think it's safe to assume he's not exactly himself right now."
"What? Wait a minute... you mean to tell me the reason we haven't been able to find Superman is because he's been hiding under Batman's cowl? That's ludicrous! Why would he assume someone else's identity?"
"Look, I know Clark trusts you with his secret -" Bruce started to say.
"Clark?" Lois interrupted, exaggerating her surprise. "What's Clark got to do with any of this?"
"Lois, we know just as well as you do that Clark is Superman."
"Superman?" She laughed nervously. "Clark isn't -"
"Come on, there's no need to pretend. I've known for some time. He's a good friend of mine, though you probably didn't know that. He informed me, the moment you saw through his secret identity. It's customary for people in our line of work to share this sort of information."
"Your line of...? What on earth are you talking about?"
"This is the part that you have to keep a lid on. A tight one. I've got a secret of my own to protect and I can't honestly answer any of your questions without giving it away. I'm going to need to trust you not to print it, though." Lois nodded, resigned, and Bruce continued. "The reason why I'm certain it was him under the cowl last night is because the
real Batman has been out of commission for weeks. He's been injured. Someone broke his back. Turned him into a useless invalid. You see, I'm -" He stopped abruptly and sighed before going on. "Before the accident, I
was Batman."
"You...?"
"It's true," Tim confirmed. "He's Batman. And I'm Robin."
"Was," Bruce insisted. "I was."
"You still are!" Tim shot back, glaring at the man.
"Right, so you're Batman, he's Robin," Lois cut in with a sigh. Normally, she would have found the information a lot more interesting, but her main concern at the moment wasn't finding out who they masqueraded as in their off time... She could have cared less if they'd told her they were both from Mars or some other such nonsense. All that mattered was that she find Clark – and soon. "And you mean to tell me that, at the moment, Clark thinks he's you?"
"Yes. Batman was spotted on a rooftop last night, which considering I can't even stand up right now, means it was someone else under the mask. And the reason why I couldn't allow the DoD to come snooping around my property is because the Batcave lies right under it. That's where Clark landed. In the Batcave. Look, we were just about to go down there. Why don't you come along with us?"
"Is there a phone I could use?" Lois asked, looking around the room. "I really need to make a call."
Bruce eyed her suspiciously for a second and was about to remind her that she had agreed to keep this off the record, but Lois didn't give him time to speak, having guessed what was on his mind.
"Relax! I'm not going to call my editor," she said, rolling her eyes. Had he not understood that if she'd kept the truth about Superman to herself, she could be trusted to keep someone else's secret, too? She was tempted to tell him she knew who Green Arrow really was, too, but thought the better of it. If Bruce didn't know the man's secret, then spilling it to him would definitely not encourage anyone to trust her in the future. "I'm just going to call Clark's parents. They need to be told that their son is alive."
~.~
"Don't be surprised if he doesn't recognize any of us," Bruce said, as they rode the secret elevator that led from the Manor to the Batcave. "If I'm right, he probably doesn't know who he is either. He wouldn't have assumed another identity if he knew who he was. My guess is he would have come upstairs to say hello before flying back to Metropolis. That would have been normal behavior. Pretending to be Batman isn't."
"No kidding," Lois whispered under her breath. It was one thing for
her to believe that Clark was Batman, once upon a time, but why would
Clark ever think something like that? Even if he had landed in the Batcave, what could possibly have led him to believe he belonged there? He was too nice to even fit the Dark Knight's persona. Much too nice.
The elevator doors opened. Lois stepped out into the cave cautiously, closely followed by Bruce and Tim.
"We should also assume that he might be dangerous," Bruce warned them.
"Dangerous? Are you out of your mind?" Lois protested vehemently. "There's no way he would ever endanger anyone!"
"Haven't you been listening to anything I've said," Bruce snapped back. "He's not himself right now. Who's to say he won't think of us as a threat? He's got no way of knowing who we are. And in case you haven't noticed, neither of us are in any shape to fight him off or -"
"I'm not going to hurt anyone," came a familiar voice.
The trio quickly turned to their left and saw a dark figure coming out of the shadows. He had heard the discussion they'd been having on the way down to the cave and had immediately understood that they were talking about him. He had planned on staying hidden away and just listening in for a moment, but the woman's voice – and the strength of her convictions – had drawn him out. Something inside told him he could trust her. But most importantly, they knew who he was. He would get the answers he'd been seeking – and perhaps his memory would finally start coming back.
"Clark!" Lois exclaimed, heart racing and tears stinging her eyes. A hand on her wrist prevented her from running over to the man who stood before them.
"Wait," Bruce ordered, in a low and commanding voice.
Clark felt as though he'd been struck by a bolt of lightning. The way she had called out to him – he had heard her do it before, he was absolutely convinced. She was the woman he'd seen in a flashback the other day. It was her. She was here and the simple fact that she'd come looking for him was so comforting, so reassuring. He tried to force his brain to remember more, but all he came up with was a name that he wasn't even sure was hers.
"Lois?" he asked, hesitantly.
She fought off Bruce's hand and ran up to Clark, throwing herself in his arms.
"Oh, Clark, thank god you're okay!" she said, her voice coming out muffled against his neck.
For a moment, he held onto her as tightly as she clung to him, hoping it might trigger other memories. But neither the way she felt in his arms, nor her perfume, or even the brush of her lips on his skin seemed familiar. There wasn't even a hint of a flashback. Nothing.
"I'm sorry..." he told her dejectedly, as he attempted to pull out of her tight hug. "I thought I might... but, I don't remember who you are." The last words came out barely louder than a whisper.
"But... you knew my name..." she said, confused, taking a step back.
Clark felt an overwhelming sense of guilt at the sight of the tears streaming down her cheeks. "It's the first one that came to my mind," he explained, lamely. "I'm sorry. I wish I knew... I wish I could remember. I've been trying to, but things aren't coming to me at all."
He looked lost, frustrated. Lois could barely imagine what he must have gone through the last few days. And while it had brought her immense relief to find that he was alive, Clark himself was still suffering from his encounter with Nightfall. Everything wasn't back to normal yet; far from it.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, forcing herself to put on a brave face. "I often do things without thinking. You tease me about it all the time." She smiled. "I, uh... my name is Lois Lane. We... oh, uh, yours is Clark Kent. I guess that's a good place to start." She smiled again, encouragingly.
He frowned as he tried to make sense of the information.
Lois turned towards the other two men. "They're friends of yours," she explained. "Bruce Wayne and, um, Tim...?" She suddenly realized she didn't know the young man's last name at all.
"Drake," he told them. "Tim Drake."
"I, uh, I haven't known them for very long," Lois said. "I met them for the first time this morning, actually. But, you've known them longer than I have."
"It feels like I've known them about as long as you have," Clark told her, shrugging. "I have this image of you..." He sighed. "Actually, I have an image of a lot of people, they seem to be running around an office, I guess? And there's this man shouting orders at them. And then I see you and you're smiling at me. But I... I don't know what it means at all."
"Sounds like the newsroom. We, uh, we work for a newspaper. The Daily Planet. We're a team of reporters. That man shouting orders, that would be Perry White. He's the editor. We call him 'Chief' – and yeah, he likes to bark orders, but he doesn't bite."
"Reporters...?" Clark repeated, perplexed.
He had a regular, nine to five job? Even though he wasn't quite
normal? How well did these people know him? Were they aware that he had special abilities? Or was that supposed to be a secret? Every new piece of information she gave him led to more questions. He desperately wanted answers, but all he was getting were more mysteries, more headaches.
"But, then why...? I don't understand," he continued after a moment of silence. "I mean, I heard you saying that I'm not, you know, Batman, but still... This is the
only thing that's really felt familiar." He gestured at the outfit he was wearing. "So, I'm not, uh, I don't know, some sort of crime-fighter, at all? I'm just a reporter?"
"Well, that's going to take some explaining," Lois told him. "You do fight crime – and save people's lives, too. All sorts of wonderful, heroic things. It's kind of a second job that you have. Only, not in that outfit. You look kind of nice in gray, though, you know. Anyway, so, uh, you do that, but you're also a reporter. And not just any reporter. Half of the best news team in Metropolis! That is, if you believe the billboards all over the city."
"Metropolis? How did I end up here, in Gotham, then?"
"That's going to require some explaining as well," Bruce said. "We should take this slowly. There are a lot of things to take in, Clark. And some of them are likely to be a little harder to believe."
"I'm sure it can't be half as strange as some other things I've discovered this week," Clark mumbled, mostly to himself.
"You mean, as in... abilities?" Bruce offered. "Strength, speed, that sort of thing?"
"Wait – you know about all of that? You know that I'm not exactly a normal human being?"
"No! Don't say that!" Lois interjected. "You're more human than a lot of people can ever claim to be. It doesn't matter where you're from."
"Are you saying...? It's true, then, I'm not even... human?" Clark asked. He felt as though he'd been punched. He wasn't human. He just pretended to be. He had a fake identity, complete with a day job and everything. Wow. He was starting to wonder if he really wanted to know who he really was. Not that he was really any closer to knowing than he'd been half an hour ago...
"You're, uh..." Lois started, but she wasn't certain how to make it sound reassuring. He seemed to be taking the news quite hard and she was afraid he wasn't going to like the truth.
"Let me guess," Clark said, sighing in frustration. "This is going to take a lot more explaining. Is that it?"
~.~
(to be concluded... in the second half of chapter 5. *lol*)~.~.~
Bottom Dweller's Notes:
I haven't a clue how Bruce managed after Alfred was gone... I couldn't figure it out from just the comics. *shrugs* I suppose it makes no sense to assume he's preparing his own meals and taking care of the house by himself, but there wasn't ever any mention of another domestic so I had Tim make coffee, instead of making up a housekeeper or a cook... As for the rest, let's just imagine Bruce got by, somehow. He is Batman, after all.
In case anyone's noticed, there's a quick little joke about Martians...
"She could have cared less if they'd told her they were both from Mars or some other such nonsense." Obviously, neither Bruce nor Tim is from Mars. However, the idea that someone might be isn't nonsense. J'onn J'onzz, a.k.a. Martian Manhunter, happens to be from Mars. The last survivor of his race (sounds like someone else we know, huh? Except, in his case, I doubt he'll find others any time soon). But then, this is one superhero that Lois has yet to meet. She will meet him before I'm done with this series, though. Stay tuned.
There are a couple references to other stories from my series in this part:
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"It was one thing for her to believe that Clark was Batman, once upon a time, but why would Clark ever think something like that?" In the second story ("Blind... as a Bat") Lois is led to believe that Clark is Batman.
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"She was tempted to tell him she knew who Green Arrow really was, too, but thought the better of it." Lois learned who hides under the archer's mask in "Green, Green Glow of the Arrow."
