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If so, for the love of all that is good and holy, DO NOT READ THIS! Because I will be a while coming back to it.
That cleared up, here you go. I told arch_schatten I had to thank her for the idea ;)
Title: In the Hall of the Grey King
Rating: PG-13. Possibly higher whenever I get around to later chapters, but maybe not.
Pairing: J'onn/Bruce, Hades/Persephone, maybe later hints of other. But for this chapter, just the first, implied.
Summary: follows kinda from my J'onn&Hades short. Bruce is dead, in the Underworld. J'onn means to get him back.
Chpt summary: the start of the quest ...
Disclaimer: I own neither ancient legends, nor more modern ones.
Warning: sort of ... crappy
They stared in silence into the yawning maw of the cave, the princess and the Martian. It gaped blackly at them, empty and hollow and deep as the ages themselves, echoing sullenly with the phantom footsteps of a million lost souls. Diana shrank from it, her heritage and her sensitivity warning her exactly of what they stood before. Of what they challenged.
She turned to the silent figure at her side, her gaze softening and liquid pity filling her eyes. J'onn did not look at her. He stared down, into the pit, and it was yearning she saw in every line of him, the hollow ache of loss. He grieved, long and silently, and it seemed so powerful that she thought it might never end. It was a quiet grief, unobtrusive, but it never left him now. Three years, since his mate had passed away, and it had not left.
"J'onn?" she asked softly, and a little fearfully. He looked at her, and she flinched from the emptiness in his eyes. That was what they all feared, now. Those that were left. "J'onn, are you sure? Are you sure he's here?"
J'onn raised a brow at her. "Blood was sure. The Amazons were sure. Even the Oracle was sure. Do you doubt it?"
She shook her head. "No. But why ... why would he have gone here? Bruce never ... never really believed in magic. He never really believed in anything." She stopped, not wanting to hurt him, but J'onn was not offended. Instead he smiled, just a little, and she blinked at him.
"He believed in many things, Diana," he said, softly. "He even worshipped some, in his way. But you're right. No god held his alleigance, and magic was indeed a ... difficult subject, with him." There was warmth in his voice, deep and oddly contented, below the grief where memory still shone. "I do not know why he is here. But neither do I doubt that he is."
Diana frowned slightly. "You ... can sense him?" she asked, hesitantly. Her companion shook his head sadly.
"He is gone from me, now. Beyond the reach of living minds. But ... his soul is there, sometimes. Not in the way his mind was, not in the way of the living. I cannot sense him. Cannot speak to him. But he ... warms me, sometimes. In the darkness. Like hands, around my heart. I know it is him."
She kept silent. She didn't know what to say, not to that. Not to the steady faith of her grieving friend. A part of her wanted to tell him it was only his grief he felt, only a memory, wanted to help him come back to the world of the living instead of the half-world he lived in now. But at the same time, there was a tiny, tiny part of her that hoped ...
Bruce had always been unpredictable. He had always come back, from things that had killed far stronger beings. He had always ... found a way. There was a part of her that couldn't let go of the hope that maybe, just maybe, J'onn might be right. That Bruce had managed to cheat at the last, and cast a thread back for them to pull, and bring him back. So she said nothing. And hoped.
"What will you do?" she asked softly, though she knew. J'onn smiled at her, that warm, grandfatherly caring in his amber eyes.
"I'll find him," he answered, and there was something like joy in his voice. Her heart shattered a little at the sound, and for one wild and virulent instant, she hated Bruce. Hated him for being as good as he'd been, hated him for making them believe in him when there was nothing left to believe, hated him for the hope that sprang unbidden at his name. For them, always, Batman was the last line of defense. For them, always, the Dark Knight lived.
Even when he did not.
"You know what you're up against?" she whispered softly. J'onn, staring down into the black gate, only nodded. "You know that once down there, no-one can help you? None of us ..." her voice broke. "We won't even hear if you call, J'onn. You'll be as lost to us as ... as he is. You'll ... be gone." She was crying, and she knew it, but she didn't care. It was more than she could bear, to see J'onn lost to them. She looked at the ground, her eyes burning, and couldn't see it through her tears.
She stiffened when strong arms wrapped themselves around her shoulders, when she was pulled gently but inexorably into a warm, familiar embrace. Stiffened, and then collapsed into him, wrapping her arms tightly around him in return. She held him close, as close as she could, because in her heart of hearts, she could not help but feel that this was their last goodbye. J'onn was fading from them, slipping down into the darkness with all those he had lost, and no Lasso was strong enough to hold him back.
"Do not worry, Diana," he whispered softly above her. "I'll find him. I'll bring him back." He stepped back a little, nudging her chin gently up to look at her. He was smiling. "You are not wrong to believe in him. I can feel it." She nodded, and let him go.
"Find him then," she commanded quietly, and couldn't help the trace of imperial remoteness that slipped into her voice in defense against what was coming. "I'll be waiting, J'onn. We all will."
He nodded, still smiling, and turned away. He did not fly into the pit. You do not soar in the land of the dead. He walked, calm and sure, into the final darkness. And did not look back.
Diana stared after his retreating form as it faded to a grey blur, and was finally swallowed by the blackness altogether, hugging herself against the sudden chill. She watched him leave, and in a fit of sudden hopelessness wondered when she had agreed to help her friend commit suicide. Because he couldn't come back. Hades let no-one leave. No-one at all. Orpheus had failed before, and both had been lost. And J'onn ... could he be any different? Could he turn his back on Bruce and abandon him, unsure if he would be followed? Could he leave Bruce alone in the darkness long enough to reach the light?
Could they? If there was even the slightest chance ...
Sighing, Diana sent one last look into the darkness of the land of the dead, sent one last thought to strengthen her friend. "We will be waiting, J'onn. For both of you. As long as we live, we will wait for you."
She only hoped it wouldn't take that long.
