The Once and Future Thing
Summary: So, remember how the first Justice League Unlimited season finale was a time travel adventure where Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Batman ended up chasing some goober named David (or Chronos) around as he mangled the timeline with his crappy decisions? All the way back to the Old West, and to a version of Batman Beyond's future Gotham.
Here, Kei got dragged along.
Notes: So having a multi-hour obsession take hold is an interesting time. Here, take the product of my brain deciding to momentarily jump tracks.
Kei had been prepared for a lot of potential ways the future could twist in circles when the timestream was being actively manipulated by some opportunistic creep with an inferiority complex. Like, there was a level of petty, thoughtless bullshit that was only really possible for the most banal sort of everyday evil. The kind of guy who went time traveling around and dropped dinosaurs in cowboy land because he got mugged in the pastâŠwell, he fit the bill. Heading through time portals to chase after a guy like that wasnât just heroismâit was basic self-preservation.
Chronos couldnât be trusted with ultimate cosmic power. She wouldnât have given the man a goddamn hamster and expected to see it alive a week later.Â
This was surreal enough that all semblance of thought just fell out of her head.Â
When the Future Justice League (obviously minusâŠmost of them) arrived, squaring off with the cybernetically enhanced Jokerz gang members, sheâd sort of expected them. Future Batman? Sure, itâd been long enough that the all-black suit with the red icon and flight bits was in circulation. Old Man Static? Okay, Kei had never met the guy personally, but it was cool to meet another electrokinetic after the Ultimen fiasco. And War Hawk! Neat that it confirmed the Hawkgirl-and-Green-Lantern relationship worked out in some fashion.
But the deceptively normal person that strode out of the darkness and made fully half of the super-Jokerz team back the fuck up? A shadow wearing a white ANBU mask.Â
The crown of spikes was familiar. It was a rendition of something Kei had mocked up once, depicting Isobuâs face in all its spooky glory. Glimmers around the material pointed to some kind of future-tech modification, which stretched down the jaw and neck and into the rest of the dark suit. Kei saw the vaguest suggestions of her favorite sword, the belt of materials and scrolls she often carried, and a hood that made the mask stand out that much more, like a bloody promise.
Every one of the gang enforcers who backed up, Kei noted, carried at least one obvious cybernetic enhancement. And the hyena hybrid just fucking cowered.
âAnd here I thought the lesson I taught you might finally stick,â said a voice with a playful lilt and a Japanese accent, even years and years on.
âShitââ
âOh fuck, itâs herââ
âWhat is she doing here?!â
âI donât knowââ
The figure cracked her knuckles. Isobuâs chakra flared hot and hateful in a way it hadnât been for years, centered squarely on the new arrival and creeping outward in a clear threat display. âClass is back in session.âÂ
09090
âSurprised to see me?â
âA little. Iâm more surprised that I lived so long.â
Batmanâs meeting with his older self was overshadowed solely because Kei didnât reallyâŠget that far. Instead, a pair of worn but familiarly-scarred hands landed on her shoulders and dragged her away from that potential minefield. Sheâd only meant to ask if anybody else had made it this long, after hearing half the League had been shot out of space along with the Watchtower.Â
Not all heroes coordinated there, after all. It could be a mercy. Kei at least meant to ask about the other Bats, though she knew the answer would probably be âYou donât wanna know.â
Instead, Kei sat on a dilapidated future high school desk while her captor explained, ââNow watching someone retcon cybernetic enhancement into reality in real time was annoying, but weâve worked through that!â
Kei stared, lost for words.
âWho isâŠ?â she heard Wonder Woman begin, only to stop short as the older woman turned around, popped off her mask, and grinned.Â
KeiâŠwouldnât say sheâd aged badly. Her face more lines, and time had turned her hair super streaky with gray and white, and sheâd picked up some more strange scars, but her spine was unbent and she didnât look anywhere near Old-Batmanâs age. Which made sense, since heâd started this whole drama as already in middle age, where Kei had been a teenager, like Static.
Was still a teenager.Â
God, time travel fucking sucked.Â
âDiana-san,â said Keiâs future self. âNice to see youâve cheated death and aging. You look good.âÂ
âGenbu, itâs good to see you survived amid the chaos,â said Wonder Woman, and extended a hand. As Old-Kei clasped forearms with her, her tense shoulders relaxed a little. âAnd that youâve made a reputation for yourself here after all.âÂ
âOh, it wasnât so hard once I put my mind to it,â said⊠Okay, maybe she could be Genbu. It wasnât like Kei had ever thought that one through, and now the other Kei had finders-keepers privileges by a lot. âI found it takes a few demonstrations to really make a lesson stick.â
âWhy doesnât that hyena guy have arms?â Kei burst out.Â
âBecause Woof thought he didnât need to check for tripwires,â Genbu said, shrugging as she let go of Wonder Womanâs arm. She smiled again, all innocence. âIâll get him next time.âÂ
Your future self has taken a proactive approach to some problems.
And weirdly, Kei thought with an edge of panic, I donât want to know how she got there.
Kei had always suspected that her particular skillset made an excellent fit for a guerilla campaign. And here was a version of herself who made good on that potential. The fact that sheâd lasted this long was simultaneously depressing and encouraging. On one hand, everyone must have died if she was still here to get old and cause trouble in a warped timeline. On the other, sheâd survived. Her and Isobu, by the feel of things.Â
What a fate.
ââBecause weâve already won! Think about it. If old Bruce is here, that means he already lived through this as Batman.â Oh, Static was talking again. âNot to mention Genbuâs mini-me. And yes, I do recognize those scars.âÂ
âFlawless logic,â Old Bruce bit out. âExcept that I have no memory of ever going to the future or of meeting my older self, or of anything else thatâs happening today.âÂ
âThose historical buildings we saw on the streetââ Realization struck Batman square in the middle of the sentence. âThe timelineâs been polluted.âÂ
âSo polluted that history itself is becoming fluid.âÂ
âI could have told you that,â Genbu said, rolling her eyes. She flicked a hand out idly, and a kunai flew out of her bracer and into her palm in the same manner as New Batmanâs batarangs. âBut itâs like people stop listening when you get old.âÂ
ââOh, itâs that Chronos dipshit againâ doesn't convey anything helpful until the disaster already hits,â said New Batman. Or Terry. Kei didnât know if she was allowed to call him that. âYou can barely pull off âcreepy and kooky aunt.â Quit while youâre ahead.âÂ
âAnd who are you calling old? Youâre barely two years older than me,â said Static, more amused than offended.Â
âAnd thatâs two years youâll never get back.â Genbu snorted. âTerry-kun, if Woof wanted to keep his arms, he should have kept them to himself. The same goes for Ghoul,â Genbu replied, unashamed. She started cleaning under her nails with the point of the kunai. âTeaching the new generation is what I do best, you see.âÂ
Kei winced, though no one here seemed offended by Genbuâs flat refusal to dial down the violence. There werenât any rules in this kind of war. And, unfortunately, it looked like the timeline turning into a pretzel guaranteed that there were no soft choices. Chronos had already stolen them all, and for what?
For nothing. What a selfish little bastard. The end awaiting him was almost too kind.
âSo, about the Dee DeesâŠ?â Kei asked, while the others argued for a little while. Sheâd noticed a pair of Raggedy Ann twins earlier among the gang members, but it had seemed a little gauche to go âwait, I retconned you out of existence by accident alreadyâ in the middle of a fight.
âChronosâs fuckups ruined the timeline for everyone. Something, something, weâre all dead in a few hours if we donât fix it.â Genbu had turned away from Wonder Woman and the others while they tried laying out missing bits of timeline, keeping her attention on Kei. Like some kindly old auntie who happened to carry her own weight in bombs instead of cookies. âBut to answer your specific question: I think he pulled them out of some other branch and gave them duplication powers. Mostly, Iâm too busy killing their copies to ask. Though I do hold out hope that, one day, theyâll realize multiplying by zero still makes zero.â
She looked entirely too proud of that.
Itâs not like Kakashiâs here to make those bad jokes land. Which was a depressing thought, too. âAnd the JokerâŠ?â
Genbu rubbed the back of her neck, where her high collar met her hairline, and tapped a fingertip where a microchip might have gone on Tim Drake at some point. âIrrelevant. Like most things.âÂ
Because either the timeline held strong with Keiâs interventions and that plot hadnât gone through, or it had and it didnât fucking matter because Chronosâs bullshit killed all involved parties but two. Since Bruce and Terry were around. Unmaking the space-time continuum beat out a washed up comedian/serial killer any day. No amount of orbital death lasers really compared.Â
âThough I will say it has been interesting, hunting them down like rats.â Genbuâs expression was too placid to be trusted. Her eyes flashed red-gold, mirroring Isobuâs for just a moment. âI think they hadâŠnine thousand members? Organized into two hundred cells or so at their peak and desperately in need of culling.âÂ
âIâŠguess thatâs one way choose a hobby?â Kei mumbled, trying to edge away from her older self without making it obvious. She could have just used Body Flicker, but any shinobi who lived to fifty-something in fighting shape could and would pounce like a leopard on speed.Â
âIt keeps me active,â Genbu agreed cheerily, and let her go.
That wasâŠone way to put it.
09090
âSo, Tiny Turtle.â New Batman somehow drifted into her orbit, while both other Batmen worked on programming a solution for Chronosâs shit decisions. âDoes being a seer count as a preexisting condition? Asking for a friend.âÂ
âForâŠthe ban on talking about your own future?â Kei made a face at the nickname, but said, âI think youâre good.âÂ
âIf Bruce doesnât know whatâs going to happen, Iâve been assuming youâor your older halfâalready do. So, is it true?âÂ
âI think that if Chronos wins, this whole thing is pointless anyway.â Kei shifted from foot to foot, trying not to think about the absolutely overclocked fĆ«injutsu options her future self handed off like they meant nothing. She could probably vaporize one of those cyberpunk Gotham monoliths by using four of them well enough. âSo, the mission is to get the thingy to his time-belt. And if weâre lucky, history snaps back into place.â
New Batman took a moment to consider that option. âAnd if it doesnât, we would never know.â
âOn account of all being incredibly, retroactively dead, yeah.â Kei let out a long, quiet sigh. âIf Iâm anything like Genbuâand I hope I amâthen I know weâre both up for trying to save the world. No matter the cost.âÂ
âSeems steep. Thereâs nothing for us without winning.â He rolled one shoulder. Maybe the cyber-suit wasnât holding up as well against the time-cheated weaponry as he needed. âChronos has been trying to kill us for forty years, one way or another. Guess itâs not really news at this point.âÂ
âYeah. Still sorry this is ending up on you.â Kei flexed her hand. The sense-memory of almost getting her hands on that whiny little fucker still bothered her. Sure, making sure one of the Wild West heroes didnât get eaten by a dinosaur was important, but⊠âI should have killed him when I had the chance.âÂ
There was a slight pause. âI thoughtâI guessed you threw out the hero rulebook when we lost the League. But the person I call Genbu and the person you are have always been like this, havenât they? Havenât you, I mean.â New Batman shook his head. âTime travelâs a pain.âÂ
âHa. You said it.âÂ
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