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Batman was very, very, out of it. His vision was blurry, his hands were shaky, and he couldn't really think straight, much less speak coherently. He tried to sort himself out, as he always did with these kinds of drugs, and it did seem to work a bit. Soon enough, he was able to see clearly enough to be able to make out the figures in front of him. He was fairly sure there were two men, and one woman. All were dressed in conspicuous all-black attire.
Unfortunately, even with the drug's effects quickly fading, he still couldn't seem to recognize them. He didn't even know them. A new villain, one skilled enough to apprehend the Batman himself, certainly wasn't good. He sighed, knowing the only thing he could do about it now was defeat the villain. Batman attempted to get up and fight them.
Scratch! His arms quickly hit rope, the tough, twisty texture of it giving a burning sensation to his skin. Only now looking at his own body, he immediately realized he was tied up. Golden rope constrained his arms, stomach, and legs to the chair. A classic tie-up, no doubt. He quickly squirmed to reach his belt, only to realize his kidnappers must have taken it away, as well.
As any good hero does, he still had some tricks up his sleeves, literally. Batman's fingers slipped into the precise place in his sleeves where he hid extra tools, only to realize his kidnappers had already found it, as well. Last he remembered, he had simply been patrolling confidently, just as he always did. He was sure he hadn't been having too much trouble stopping the villains, until these ones had come around. Now, here he was, feeling helpless against these kidnappers that weren't even recognizable. Batman scowled. It was pathetic.
"Good. You're awake." One of the men in front of him observed, a diabolical smile appearing on his face. Batman scowled even harder. "We heard about your affiliations with our enemies, the League of Assassins. You have information, and we want it." He casually reached over to a table and grabbed out a needle and syringe from it. "Of course, don't bother trying to lie to us. We won't listen to a thing you say until you've got this in your body." The man leaned down, looking intently at Batman's arm as he injected the syringe's substance.
Truth serum. Batman felt a familiar tingling from all the other times villains had used this trick. He had taught himself to be slightly more immune to it than most, but no one could really become fully unaffected. Besides, with all the knock-out drugs these people had used, it was especially hard to fight back against yet another drug. He leaned back in fatigue as the substance spread into his brain. By the end, he was drowsy, with only a need to say the truth. The serum had definitely worked.
"Hmm…. Good." The kidnapper felt around to check Batman's vitals and other important areas to check how the serum was working. He gestured a thumbs-up to his coworkers, who nodded. "My first question is a very simple one: What are your connections to the League of Assassins?"
"The leader's daughter," Batman began, smirking to himself a bit goofily. "I've kissed her….And hugged her…. A lot of times. We got married a while back, although unfortunately it didn't last long. Sometimes, I miss those days. I think I fell fully in love. In fact, I think I'm still in love…." He rambled, seeming uncharastically joyful to all the kidnappers, and they didn't even know him well. The truth serum definitely appeared to have had a bit of side effects.
The female kidnapper switched off with the other one, who casually went to get a cup of coffee now that he had a bit of free time. Ignoring his unprofessional behavior, the woman went up to Bruce with an evil look plastered on her face. "Oh, really? That sounds… intimate. Al Ghul must have trusted you a lot to allow you the hand in marriage of his own daughter."
Batman nodded, his smile dropping for a moment, "Well yes, but I had a bit of a bumpy relationship with my in-laws. Right then we were getting along, sure, but before Talia and I got married, her father and I weren't on the best terms. I don't think it's really important, though. Doesn't everyone have a bad relationship with their in-laws? Honestly, I should probably hold on to my morals and not say this, and I normally do, but…" His smile bounced back up, "She's worth it."
"Yes, yes, I know you were in love with her, but what do you know about Ra's Al Ghul?" The kidnapper asked, starting to get annoyed at his constant topic-changing. "What are his weaknesses? Anyone he cares about that you can use to get to him with?" She quickly asked.
"Well, there's Talia." Batman answered, "I'm fairly sure he cares about her a lot. I'm not surprised… I mean, he must be very proud to have such a brave, intelligent, strong, beautiful daughter." His smile grew a bit. He looked so silly, leaning to one side in a fatigued daze, with the biggest, most embarrassing smile on his lips. The smile began to fade, though, as his feeling of love and adoration turned into sadness and yearning for his beloved.
As he yearned, the kidnapper scribbled some of the things he'd said on a clipboard. "Well, since she does actually seem to be of importance, and you seem to want to talk about her, I'll finally ask you about Talia." She sighed, "Do you know of any of her weaknesses? Anything a person could use to lessen her fighting ability?"
"Well, she loves me, but that must be why you took me here. She of course has other loved ones, as well." He easily cooperated, but the truth sometimes wasn't the most encouraging. "Other than that, though, she's perfect. A wonderful fighter, such a good swordsman, but doesn't even need any weapon to defeat a whole army, and-" The kidnapper, now gritting her teeth and fuming with annoyance, reached over and slapped him right across the face.
"Shut up! I didn't ask to hear about how amazing she is! Hearing you ramble about her beauty and strengths isn't going to help! I need weaknesses, not strengths, you idiot!" Batman felt spit fly into his face as she screamed at him, but he was so out of it he hardly cared. She slowly backed away from him, the redness in her face beginning to fade. "Brad, you try to get him to answer better. I mean really, so far all I've gotten is a couple tiny pieces of information that we mostly already knew…." The last kidnapper, who's name was apparently Brad, looked up as she called over for him.
He made his way over to Batman, right as the female kidnapper eagerly pranced over to the first kidnapper, joining him and his coffee. Brad looked into Batman's eyes, as serious and determined as he could manage. Batman, after years of doing much more serious stares himself, was very unimpressed.
"Do you and Talia have any children together? Children that it would tear her apart to lose?" Brad started his question with a crooked smirk on his face.
Batman nodded, but as always, his answers were very little help. "We have a little boy. She trained him tons, thankfully. He's an astonishing fighter despite his young age, and would not be easy to get down. He's always ready for an ambush. Besides, she's the sort of parent who will always come to the rescue and protect him. Sometimes I still worry about him, like I always worry about my children, but that's always a huge comfort." He went on and on, to an extent that Brad had no clue why he thought he should talk about this right now.
"So he's practically impossible to capture? Now look, Mr. Batman, I don't like any fooling around, so I'm going to cut right to the chase- How does one defeat the all-mighty Ra's Al Ghul?" The interrogator questioned, stomping his foot on the ground loudly to create tension. But despite this loud motion, Batman was light-spirited.
In fact, he started to laugh. He never, ever, laughed, but it seemed the type of truth serum they used was doing wonders to make him looser and more open. "By 'one', I assume you mean yourself? Look, I'm going to be honest with you: There is no way you're going to be able to defeat him. Just look at yourselves! Lounging with coffee, right on the job! I wish I could humor you, I really do, but you're all just pathetic! You simply got lucky that I was so focused on fighting another criminal I was easy to ambush! Talia, on her own, could easily defeat all three of you in seconds." He thought of Talia yet again, and felt another sense of adoration run through him. She really was a very special person.
"Yes, I can, and I will." Talia quipped, To his surprise, and to his relief, Batman suddenly realized the person he'd been thinking about so lovingly was directly behind him. All three kidnappers just watched in terror as she lunged towards Brad, her sword swinging around in her hand. She swiftly stabbed the man, before moving to the other two. As they stared at their partner wincing in pain, a sense of doom came over them.
Before Talia could even try to stab the terrified kidnappers, they fell to their knees in a plea, "Leave us alone, we'll do anything!" They moaned, with their hands cupped in a begging position.
She stared down at them angrily, but sighed, "Fine. You will go to jail willingly, and never come near Batman, me, or our family again. That includes my father. When you do all that, and only that, will I let you go with this little of injuries." Talia announced, lightly touching the top of their heads with her sword to assert dominance.
The kidnappers looked down for a moment. Their eyes closed as they considered the thought of giving up on one of their biggest quests, and even worse, to spend the rest of their lives being held captive by the authorities. But, after one more look at that sword, they sighed and nodded.
"Good," Talia said. She side-eyed them threateningly, but quickly looked back towards Batman. With her sword still in her hand, she briskly cut through the ropes that bounded him. He immediately pulled himself off the chair, and pulled her into an abrupt kiss.
"Talia, I love you so much," He whispered into her ear as she recovered from the startle. She smiled, trying to hide her blush. "I've missed you, and I think about you a lot. A lot more than I should. But maybe, if I could see you more, I wouldn't have to constantly think back to my memories. I wish I could marry you again. It hurts to reject you, and it hurts every time we have to battle things out. I guess I just wish we didn't have to do that. I… don't know why I said all this, but I felt the urge to for some reason, Talia. I believe that means something." Batman gently pushed her hair out of her face.
She shook her head, "I'm sorry, Beloved, but I'm afraid it's not a matter of soulmates or fate telling you to say that. Those kidnappers gave you one big dosing of truth serum. All you can say is what you know… or what you feel. Once you come back to yourself, you'll regret everything you said while on that drug." Talia looked down solemnly. She bit her lip. "In an odd way, though, that only makes it much more romantic."
"That's the idea, it should be romantic. We need it to be romantic. Just for a mo-"
"Mother?! Mother? Did you find Father?" The sound of a child's voice shook them both out of their romantic moment. Damian ran towards them. "What happened?"
"He was easy to find inside here, and the kidnappers were easy to defeat. I'm afraid your help wasn't necessary, my son. I know you hate to get left out." Talia said jokingly. Her finger pointed to the empty syringe. "Your father got injected with truth serum, though, so I'm afraid he's not exactly acting like himself right now." Damian nodded in response.
"Why were you the one who ended up saving me? You only visit Gotham occasionally, to see Damian or complete an odd little mission that happens to take place here. What made you here now?" Batman asked curiously.
"Oh, those people were simply enemies of my father. So, with you in their custody, they eagerly sent ransoms -asking for his powers, his own family members, among other things- in return for your life. Apparently, they thought he genuinely cared for you, and that alerting an organization as powerful as my father's of your kidnapping wouldn't backfire!" She let out a short, dry, little chuckle, "Either way, he didn't even end up receiving them. I found the letters, and immediately came to Gotham as soon as I could. Luckily, I wasn't too far away."
"Oh, thank you for coming out of your way to save me." He smiled at her, before turning around towards the door. Batman gestured at it, "Isn't time for us to be going? I think I can already hear the sirens in the distance." As if on cue, a blaring moan followed his words, slowly increasing in volume.
"Yes, of course. Follow along, Damian." Talia put her hand on Damian's back, gently nudging him forward. The child quickly ran ahead of her arm, as if attempting to prove he didn't need any physical reminders to do what he was told. He frowned ever so slightly, but it was normal for the pouting, a-bit-too-confident, pre-teen he was. "I believe it's past Damian's bedtime. In fact, he should've been tucked in quite a while ago! Damian's at that age that it's vital for him to get his sleep, especially if he wants to be a strong warrior when he gets older." She made slight fun of her odd little child, but only in a playful way.
"Actually, I believe it's past Father's bedtime. He's the one that got injected with truth serum, not me." Damian argued bitterly. Regardless of intentions, he certainly wasn't pleased with the talk of his bedtime. "Haven't I been on good behavior, Mother? I don't remember being the one that could only ramble."
"Damian, you're a really good fighter, and just overall a great kiddo. You definitely don't need to hear it, but you're destined to achieve great things." Bruce replied. A confident smirk appeared on Damian's face. "BUT I still agree with your mother. I might have a problem with keeping not only you, but also your siblings out too late."
"We've never shown any signs of not being able to handle it, though!" The child persisted in his immature arguments, "Sure, there have been times bad things happened, but they hardly ever happened late at night!" He crossed his arms, stubborn as ever.
"No one's necessarily saying you're going to die from a bad sleep schedule, my love," Talia explained. She paused their walking for a moment, taking the opportunity to kneel down so she could look the boy in the eyes. "But you're only going to have so many moments in life where you can really lay down and relax for more than 8 hours at a time. Take the opportunity. Besides- Bruce, did you sleep last night?" She turned back to Batman, now positioning herself a little higher off the ground to talk to him.
"Nope!" Batman responded. His answer was quick, and his voice sounded almost proud of his bad habits. Or, at the very least, he had no intentions of fibbing or lessening the truth, making it obvious the truth serum was still very active in his blood.
"Exactly," Talia bent back down to Damian's height, "Your father was tired, and so he got caught by a villain. Not even a too bright villain, either…. I don't want that same fate for you, Damian. As your father said, you're capable of so much. You study, you train, and you are determined to win, just as you've been taught to. But you also need to take care of yourself, at least if you want to unlock your full potential." She kissed him on the top of his head, which only annoyed him more. Fortunately for her, Damian didn't feel like arguing was worth it anymore.
"Yeah, and I, at least, don't want you to end up missing out on anything." Batman slipped down on to his knee to join them nearer to the ground. "I want the best for you, Son. Because even if things get in the way of me always being there for you, and I sometimes have difficulty saying it, I still love you. We both do." He turned to Talia, smiling at her. She easily nodded to the loving statement.
With the family all together, being honest, Batman felt the urge to initiate a group hug. Normally, he would deny that kind of explicit affection, but the truth serum took away his doubt. It had taken away his need to hide and repress his emotions. So, even as the serum's affect was starting to fade a bit, he quickly wrapped his arms around the two of them.
Damian stared into his father's eyes, a mix of annoyance and just plain surprise embedded into his expression. But, funny enough, he didn't pull away. Neither did Talia. Because of course, at the end of the day, there was only one truth left; Love. True, pure, love.