Fandom: Batman Begins AU/Shadowrun crossover
Prompt: 075. Shattered
Wordcount: 4434
Beta: by temve, all remaining errors are mine
Summary: In an alternate future the League of Shadows begins the war against a far greater Evil than just civilization.


A New Player

Any other woman attending the party paled in comparison. She was tall and lithe with large green eyes and long, midnight-black hair. Her looks and her smile charmed the men and her voice spellbound the masses. Everything about her was natural, none of her perfection owed to surgery or cosmetics. That was of great importance to him. She complemented his human shape. When he kept his true shape, she was Nadja Daviar, His Voice, who translated his mental speech for the cameras and microphones.

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Tags: au100, in gotham's shadow

Fandom: Batman Begins AU/Shadowrun crossover
Prompt: 085. Missing
Wordcount: 4146
Beta: by temve


Shadows of the Past

The vast floor-to-ceiling glass window allowed Bruce Wayne a spectacular view of Gotham. The evening sun threw long shadows over the cityscape. With half an ear he listened to the news trid reporting about the last hours of the elections. Nothing was yet decided. Dunkelzahn and his main rivals were extremely close in the polls.

The world has so much changed since the Awakening. Magic has returned, we have had to get used to metahumans and paracritters. Technology has blurred the line between men and machine. He glanced at the trid screen where the report cut to Dunkelzahn's speech. Dragons run for presidency. Sometimes it feels too strange. I belong too much to the old world of my youth. And at other times it feels the same, Gotham with its glittering outside, corporate and political battles hidden behind smiles, afflicted by barely restrained corruption and crimes inside.

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Tags: au100, in gotham's shadow

Fandom: Batman Begins AU
Prompt: 076. Rebirth
Wordcount: 695
Beta: by temve


Foreshadowing - A Prologue

The first sensation when he opened his eyes was a biting smell that made him gag. He coughed up a greenish, stinking fluid. The same, he realized, that covered his skin from head to toe. He was naked - that was his second realization. It was warm. There was uneven rock under him and a few feet away he could see a small pond, shimmering a sick yellow-green in the dim light. Everything else was hidden in the damp fog. His mind worked far too sluggishly and he couldn't remember how he had ended up in this place.

Then adrenalin shot through him as his last memory returned to him. The hostage-taking on a friend's yacht. The terrorists who wanted to prove just how serious they were about it. The raised machine gun. The bullets he had no chance to dodge, sitting as he was in the wheelchair.

He flopped on his back and ran his hands over his chest. Smooth skin. No mark, no sign of a bullet wound. He hadn't dreamed that, had he? There were only a few fresh cuts and scrapes on his hands, and another memory rose as he looked at them, of him screaming as he crawled from the shallow pit, ranting and beating against shapeless shadows and the rock with his bare hands. Had this been real?

A door creaked. Steps approached. Bruce rolled onto his side and flattened himself to the ground. But the steps unerringly came to him.

"There is no need to hide, Bruce."

The voice was familiar. In shock, Bruce surged to his feet, only to stumble and to fall to his hands and knees in even greater shock.

"You!" and then "How?"

Ducard - no, he was Ra's al Ghul, Bruce needed to remember that - squatted down next to him.

"I have given you a gift only very few even know of. Rebirth, Bruce. And complete healing." He smiled at Bruce's incredulous stare. "The secret of my immortality, Bruce."

Bruce needed a few moments to get his bearings, to let his mind catch up with what it was being fed. The sensations swamped him. He could feel his kneecaps scrape on the rough ground. He could curl his toes. It should be impossible, but it wasn't. Finally he found his voice.

"Why? We are enemies, Ducard!" The familiar name slipped unbidden over his lips instead of the hateful Ra's al Ghul.

Ducard cocked his head thoughtfully. "Maybe because my world would be poorer without you. Maybe I enjoy it too much having an adversary who can keep me on my guard. Maybe I care for a certain young boy who needs his father. But mostly," and his voice took on a deadly seriousness, "because the world we know is about to change and I prefer to keep at least one familiar constant in it."

A chill swept through Bruce. "What are you planning? Another mass murder?" Possibilities, one worse than the other, flitted through his mind.

"I? I plan nothing but to wait and see. This great change has nothing to do with me. I don't even know what is coming, just that it is."

"You are speaking in riddles."

Ducard leaned forward, his demeanour even more intense than before.
"I have read the omens, Bruce, I have seen the signs. It is coming and it will be soon." He met Bruce's incredulous stare.

"I know that you don't believe in matters science can't explain - yet. But you will see. This change will affect everyone. I feel it in my bones."

He rose, indicating that their conversation was finished. "You will need to train your muscles before you will be able to walk again. But I can trust you to take care of those details. I have arranged for your return to Gotham, my boy. For the time being, farewell!"

With that he vanished into the fog. Bruce himself felt like in a daze, even as some men came to help him up and get ready for his journey.

He still brooded over Ducard's words for a long time after he returned home to the Gotham of the year 2010.

Tags: au100, in gotham's shadow