Everyone was stunned. A future younger brother? Their imaginations immediately conjured up Moira having another child sometime down the road... Especially since Daniel's face looked a bit, well, ahead of schedule—he appeared several decades older than Thea. That "future" must be very far off indeed.
"Uh..." Thea wasn't sure she should discuss sensitive matters in front of so many people. The more people who knew a secret, the less secret it was.
Batman was equally helpless. A crowd had assembled to walk through fire with him, and he simply couldn't refuse.
"My sincere apologies. The fault is mine." Alfred owned the mistake with candor.
Thea had always respected her elders, and she certainly wasn't going to take it out on Alfred.
"It's not that I want to keep this from everyone. It's that only Bruce can do this—it's his nightmare alone." She laid it out plainly.
"But can't we provide support and let him deliver the final blow?" The only person comfortable enough to speak this casually with Thea was Damian.
Thea fired back. "You think this is a video game? Last hit gets thirty percent bonus XP? Kid, you're addicted!"
"Bruce has to face it alone. This isn't a personal matter. If he wins, our universe gains the upper hand. If he loses..." What came after a loss went without saying.
"He really can't bring a single ally?" Barbara asked.
"I'm not sure how much you all know, but let me explain from the top. Bruce is going up against a dark version of himself. Same experiences, same intellect. That dark Bruce knows every single one of you. And I say this with all due respect—do you honestly believe going in there would help him rather than create a liability? That the enemy won't turn you into a weapon against Bruce?"
Thea's words were blunt. No one took offense. Even those who'd been operating independently for years didn't consider themselves Bruce's equal, and the more they chased his level, the wider the gap seemed to grow.
"What are the distinguishing features of this dark version of me?" Batman asked.
"He's an exact replica of you. Same origin in that alley, same time with the League of Assassins, same everything that followed—all matching your history up to a certain critical crossroads, where he made an extreme choice. That's where the divergence begins, and it only widens from there."
The explanation was vague enough that Batman found himself slightly lost. There had been quite a few major choices in his life, and he couldn't pin down which one she meant.
"It's not a fair fight anyway. Here's a tip: you could bring along the one you've got locked up in the deepest part of the Batcave. He's tangentially connected to all of this, and he'd make a fitting partner for confronting the nightmare."
To outsiders, the hint was cryptic. Daniel certainly didn't follow. But everyone else in the room was an insider—all it took was a moment's thought to understand who she meant.
Nightwing erupted. "Bruce, you locked him up in the Batcave again? Have you forgotten what happened last time?" The rest displayed a spectrum of shock, fear, and fury.
Batman met the accusations with silence.
He turned to Thea. "I have to bring him?"
"You know perfectly well that the only person in this world who can defeat Batman is him. If you go alone, you're walking to your death." Thea said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I've given you my recommendation. Let Daniel take you there. I still need to discuss the Apokolips situation. Just remember—this isn't about you alone. It concerns the entire multiverse. Every decision you make, everything you do, will affect both the future and the present."
She waved them off. "Daniel knows that place better than I do. Any questions, ask him. I'm going to see Diana about a few things."
And just like that, she was gone in a whirlwind. She said she was heading to New Genesis for official discussions, but as for how she'd define the line between business and personal time—well, who could say. Whether she'd take care of some personal business on the side was anyone's guess.
Batman watched Daniel with a flat expression. Daniel returned it with an equally deadpan look.
Refusing the others' company, Batman led Daniel deeper into the caverns.
The silence stretched. Then, out of nowhere, Batman spoke. "What exactly is she to you?"
"You mean Death? She's my guide."
"Then what's this 'brother' business?"
"Perhaps ours is a siblinghood on a higher plane."
Batman murmured the word Death under his breath, and his awareness flickered—as though Thea had glanced at him from some impossibly distant vantage.
"Do you wish you had a sister like her?"
Daniel seemed to catch his meaning. He lowered his head and chuckled, but halfway through, a sharp little hmph echoed in his mind. He course-corrected at lightning speed. "...Of course I do. It's my honor."
Batman gave him a look of pure contempt and abandoned the intelligence-gathering effort.
After winding through several layers of passages, they arrived at a cell. The chamber was solid metal, three walls backed by solid rock, with only the front face sporting a heavy metal door.
"You have extraordinary abilities too, right? If I release him and something goes wrong, can you contain the situation?"
Daniel—currently a single-universe-tier entity—peered through to the cell's occupant and frowned. "This guy? I can handle it."
Batman entered a complex passcode into the wall-mounted terminal, then submitted to a blood scan, retinal scan, and three private security questions. The cell door emitted a series of heavy clunks and began to open.
"Batsy? Your visit today is... unexpected, to say the least. Hahahahaha—" The Joker, his face chalk-white, sat inside his cell in that purple suit of his. The walls were covered in cryptic writing of indeterminate meaning. His manic laughter carried a thread of genuine confusion.
Batman recounted the situation from start to finish, using Thea's exact words without adding a single assumption or interpretation of his own.
"Hahaha—saving the world? That's hero business, not mine. Lock the door. I'm going back to sleep. Hahaha!" The Joker flopped onto his cot, showing absolutely no interest in using the opportunity to escape.
"Can we skip bringing him?" Batman felt a headache coming on. Fighting side by side with the Joker? That was worse than any nightmare.
Daniel considered it. "I'd recommend following Death's instructions. She is omniscient and omnipotent, transcending the timeline, surpassing every multidimensional life-form you've ever conceived of. In the entire multiverse, there is no being wiser or more powerful."
Batman's face twitched. Shameless bootlicking like that—doesn't your conscience hurt? Have you no dignity?
He mentally slapped a toady label on this shameless sycophant, then pointed at the Joker and turned back to Daniel. "But isn't this supposed to be a nightmare that belongs to me alone? Why do I absolutely have to bring him? Does Thea's plan involve facing two enemies at once?"