About You

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Batman!" Superman growled.

"Something which has to be done." Batman replied calmly, concentrating on fixing the electrodes.

"Are you insane? That might make her mentally crippled!" Hawk Girl protested.

"And not doing this will kill her. Do you want that to happen?" Batman scowled at her and then resumed doing the wiring. He knew what he was doing, but he had neither the time nor the patience to explain.

Diana had been lying petrified for three days now. Her vitals recorded all time low and her face showed clear signs of mental trauma. She was dreaming, but wasn't aware of it.

Scare Crow

He had a chance of clear shot at Batman. As Joker diverted his attention, the idea was to strike him from behind. The plan was flawless except that no one had expected Wonder Woman to emerge out of thin air and throw herself between his vial and the Batman. The dark knight was too late to realise what he'd been played for, as she sunk into his arms, into a dreadful sleep.

"For God's sake, Batman! Let Jonn have another shot at it!" Superman pleaded.

"And let him die too? For God's sake, Superman, use that mind of yours at least once in a while!" he snapped in disgust as one of the wires disengaged from the positive terminal, leading to a small spark.

The time was running out.

"Stay back everybody!" he ordered as he connected the power source and brought the electrodes to her head.

"Noooooooo!!!!" Diana sat up abruptly in the bed, her eyes showing utter horror as her jaw dropped. Her vision was blurred, but soon began to clear out.

"Diana!!! We thought we'd lost you!"Hawk Girl jumped with joy and hugged her. Superman was the next, followed by Jonn, GL and Flash.

Batman quietly walked away. His job was done!!!!

---

Two days later, in the watch tower.


"Batman! I need to talk to you," a voice from behind startled Batman, who was adding finishing touches to the report. He did not turn back, but a look at the monitor showed that it was Wonder Woman.


"Give me a minute," he said, as he turned his attention to the alignment of the text in some areas. Applying 'justify' alignment to the entire document had given raise to some unwarranted spaces in between the words.


She waited as he went through what she thought as the arduous job of finding such misaligned lines in the entire document of 20 pages and  aligning them properly with two key strokes. He went at such a rapid pace that she could not make out initially what keys he used, but finally concluded he was using 'enter'  followed by 'del'. She smiled for having mastered the art of document alignment.


"Yes, Princess!" his low, gruff voice brought her back to senses, "You wanted to talk?"


"Um, yes," she said, flexing her arms, "first of all thank you so much for having saved my life."


"I owe you one!" he said, in a softer tone.


"Superman said that you took quite the risk by deciding to electrocute me." She smiled.


"That was a risk to be taken." He replied in a monotone, setting his gloves. She realised he had to leave.


"Um, I wanted to ask you something, about the dream!" she spoke.


He paused for a while and frowned. He then pulled his chair closer to face hers and sat down.


"Your dream still haunting you?" he asked.


"Well it was so intense; I just cannot get my mind off it. Also it had to do with the people I know. There are some parts of it which I cannot justify. I just wanted to ask you about the usual pattern of these dreams, so that I can fit mine into it." She sounded quite disturbed.


"I suggest you get over it. The dream, whatever you had, has got nothing to do with the reality. It just plays around with your emotions," he replied bluntly and began to rise. But she caught his arm and pulled him back.


"Please Batman! If I wanted to forget it, I would've gone to Jonn. I want to know why I had such a dream." Her earnest eyes arrested him and he was forced to sit down.


"Well, if you insist." He let out a sigh. "Usually your dream would be about yourself and your worst fear coming to life."


"The dream had me in it, but I was passive, like an audience. Everything happened before my eyes." She explained.


"Ok, then possibly, it was about someone you know, someone you care for. Can you tell me what your dream was?" he asked.


"I'm afraid no. It was a bit too personal," she replied.


"Very well, then, what is it that you want to ask me?" he asked, with a tinge of exasperation in his voice.


"I want to decipher for myself why some people appeared in my dream." She reiterated.


He sighed. "Ok! First of all, you must've dreamt about someone who is very close to you, like your  mother."



She simply nodded.



"See the object of the dream is to mentally torture you. Since you were not in the dream, perhaps you've seen your mother and may be your sisters in some kind of pain, and your helplessness, as I gather, tortured you even more."


"You are right. And I understand the reason too. And I was the reason for their pain. But there were more people in the dream, who were in greater pain. I cannot explain their presence." She mused.


"Like?" he enquired.


"Hawk Girl! Superman! Jonn!" she answered.

"I think it is pretty straight forward. You treat them like family. And you've been away from home for a long time now. So, may be subconsciously, their position in your mind superseded your mother's. That's why they appeared to be in a greater pain." He explained.



She remained silent for a while.



"You mean to say the closer they are to me, the more they suffer!" she concluded.



"Precisely! As I said, the object is to torture you mentally, while the toxin works on your body affecting your vital organs. So, it was important to bring you back to conscious."



"But there were people in my dream whom I never considered to be close to my heart!" she exclaimed.



"Like?" he asked.



"I'd rather not say," she said, clenching her fists.



"All right! Then maybe you think that they are not close enough to you, but actually in your subconscious, you have deeper feelings for them."



"I was afraid of it!" she said, burying her face in her arms. "Just before I came back to senses, I found myself being lovingly held by a man. I felt so well-fixed in his arms, that I forgot everything about the pain and suffering of the others. He had brought his lips incredibly close to mine, and my eyes blurred"



"Then thank god, I got you out just at the right time." He breathed out a sigh of relief, "If you had succumbed to that man, your heart would've stopped."



"And just one second before I came out of it, a deadly arrow plunged through his heart and he dropped dead in my arms. And that means he is the one closest to my heart, right?"

Her eyes bore the question.

Her voice choked.


She was crying.


He felt a strong urge to pat and comfort her. But he just couldn't do it.
  


"Diana! There is nothing to worry about. There is no reason for you to take it to heart. It is up to you to accept or deny your feelings. I suggest, you forget all about it." That was all he could say. Hawk Girl had entered the room searching for Diana, and was perplexed to see her crying.



"Take care of her," he said in an unusually soft tone and walked out without turning back.


Hawk Girl soothingly placed her hand over Diana.



"Was it about that dream?" she asked.



Diana nodded.



"Was it about the man?" she pursued.




Diana paused for a while and nodded again.



"Did you tell him who it was?" she asked again.



"No!" she replied.



"Why?" Hawk Girl frowned, in concern.





"I just couldn't! I can't bear to see him die!"