#worldsfinest

Chapter 11

12. Probably

Location: Watchtower. Status: Emergency briefing.

The room is quieter than usual for a meeting about good and easy news. So it is like usual, because they rarely get good and easy news.

Zatanna stands before the main holographic console, her fingers tracing faint trails of residual energy only she can see. The air around her crackles softly when she speaks, as if reality itself is remembering how to bend.

Batman stands rigid beside Superman.

Clark does not look at him. Not directly. As if he is trying to give him space even in perception.

Zatanna: Okay. I’ve got it. And… magically speaking, it’s a mess.

She flicks her wrist. The hologram shifts, showing Rann, the Thanagarian artifact, the moment of impact. A wave of invisible force spreads across Bruce’s silhouette.

Zatanna: The explosion you used to “deactivate” the object gave consistency to part of the magic surrounding it. I don’t know what it was. Some of the “dust” hit you, B, and… partially anchored you.

Barry leans forward.

Barry: That sounds bad.

Zatanna: It is bad. It means the spell didn’t form correctly.

Diana’s gaze sharpens.

Diana: And what did form?

Zatanna hesitates for a moment.

Zatanna: A conditional “Truth Binding.” Not global. Just personal and focused on something.

Barry: That doesn’t sound that bad.

Zatanna: It is, because I can’t undo it. And I don’t think anyone can. It’s stuck halfway formed—we’d have to find the exact missing half to undo it, and that… is luck. We don’t even know how much dust hit B or what percentage of the curse each particle carried.

Everyone falls silent. No matter how much they actually understand, the important part is that it cannot be undone.

Bruce clenches his jaw.

Bruce: Define “conditional.”

Zatanna exhales.

Zatanna: When you fulfill the condition, it breaks. I think. Normally that’s how it would work.

Bruce: And how do we know what the condition is?

Zatanna’s eyebrows lift.

Zatanna: Ah… it’s always the same: when you express your deepest hidden truth, your most intimate secret, the anchor releases and you regain the ability to lie.

A sepulchral silence settles over the room.

Clark finally looks at Bruce.

Clark: That is… specific and incredibly vague.

Zatanna (shrugging): Magic loves specificity and mystery.

Hal mutters something under his breath about hating magic entirely.

Bruce remains motionless.

Bruce: “Deepest hidden truth” is not measurable.

Zatanna: Oh, it absolutely is. But it usually means you first have to be honest with yourself, and the spell only forces you to be honest with others.

It is such a terrible thing—and even more terrible because it is emotionally constipated Batman—that everyone falls silent as though Zatanna has announced a deadline for Bruce’s life.

For several full minutes, all the heroes remain quiet. Screens shift colors. Things beep softly.

Finally, Victor adjusts the console.

Victor: So if he confesses it, the effect breaks.

Zatanna: Probably. Or it stabilizes. Or rebounds. But I trust it’ll end even incomplete.

Barry groans.

Barry: Bats is never going to manage that. He could move a mountain, sure, but…

Diana: Of course he will. When he is ready.

That silences Barry, though not his expression, nor the heaviness in Bruce’s chest.

Clark’s voice is quieter.

Clark: And if he doesn’t?

Zatanna looks at Bruce, not unkindly.

Zatanna: Then he stays like this. Honest. Exposed. The strain could… break the binding anyway. Probably.

Bruce finally speaks. Eyes forward, seeing no one, lost somewhere among the stars beyond the great window.

Bruce: Who do I have to tell?

Everyone falls silent.

Zatanna, speaking carefully: Who do you tell… your secret to?

Batman nods.

Zatanna: Oh… oh… —she seems to understand. The others probably do too, but Bruce refuses to look at them—. The person. The people involved. If it were, uh… a secret about yourself, verbalizing it would be enough. If it’s about someone else…

It does not matter that she never finishes the sentence.

Bruce: And then it ends.

Zatanna: Probably.

Bruce: “Probably” is unacceptable. And there are too many here.

Zatanna almost smiles.

Zatanna: Welcome to magic, B.

To be Continued...

Clark Kent meets Matches Malone (Bruce Wayne) drawing details - Illustration for @susiecarter - Poker Face (AO3) Video edited by: @daviwea

BRRRRRRRRR ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS ME KNOWS HOW I FEEL ABOUT THESE TWO but i miss them a lot so:

i truly think bruce and clark's dynamic in any context is fascinating, like they were always meant to orbit each other. bruce makes clark a better hero and clark makes bruce a better man...

if dc werent cowards with their most marketable superheroes we could at LEAST have some kind of canon or elseworld superbat fuck u t*m t*ylor fuck u dkos but alas. the closest we'll get is the shogun of steel story, which is ... Well.

anyway, them: