EPILOGUE  

            “So you figured out how to neutralize the nannites after all?”

            Clark was watching his son Bruce and little John.  They were playing with Dick.  The red-head’s father had been pretending he was a villain and allowed them to catch him, but the tables had been turned and he had actually yelped out loud when the two tiny powerhouses wrestled him to the ground and pinned him there. 

            Bruce pursed his lips and shook his head.  “Actually, no, I didn’t.  They are still in their blood.”

            “What?”  The big man came out of his seat.  “But Koriand’r said...  How could you...?”

            “Dare to let the Joker’s clone push the button?  Actually....” Bruce sipped some hot tea and relished the feel of it on his scratchy throat.  He was going to have admit he was getting old and stop running around in the dark without a coat—or at the very least— thermal undergarments.  “Actually, your wife had something to do with that.”

            “Me?” Diana laughed.  It did her heart good to see her old friend looking so vital and alive.  She glanced at the trio on the lawn and smiled as Dick sat up, holding the two boys, laughing so hard he was crying.  “And just what did I do?”

            He put the cup down and stood, soaking in the warm sunlight.  “I had spoken with Koriand’r the night before, just after Dick disappeared for the second time.  I told her I thought I had found a way—not to neutralize the bugs—but to block the signal that gave them their ‘marching’  orders.  I had the transmitter set to cover the entire estate so John would be safe until I could figure out something else.”  He ran his hand along the back of his neck and pressed the skin to ease the chronic pain his metal braces caused.  “Technically speaking, that meant both he and Dick were safe so long as they were on Wayne lands.”

            “Technically speaking?”  Clark accepted a soda from the Alfred-drone and shook his head.  “That’s a lot to wager on a technicality.”

            “It wasn’t a wager,” the man who had been the Batman said as he greeted his daughter-in-law.  She smiled and kissed him on the cheek and watched as he went to rescue his son who had was under attack again.

            Diana looked at her.  “So what was it, if it wasn’t a wager?”

            Koriand’r laughed.  Her bright green eyes lit and she beamed.

            “A gift.”

“A gift?”  Clark asked as he stood and opened his arms to embrace his son. 

“Yes.  And an answer to prayer.”

                                                            END