Summary: Semi-AU. Bruce Wayne is back from the dead – with his title as Batman now belonging to somebody else, he takes up a new identity, but, is he a hero, or something else entirely? Meanwhile, Diana is attacked by a mysterious masked-man with powers similar to her own and that of the League's powerhouses. Unsure why, she feels they have met before…

A/N: Ugh, okay, sucky summary, but I'll work on it later – I actually do have a plan for this story, it came to me after watching James Bond, Skyfall and I was struck with inspiration.

Oh, and another quick note, this is pretty much based off of the Batman serial Bruce Wayne: The Road Home – if you've read the comic, you may recognize some of the stuff that's in here, if you have not, read the note at the end.

This is a little more serious than what I usually write, but, here's hoping for the best anyway! Now, onwards!

May I present, Outside-In. Enjoy.

[EDITED 2013/10/21]

Disclaimer: Uh… no. No I do not own Batman, Wonder Woman or the Justice League.

~Chapter One~
Of Three-Eyed Men & Wasted Opportunities

"There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one."
- Kazuo Ishiguro

Wonder Woman

Gateway City…
Midnight

Men just never learn.

I stood firm as round after round of ammunition was being emptied out in an attempt to try and stop me from getting to the thugs, sparks flying as the bullets hit my bracelets and was promptly deflected off of them with a loud metallic clamour that echoed through the warehouse – as if that would ever be enough to keep me distracted for too long.

"What the hell!" one of the thugs shouted, standing next to a shooter, the panic obvious in his voice. "Shoot her again!"

"I'm trying! The bitch doesn't want to go down!" the other exclaimed.

I felt a prickle of irritation at their crude language and barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes. But, when the gun ceased firing, I saw my chance.

"Reload! Reload!" the thug shouted as the other fumbled with the gun.

"I'm- Oh crap!" My fist then squarely connected with the shooter's jaw, knocking him out instantly. As the other backed away, I took the gun and crushed it between my hands, throwing it sideways before turning my attention to the last remaining thug.

He pulled a knife and was holding it in front of himself defensively. "Stay back! I'm warning you, Wonder Woman, I'll-!" He didn't get to finish his sentence.

With a sudden burst of speed, quicker than what he was expecting, punched him in the stomach – with a pained grunt, he stumbled back as the knife fell to the ground.

I punched him again, once in the chest, and once more in the stomach before he finally collapsed on the dirty floor, still conscious but not in a state to get up again.

Wiping my hands against each other, I then turned around – several other men laid strewn all over the place, some groaning, most sprawled over the ground, one or two having been thrown into a pile of crates.

I huffed slightly before I strode over to the exit, several police cars waiting for me outside. Men in uniform looking at each other with uncertainty, pistols at the ready – not, I thought, that they would have to use them…

I found the looks on the young officer in charge somewhat amusing, that familiar mixture of astonishment and admiration. He then shook his head. "Wonder Woman," he managed, straightening him.

"Officer," I addressed, nodding in acknowledgement.

"I-it's Blake, Captain Matt Blake," he corrected quickly. "Anyway, thanks for going in there. We've been trying to crack down on these guys for weeks."

"I'm sure you and your men would have handled the situation fine even if I hadn't intervened." I said matter-of-factly.

"Still, we're grateful for the assistance. Besides, that was pretty awesome…" When he noticed my slightly upturned eyebrow, he cleared his throat awkwardly before ordering the rest of the policemen inside.

"Do I need to make a statement?" I asked eventually.

"What? Oh, no, that's fine, I'll have that covered." He said, I noticed he was a little red in the face.

"Very well, I'll-" My sentence was cut off prematurely when I caught something out of the corner of my eye.

Turning my back on the officer, I looked up and saw what looked like the silhouette of a man standing on one of the opposing warehouses' rooftop, his back against the full moon – what was even odder than that was the fact that he had three bright red lights for eyes as opposed to two, the third set in the middle of the forehead.

"Wonder Woman?" Blake said, his voice for some reason seemed rather distant to me.

When the silhouette saw that I was looking back at him, he backed away.

I blinked. Had he… been watching me?

Just as Blake looked up to see what I was looking at, he was gone.

"I have to go." I said immediately, leaving the officer before he had a chance to say anything else as I took off flying, my mind set on following the strange three-eyed man.

?

He leapt from rooftop to rooftop with ease, practically feeling the energy as it surged through his suit. When he started slowing down, somewhere in the background, he heard a cool metallic voice announce, "SF Regeneration Time: 3:59:00."

Damn, he thought, slowing down to a mild jog before stopping completely. He looked over his shoulder, mentally cursing himself –he didn't want her to see him … and yet, when she did-

He clenched his fist. No. Seeking her out on purpose wasn't part of the plan to begin with. It was a mistake on his part. Full stop.

He was a good distance away right now – there was a chance, a slight chance, that he might have lost her. Though, in all honesty, he seriously doubted that.

"SF Regeneration Time: 3:37:38."

His doubt was reaffirmed when, just as he approached the ledge of the roof, when the very woman he had tried to avoid (and yet sought out anyway), rose up suddenly and occupied the airspace right in front of him – black curls shining in the moonlight, arms crossed over her armoured chest, bright blue eyes narrowed as she looked down at him.

Yes. It was a mistake. But oddly, he wasn't regretting it at the moment.

He backed away again, slowly. She gauged his reaction for a moment before touching down, her expression guarded.

"Who are you?" she said.

"SF Regeneration Time: 3:04:58."

He didn't answer her. Three minutes. He needed to distract her for three minutes.

"I said, who are you?" she repeated, the corners of her lips pulling down in agitation. "Why were you watching me?"

His hand twitched to the belt around his waist. She noticed this immediately, and her posture turned from defensive to offensive in a heartbeat, readying herself.

Well, he thought wryly, pulling out a small sphere, At least things just got a lot more interesting now.

It all happened very quickly. She was in the air again, about to come at him when he threw the sphere to the ground – it burst open on contact and a thick lair of smoke was released into the air.

This threw her for a moment. "HV Mode Active: 00:15 Percent." A concentrated beam of red energy then shot out of his eyes and straight at her – it wasn't enough to do any permanent harm, but it was enough to stop her temporarily.

Seeing the beam come at her, she instantly crossed her arms in front of her – the beam reflecting upwards, resembling a searchlight, when it struck the silver bracelets on her wrists.

"SF Regeneration Time: 2:45:38."

Fantastic.

With a look of concentration, she then adjusted her wrists so that the beams lowered down and redirected it back at him. He got out of the way and ceased the beam immediately.

"HV Mode Regeneration Time: 4:59:00." "CM Mode Active."

Before she could come at him again, the suit suddenly radiated with blue light before becoming completely transparent – her fist was about to land when his face was when it struck thin air instead.

She went rigid. She kept her composure, looking like she was listening intently.

When she heard something coming up to her left, she spun around and just managed to block the invisible fist with her right arm, her bracelet taking the brunt of the blow.

On contact with the bracelet, his suit rippled, and he became visible again.

"CM Mode Regeneration Time: 1:29:00." "SF Regeneration Time: 2:11:13."

They then began trading punches, hands and wrists meeting each other's blows one by one by one. He was thankful, due to the composition of his suit, it was able to withstand the assault, and was even able to land a hit to her shoulder.

He regretted it for a split second before she then drew back and surprised him by spinning on her heel and delivered a powerful kick to his side.

On impact he stumbled. His side throbbing even through the suit's armoured padding.

"SF Regeneration Time: 0:09:27."

"Enough!" she said, blue eyes now bright with anger. "It's time to end this."

He straightened up and looked at her.

"SF Regeneration Complete."

"I couldn't agree with you more… Princess."

Her eyes widened, but she didn't have time to react. "WP Mode Activated."

He raised his right hand, and blinding green light suddenly burst from it. Expecting an similar attack as before, she once again crossed her arms in front of her, closing her eyes.

"CM Mode Active." "SF Mode Active."

Only… nothing came.

Wonder Woman

My eyes flew open instantly. The light was gone, and so was the man gone.

Anticipating another invisible attack, I looked around myself.

But nothing ever came…

I still didn't relax my stance immediately, but I had a feeling it was over, for now.

That power. I'd seen it before – the inhuman speed, the laser-vision (heat-vision?), the bright green light… and the others. How could one man poses such strength? Was he even a man…?

"Who are you…?" I whispered to no one.

But most of all, his fighting skills – he was trained, no doubt about that, perhaps experienced as well. But there was only a handful of people who had ever matched or even exceeded my own skill, and in my mind, one man in particular stood out above the rest…

I felt the air rush out of my lungs as my back hit the concrete floor.

With a growl threatening to escape my lips, I hitched myself up on my elbows before glaring at the infuriatingly smug male in front of me.

Cowl, cape and yellow utility belt for once removed, even with his armour, I was all too aware of his powerful physique at the time.

What was even more distracting was how he would look at me, midnight blue eyes always guarded but alit with mirth – and at that moment, I was unable to look away from his mouth, the corners of which were upturned at the edges in the slightest.

It was then when I realized that Bruce Wayne was smirking at me.

Damn him.

"Again." I said stubbornly. I would not give up, I refused.

"Are you sure about that, Princess?" Bruce asked, hints of teasing obvious in his voice.

I stood up and readied myself once more. "Again." I repeated.

I had to stop myself from staring as he chuckled. But, he complied with my demand nonetheless, and all too soon, his stance resembled my own and the expression on his handsome face changed to that of one of focus.

We began circling each other at reasonable distance, inching closer and closer until one of us would make the first move – as always, I was the first to strike, and like always Bruce reacted, it was safe to say he was expecting it.

I had to mind my strength around him, but I was tempted at times. He may not have had his belt with him, but it didn't mean he always fought fair either…

I wasn't exactly sure how long we fought against each other, each strike and parry a simple reaction – time seemed to be non-existent, all that mattered was that very moment.

Unexpectedly, perhaps from a laps of patience on my part, I finally had enough and tackled him to the ground. I straddled his waist as I pinned him down by the shoulders.

It was my turn to smirk at him, but for some reason, I felt his body stiffen beneath me. I quirked an eyebrow until I saw his face and realized just how our current position must have looked like on the outside.

But, soon, his face softened and his eyes lit up again but with a different kind of fire. I felt my throat go dry.

"Diana…"

He reached up and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

At that moment, at the way he was looking at me, I desperately wanted to close the distance between us. Dear Athena, how I wanted to.

And I would have…

"Ah-hem,"

…Were we not interrupted.

My head shot up at the sound of somebody clearing their throat. Standing at the sliding doors of the training room, was Superman, barely able to contain the smile on his face.

For a second, as Bruce twisted his head, I could have sworn I saw him shoot an annoyed glare at the Kryptonian.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but there's a mission debriefing in the conference room." He said all-too-casually before simply walking out.

Bruce groaned as I simply stared at him.

When he saw this, he turned his head back to me. "We'll finish this later."

I smiled down at him, but didn't immediately get off. "Agreed."

But little did I, or anybody else, know there wouldn't be a later…

I snapped out of my reverie when I felt something prickled at the corner of my eye. I shook my head and swallowed the lump in my throat.

I took a deep breath and shoved the memory out of my mind. It wasn't the time for that. Right now, I needed to track the three-eyed man down, find out exactly who he is, what he is – with his powers, he could pose a threat if his intentions were… less than heroic.

Besides, it wouldn't be helpful for anybody if I began reliving the past. I was an Amazon, a warrior, and beyond that, I was Wonder Woman, I couldn't allow my emotions to get the best of me. Not again.

?

Meanwhile…

He watched wistfully as she flew off in a relatively safe distance, in the shadows on a fire escape of the opposing building across the street.

When she was gone, he heard a ringing sound from his earpiece.

"CM Mode Regeneration Time: 3:44:00."

He reached up and pulled off his mask before answering.

Before he could speak, another voice beat him to the punch.

"Was that really necessary?"

His lips turned into a half-smile. "Probably not."

"But let me guess, you let it happen anyway?"

"Maybe…"

There was sigh on the other side. "Bruce…"

"It was an accident?"

"Yeah right…"

"It wasn't like I let her see me on purpose, Tim."

"I know, but aren't you getting a little distracted from… whatever you're supposed to be doing. Speaking of which, why exactly are you in Gateway again? …Besides checking up on Diana."

"There's a large building here owned by one of the crime families in the city – at daytime they sell imported items, antiques and valuables."

"And… that's a front?"

"There's a factory underneath the store that manufactures weapons at night. Until recently, the people who hired me were one of the family's biggest buyers."

"And these people who hired you, they're not buying there anymore?"

"Not exactly. They were being ripped off."

"Ah… so… what are you doing to do?"

"What I was paid to do."

"Wait… you're not serious."

"…"

"Oh my god. You're serious. You know this is beyond even what I'm comfortable with, right?"

"Of course."

"But, judging by how casually you're taking this, you have a plan." He stated.

"I always have a plan, Tim."

"Ugh, fine. Do what you need to do, Bruce. Red Robin, out."

"Insider, out."

Pulling the mask back on, he gave the rooftop one last glance over his shoulder.

"SF Mode Active." And with a blur and rush of air, he disappeared.

A/N: Okay, here's what you need to know: like I said, this is based on the Batman serial Bruce Wayne: The Road Home – Bruce has come back from his apparent death/adventure across time – Dick's the new Batman with Bruce's son Damien as his new Robin – Thomas Eliot (aka Hush) is masquerading as Bruce Wayne for public reasons – Bruce has now taken up a new anti-hero persona called 'Insider' for I would think research purposes and is a total badass – only a select handful of people know this, including Red Robin/Tim Drake, new Batgirl/Stephanie Brown, Oracle/Barbara Gordon and so on…

Also! I've tweaked one or two things of the original storyline in the comic so it might fit in this, but exactly how will make itself clear as this story progresses. And Bruce may act a little OCC, but that'll sort itself out too.

Right-o! If you have a comment, feel free to leave it behind! See ya later!

Until next time,
GoddessofDawn out