The Universe's Mixer

Batman stood crouched at the edge of a building. He'd taken up patrolling again some time ago. Today seemed particularly special. In his mailbox at Wayne Manor, he'd gotten a very disturbing note. He knew the handiwork. He knew that he couldn't trust it to just be a prank. He wondered how many other people got the same thing.

Tim was gone. Had vanished again. Bruce was once again alone in the big house.

There'd been some activity in the Tower, but he had yet to check it out. He didn't want to get his hopes up that Barbara had returned just to find out that it was somebody else. He didn't know how anybody else could get in, but this place was strange. Things happened.

He needed to find Zoe. Needed to train her. He couldn't keep an eye on this entire city by himself, unfortunately. There were too many shifting streets, too many characters of ill repute walking around. Not enough police to pick up the slack. As far as he knew, there weren't any other vigilantes out there working, either.

Damn, he needed Barbara.

He'd let himself fall apart the last while. Everything had gone to the wayside. He'd given up the nightly rounds. He'd stopped monitoring the City. Stopped trying to discover who was out there, who he had to watch and who he could trust. He was pretty sure he'd let the last little bit of it slide away after Tim had died. When all the murders happened. The slip had started when he'd lost Max, and Babs. Clark. He'd let that all get to him.

He'd let a lot of things get to him.

Bruce Wayne was not the same man he'd been when he'd gotten here.