SPOILERS: Infinite Crisis #3 (you might be lost if you aren’t reading the Infinite Crisis series). Some of the dialogue is taken verbatim from this comic.
This is my take on the Batman/alternate universe Superman scene.
Note: I am waiting for all of this to end. I can't wait for it to end. WHEN WILL IT ALL END?! (I want my heroes back).
At What Cost?
By DC Lady
“You’re killing the Amazons?”
Omacs were raging war on Theymscira, and Batman was helpless to stop it. In a fearful rage, he threw his chair at the computer’s monitor -- at Brother Eye’s iconic image and scenes from the battle. But the monitor withstood the impact, the corresponding cracks unable to shield the bloody truth of the Omacs’ war against the Amazons.
Batman took deep breaths -- trying to regain control over his faculties. But his breathing shortened with each word uttered by his mechanical creation, his pulse quickening with its declaration.
“Eye will show the world the truth,” it said.
Then, “Eye will bring the world justice. Eye will do as you have programmed me to do.”
His chest tightened, and darkness threatened to consume him.
His creation.
His responsibility.
His fault.
He fell onto his hands and knees, and his mind was consumed with flashbacks of a dark alley, a gunshot, pearls dripping with blood. Then another memory -- the broken body of his son.
He couldn’t breathe.
He’d failed them.
He’d failed them all.
“I just wish I could start over.”
“Bruce, you can start over.”
Superman.
But not his Superman.
An alternate world’s Superman.
He spoke of an alternate Earth with hope and love. An Earth where Bruce Wayne would never be alone.
But things weren’t as they seemed. This Superman wanted something. Something Bruce was tempted to give.
Earth and its people would be folded into its historical fabric, to be replaced with this Superman’s Earth -- this Superman’s people. He said that all would be made better – that they’d be better.
But would they?
Bruce asked the question that rose from the depths of his heart.
“And what about Dick Grayson. Is he a better man on your earth than he is on mine?”
His son was a good man, but was the Dick Grayson who would replace him better? Would they all be better?
Superman hesitated before answering. “No.”
It was not as simple as this Superman ascertained. Not just the evil to be replaced by the good. Good people would be sacrificed for this transition to take place.
He would not let that happen.
He would not let this world down again.
The end.