Diana looked at Selina and rolled her eyes, "What? You know how my lariat works, you tried it yourself. He is telling the truth. I know a guy who can help and I know he's in town. Let me give him a call. I think he is staying at one of Bruce's places downtown here in Wayne Plaza."

An hour later security called up to the penthouse. Alfred walked over to the elevator to greet the man. Diana followed behind. "Oi, gooseberry pudding, this is a nice place, so who's the bloke you need me to peek at, this old geezer 'ere."

They came around the corner and Wayne asked, "Sting? The guy you called is Sting?"

Diana looked confused but the man in question just stopped in his tracks. The cigarette he had been smoking fell off his lip and he stared open-mouthed at Wayne. "What the fuck?"

"Diana, this bloke... This Tommy Tucker is seriously fucked up. I haven't a Scooby how he can even be alive right now."

Diana frowned, "I don't know what you are saying, John?"

Wayne translated, "Sting says he doesn't have a clue how I can even be alive right now."

"Oi, why's this cunt calling me fucking Sting?"

Diana looked between both men and then asked, "John, can you be more specific?"

"Old dear, this guy's brown bread. This is a body and a soul. Only they aren't connected. One's a soul one's a body. Somehow, this soul drifted in after that cunt kicked the bucket and they stuck together. It's a fucking impossible existence you're looking at. Imagine you are walking down the street and every molecule in your body just decided to push away from each other, that's what you are looking at. Something completely impossible."

Wayne translated once again, "He's saying that Bruce Wayne died that night. I died that night as well. Somehow we ended up merged. My soul with his body."

"Fuck you, dental flosser you didn't merge at all. It's like I am looking at two different men in the same space at the same time. You aren't the same person you are mirror images of each other. I need a laugh n a joke, this has got me two and eight."

Wayne looked concerned but it was Alfred that asked the question, "Is there any way to get them back in their bodies?"

John pointed at Alfred and shook his finger, "Are you mutton, man? There ain't no living man here. Your fella is brown bread and this other fella is brown bread. If you like either of them be fucking thankful they are standing here at all because this is fucking impossible."

Alfred looked unsure so John said, "To get that soul out you just need to kill him. Then you'll have the dead body you should have had. Sound good?"

Diana exhaled and then sat down looking very sad. "So what you are saying John, is that Bruce Wayne died. Wayne Bruce died and somehow both men survived becoming neither of them."

John threw his hands up and said, "Thank you! Yes, exactly that. Fuck my life."

Wayne looked at everyone's face and then asked, "Seriously, no one else here is tripping out that Sting is here saying a bunch of mystical shit?"

Selina asked, "Who is Sting?"

"Lead singer for the Police? Roooooxanne! You don't have to put on the red light. Those days are over. You don't have to sell your body to the night!" He saw that none of them knew the song, "shit it doesn't exist here?"

John looked at him and said, "Fuck... You are from one of those worlds."

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Diana asked, "One of those worlds? What worlds?"

John looked at Diana and then got very serious, "There are infinite variations of the world. Every single choice you make, every possible thing you could do. But also If you write a story right now, the characters you create become real living breathing people in a different world. This guy is from one where we don't exist."

Wayne nodded and said, "Yeah, you are all fictional. Mostly, some people from my world exist here too. Bruce Wayne, Julie Madison, Sting for example only their names are different here. Julie in my world is Madison Julia. I was Wayne Bruce. Sting is... John uh?"

"Constantine. John Constantine."

"Oh shit! You had a movie too, Keanu Reeves played you." Wayne smiled. "I had no idea you were a comic book character. I thought that was just a movie."

John suddenly perked up, "The guy from the Matrix and John Wick? Shit, that's not bad."

Alfred asked, "Master Wayne, was thereby chance an actor..."

Wayne looked at Alfred and said, "Sir Michael Caine."

Alfred sat up straight and adjusted his tie happy with the answer.

Selina chewed her lip not asking but hoping he'd say. Wayne saw and then sighed, "Selina Kyle was played by a lot of actresses. Zoe Kravitz, Halle Berry, Michele Pfeiffer, Ann Hathaway, Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Eliza Dushku... I am probably forgetting at least half of them. The stories of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman have been told for over 80 years in my world."

"It's why I said to you that I can guess certain things that will happen when Bruce Wayne has no memory of it. Can't have a memory of it, because it hasn't happened."

He looked at Alfred, "The men I killed? They were some of the worst Batman faced. Always raising the bar on acts of evil until anyone and everyone Batman loved was taken from him."

Diana asked, "Even me?"

Wayne smiled and shook his head, "Clark. How can a regular man compete?"

Diana frowned, "Ew."

"I get old Diana. You two don't." She nodded but looked disappointed in herself.

Selina looked troubled, "Then you knew I would fall in love with you?"

Wayne raised an eyebrow, "In my world, I had a crush on my boss, who was my world's equivalent of Julie Madison. I met her at the charity event and thought she was my destined love. When she was murdered I had all but given up on the idea of love happening for me in this world but then I saw a sexy kitty come out of that jewelry store. It was love at first sight."

John started a slow clap and then asked, "Have you considered that you must have been placed here for a fucking purpose? What I mean is, some deity has fucked with probability to stick you here on purpose. I don't mean to be the harbinger of bad news, but if you are here there like this now with what's in your head, this world is probably royally fucked if you can't figure it out. Your star-crossed lovers' story sounds cute and all, but there is no fucking way a deity stuck you in that body to fuck this girl and make a couple of babies."

Diana and Alfred looked at each other first and then stared at Wayne together Diana asked, "80 years, how bad does it get?"

Wayne thought about it and then said, "Comic books are like soap operas. Each month another issue comes out showing you a day or part of a day in the life of the hero. Some stories last for a decade and then reset with a new writer, artist, or editor taking a familiar hero in a different direction. Like a soap opera, ratings or rather issues sold determines how long that direction will last. Then there are TV series, cartoon series, movie series, books, toy lines... All of these have their spin on that old familiar hero."

Diana nodded asking, "Some things stay the same right?"

Wayne nodded, "Of course, in many ways, it's like the stories of the Gods and Goddess of Ancient Greece. Stories like King Arthur, Robin Hood, Zorro, Beowulf... I could go on and on, the point is, in the retelling, a storyteller might pick and choose from things they heard about the story while embellishing other parts to create a narrative needed to keep the story in line with modern thinking, with the culture and pop culture of the day."

Diana nodded and then John Constantine spoke up, "So what you are saying is that this world could be wiped out or it could last well beyond our lifetimes depending on its popularity in some other universe where we are all just elements of a story?"

Selina made a face and asked, "Wayne, today at the school board meeting..."

Wayne looked at her and said, "Oh yeah, that... I think that is going to end up being the court of owls." He started to sing an old nursery rhyme, "Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time. Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed. Speak not a whispered word about them, or they'll send the Talon for your head."

Selina's eyes widened, "I've heard that before! When I was a kid. Should we be worried?"

Wayne shook his head, "I know who they are. I'll hire some hitmen and clean them out."

Alfred rubbed his temple, "Master Wayne that kind of thing..."

Wayne shook a finger at Alfred, "In this, you just have to trust me, Alfred."