Legendary

Everywhere we looked, people were materializing out of thin air into solid forms. There was an extraordinary variety of fashion styles and everyone was gawking: the contemporary people were looking at the new arrivals and the newly mortal were gaping (how obviously depended on social class, apparently) at the infrastructure. Serena and I looked at each other and grabbed our personal communicators. The news cycles were full of observations about the returning souls, but no information. I picked someone who looked to have died in the 1990s and asked what was going on.

"Well, I died in a traffic accident," the young man said to me. "And I went to heaven, met Jesus, had a talk about how I'd underperformed in life, the bad things I'd done as well as the good, and went on. Then there was an announcement that we were being returned to life and not to waste this opportunity... and here I am. This city is unbelievable." We nodded in full agreement. "I don't suppose you know what I should be doing now, do you?" The young man looked hopeful.

"Well, I'd suggest that you go to a police station," I suggestion after a quick look at Serena. "I'm sure they're collecting information on returned souls. This was kind of unexpected, so plans will be evolving, but this is not the first time that souls have been returned. I'd imagine that remaining calm and patient is going to be important." The man nodded, and I gave him some cash. "I don't know what the supply situation is looking like, but this will at least feed you a few meals." He grinned.

"Thanks, lady. My name is Nick Davis."

"Nice to meet you, Nick. Serena Johnson," she said, and they shook hands.

"Alex Wayne," I added, shaking his hand too.

"Wayne..." he said, and he looked like he was remembering something. "Do you know an Alexander Wayne? Funny that you have the same name."

"My son was named Alexander," I said, my mouth suddenly dry. "We called him Xander. Black hair, blue eyes? Smart, funny?" Nick grinned.

"He's a buddy of mine." I had to restrain myself from grabbing him and shaking information out of him. Serena put her hand on my shoulder.

"If you see him, tell him his parents are back and at the house," I said. "Or he should check out the Asgardian embassy. His godfather's there." I wanted to run out and find my son, but I had other responsibilities too.

"Tell you what, Nick," Serena said. "Go to the police station and register with them, and maybe you could take the long way to this address--" she gave him the address to the embassy "-- and give your name at the gate. We'll see that you have a roof over your head."

"Hey, thanks," he said, looking relieved. "I'll look for Xander before I go." I smiled at him.

"Thank you," I said fervently, and pointed him toward the nearest precinct. Serena and I went directly to the embassy, seeing that the guard was listening to a couple straight out of the Gilded Age; from the sound of it, the man was the robber baron who'd built the place that now housed the embassy and he was with his wife, demanding entrance. Good luck with that. The guard nodded to us and we slipped through the gate and walked quickly away from their protests.

Inside, Loki was interested in what we had to tell him, and when I told him that Xander was out there, he asked what I wanted to do. "I want to go out and search street by street for him," I said, "but that just isn't practical. The streets are crowded by the worst tourist season in history and it would be like finding a beading needle in a huge haystack. I need to get a grip. Xander's smart, he'll find a way to get in touch. But I wondered if we could use the fence outside the embassy."

"Go on," Loki invited.

"If we could supply paper and Sharpies or something, let people post their names, who they're looking for, maybe where they could meet, post them on the wall."

"That's a great idea," Serena said.

Loki nodded to her. "Do it, see what information you can collect while you're helping," he said. "Alex, take the pouch and report to my brother. It won't affect Asgard, but perhaps we can provide some resources. I'll have staff call the police stations and let them know about our wall." He gave Serena a minicomputer. "Start a spreadsheet, that could help the authorities as well as helping to reconnect families and friends." She nodded and turned for the door.

"I hope your mom shows up," I said to her. Serena's mother was the only one in her family who had died in the city. Most of her family had lived in Georgia. "I'll check in with you later." She nodded and left, and I took the diplomatic pouch and poofed to Asgard.

Thor and Odin were talking with Magni about some aspect of kingship when I arrived, unscheduled. "Speak," Odin commanded, and the three of them listened as I summarized.

"What numbers are you looking at?" Magni asked. I shrugged.

"Honestly, it's not possible to estimate," I said. "Christianity is the predominant religion in the U.S., and there are significant numbers of Jews and Muslims, too. And this is cumulative, hundreds of years of worshipers in the New World, over a millennia longer in the Old World. And we haven't even seen Buddhists yet, or anyone from other Asian religions or philosophies yet. But hundreds of millions. Probably billions."

"Are you jesting?" Magni asked, disbelieving.

"No."

Thor groaned. "I shall return with you and learn more," he said. "You humans breed too much."

"Can't do anything about that now," I said, and he sighed.

"I will expedite the settlements we have been working on," Odin stated.

"It should relieve some pressure," I agreed. "Thank you." He waved this off and cancelled our practice the next day, saying that he would send some valkyries down to supplement the embassy guard. Thor brought Magni with us so he could see both the spectacle and diplomacy in action.

Heimdall set us down just outside the UN. Magni looked around, incredulous and a little frightened, I think. He'd never seen such a population. Even Thor looked a little overwhelmed. I cleared a path inside for them and returned to the embassy. I checked my communicator; no messages. I found Loki and reported; he nodded. "Check with Serena, see what they need."

I went outside, carrying hastily printed contact forms that had been cut in half to save paper, and found her presiding over tables that had been set up. Embassy staff had organized people into lines; returnees listed their names, dates of birth and death as much as they knew, immediate family members, and a place to meet on the forms. If they were unfamiliar with the city, a location like Central Park was suggested. There weren't enough maps, but each staff member had a tourist map with the location of the embassy marked and the returnees could orient themselves. The staff members took the forms, input the information into a spreadsheet, and others posted the forms; one section of street-side fence was for the first half of the alphabet, the other for the second half. There were a couple of people helping those who were illiterate. The embassy, assisted by local businesses who donated, handed out bottles of water with each returned form. "So far, so good," she reported. "But we could use additional help." I nodded and reported back to Loki. He said that he'd go back to Asgard to request a lot more people. He'd called the mayor's office to let her know what we were doing over here and to get looped in to official communications.

I took a moment to call Damian and let him know that, against the odds, I'd bumped into a friend of Xander's. He was thrilled and hopeful, and we traded information. We were essentially doing much the same thing, although they weren't having people post their information. Daniel had immediately placed orders for emergency supplies to be handed out and word had gone through the company to increase production of a water purification straw to be handed out as well. He'd also made donations to relief organizations, both from company funds and the family trust. Then I went to work.

The people were a little dazed by the crowds--who wasn't?--and the ones who had been dead the longest were really freaked out. There were some who'd never seen so much as an electric lightbulb.

We were relieved after night fell by a wave of guards and valkyries, as well as our own other returned dead and I finally blipped home. Damian returned shortly after I showed up; he and Martha had taken the flying pods to scan the roads leading out from the city for family members who might be returning on foot. He grinned and hugged me, then drew me outside, where I witnessed Alfred with uncharacteristic tears on his cheeks hugging Bruce. There was a long hug, followed by backslapping, and I got my turn to say hello and get a welcome home hug. We came inside eventually with Martha, who wouldn't let go of her grandpa, had sandwiches while Bruce told us what he'd seen, and we all traded stories. Bruce listened in bemusement and asked to see the wings. He was quite taken aback by them, but smiled when Alfred told him they were essentially fancy dress bat wings. Alfred had already gotten Bruce's old suite ready for him, having gone through the house when the news had broken that the dead were returning, and, thinking quickly, had gone out shopping to increase the food we had in the house as well as obtain supplies in anticipation of generations of Waynes. He'd gotten some clothes and toiletries specifically for Bruce and more anonymous items for others; a lot of workout clothes that both men and women could wear. Daniel came home shortly before midnight, fatigued but excited to meet Bruce, who'd provided the foundation for Wayne to become the second largest corporation in the world. And the original Batman, of course. He'd brought Bucky and Steve back from the embassy and Tony, Bruce, and Emma back from the labs. Bruce greeted Bucky and Emma like the family they were, shook hands with Steve, said hello to his old rival Tony (there was a certain amount of evaluation done on both sides) and was introduced to Bruce. It had been a weird day, even for all of us, and we all went right to bed after that. Damian and I were so tired that there wasn't even any canoodling.

Things eased up by the end of the third day. By then, the National Guard had been called in, martial law imposed for everybody's safety, and the Red Cross and FEMA, as well as other charitable organizations, were working to assist the newly living. There was an enormous strain on resources, and despite all that could be done, there were sanitation problems and difficulties getting people even a blanket and food. The government confiscated the contents of grocery stores and stocks of basic supplies and ordered all businesses to stay shut down and nonessential people to stay in their homes and off the roads. Daniel, Damian, Martha, and Bruce went in to the city to help direct the resources they commanded to help all around the world, and the Avengers suited up and helped with crowd control. Bruce Banner moved to the embassy to work there, glad not to be the Hulk anymore, who couldn't have helped anyway. I popped back and forth between the embassy and home. Odin directed the flow of supplies from the other realms while Thor and Magni stayed in Midgard. Modi helped his grandfather, and groups of original newly living were transported to their new homes on Svartalfar. That relieved some pressure and they were already working to create new settlements for whoever wanted to escape the craziness on Earth. Even given the inhospitable regions, there was room for a lot more people, especially at the low technological level that had been mandated. We valkyries resumed our training on Asgard; we'd done what we could, and we still had preparations for Ragnarok to make. A bunch of newly risen weren't going to change that.

That night, we had a celebratory dinner at home: both Bruces, Bucky, Steve, Emma, Tony, and Peter were set to join us. I was really fatigued when I came through the door with Serena. I'd just accepted a drink from Alfred when a glass shattered on the floor. I looked to see Serena staring daggers over by the window.

"Oh, my fucking god," I breathed. "You have got to be kidding me!" That last came out as a shout.

May Parker flinched.

She was standing with Emma, Peter, and Tony. Martha was slouched in a chair, completely ignoring her. Bruce--my father-in-law--looked reprovingly at me. I ignored him. "You have a lot of nerve to show up here," I spat at her, venom dripping from my voice, then I had to hang on to Serena, whose wings were out and was going to go after May. My wings popped out and cut off her view. A small table tipped over accidentally. Too many wings in too small a space. Serena forced herself to calm down and her wings folded back although they didn't go away entirely.

"I invited her," Daniel told me. "Apparently there are things I don't know."

"Yeah, like how she got an entire team of Avengers wiped off the map," Serena snarled, brushing aside my wing (and that wasn't easy). I gave up and put it away. "Incompetent. Unfit. The court martial said there wasn't enough evidence to convict you, but I know you're responsible for this." She shook me off, holding up her arm that, like Bucky's, had shifted to an organometallic. "You were the only one behind me."

"I know you don't believe me, Serena," May said, finding some spine from somewhere. "But I didn't. We were never friends, but I'd have never shot you in the back." Her voice trembled but we were unmoved. I stood with Serena, both of us crossing our arms as we looked at her. Her dad, who had looked aghast at Serena's accusations, looked at his daughter.

"Sorry, Alex," Serena said to me. "But I can't eat with that." I nodded understanding and took her to the door. We always poofed to and from the porch so that we wouldn't bump into anything or anybody.

"Sorry, Serena, I didn't know," I apologized. "If I had...I would have made my excuses."

"I know." She exhaled. "I'm sorry, Alex." She shook her head. "It just feels like my life is falling apart. I shouldn't have taken it out on you the other day."

"It's ok. This whole thing is difficult. And now it's been ramped up to eleven with wild cards we couldn't expect. We'll talk tomorrow."

"I don't envy you now. You're going to have to go back in there, aren't you?"

"Yeah." I looked grim. "Bruce insists on manners." I laughed shortly. "Now that he's back, he's setting the tone again. Daniel is fine with it but right now..." We said goodbye and I trudged back inside.

"Are you all right, Miss Alex?" Alfred said quietly just inside the door.

I blinked back tears. I was tired and felt overwhelmed. The stress of the last few days left me vulnerable to flashbacks. I hadn't seen May since I'd testified at her trial and it brought back the loss of my friends and students back. I thrust away the memories of seeing the recordings the clean-up team from the military made, the bodies... I blinked hard. "I don't know. It's just a bit much for me." I exhaled. "I can't. I just can't sit down to eat with her."

"I'll convey your apologies to Master Daniel," Alfred said soothingly, and he gave my arm a pat. I trudged up the stairs. I took a shower, but even the highest water pressure couldn't help the knots in my shoulders. I took some aspirin and went into the conservatory to try to relax. It smelled nice in there and was silent and calm. Damian came up sooner than I expected.

"Petal," he cooed, sitting beside me and handing me a plate. I wasn't hungry, though. "You're burning through a lot of calories," he said sternly. "You've got to replenish or you're going to get sick." He waited until I'd taken a couple of mouthfuls. "So that was unexpected," he said, and I rolled my eyes at him. "She told us about how that mission, how it all went wrong, but she denied shooting Serena with her repulsors."

"Of course she would," I said bitterly. "But the heat map showed that she was the only person behind Serena, and conveniently there was an EMP right after that that wiped out the team's electronics and recordings. And while a repulsor isn't the only thing that could have destroyed Serena's arm, no weapon was found at the scene that could have done it. She was thrown a bone at her trial."

"I will feed you if you don't eat, my wife," Damian threatened, and I forced down a few bites. "So she had to explain to Tony what she did to his company and the other Avengers what she'd done."

"I feel sorry for her father," I said. "He really did try to teach her better."

"Makes me grateful for my daughter," he said, sighing. That made two of us. Martha could also be pigheaded, but she knew when she was out of her depth and when and where to ask for help. "She spent a lot of time explaining to Stark how it wasn't her fault she'd tanked his company and tried to throw you under the bus, but Martha wasn't having it. All she did was offer Tony free run of the company archives that include the internal documents prior to the purchase that showed the state of the company at the time she bought Stark. He's furious and Bucky and Steve are pissed, both that she tried to blame you, saying the labs weren't producing much that was useful, and the fact that she didn't call for a retreat on that mission when it all started going to shit. Here." He took my plate away and started gently working the knots out of my shoulders. "Tony told her that he was disappointed that she didn't have enough character to admit her mistakes."

"He's had to eat a lot of crow himself," I said, sagging a little in relief as he smoothed away the tensions. "He doesn't respect cowards." Damian kissed my temple.

"Bucky and Steve said flat out they wouldn't work with her on the Avengers, and Daniel said that there wasn't an offer on the table. Emma's first reaction was to stand up for May, but that got harder and harder. She's upset with you, though, that you brought it all up." I sighed and he put his arms around me.

"She's not the one who had to deal with all the fallout. Bet Bruce is pissed with me. I was not a good host."

"Well, all you did was say a bad word," Damian said, nuzzling my hair. "You did prevent Serena from mangling her, so that offsets things. And in the final analysis, you shouldn't have to sit down to dinner with somebody like that. I think you sort of soft-pedalled what happened when we were catching up, Sweet pea."

"I thought I'd never have to see her again, and I thought I'd come to terms with it," I said. "But seeing her again...Ugh. Standing there, like everything was fine and she wasn't a pulsating sack of shit. If Serena and I had both piled on, Alfred would be scrubbing bloodstains out of the Persian rugs. Or I would, it wouldn't be fair to make him clean up my mess. We wouldn't have killed her, but she'd be in the hospital. She got an Iron Man suit rather than bothering to put in the work to learn hand to hand. She never could learn shit."

"Sometimes bloodstains are for a good cause, Miss Alex," Alfred said, coming forward with a small plate. "And if you were to finish your dinner, I have some dessert for you." I peered over the edge of the plate at the large piece of chocolate cake and picked up my plate, eating as fast as I could politely. Alfred smiled slightly and we exchanged plates before he departed to do Alfred things. I snarfled the cake down with a lot more enthusiasm than I had my dinner, and after a cautious look around, licked the plate at a couple of spots of frosting. Damian roared with laughter, then took me back to the bedroom where we spooned on the bed, talking about other things. I reveled knowing that Damian had my back, literally. It was nice and toasty from where he was snuggled up around me.

The door opened and Martha stuck her head in, cautiously, followed by the rest of her when she saw that nothing that would require brain bleach was going on. She flopped down on the bed on her side so that we were face to face. "What a cow," she said. "I forgot how she was. You'd have thought that being dead would have taught her some humility or something."

Her father reached over me to tug her hair. "Why?" he asked reasonably. "Doesn't seem to have changed you." I laughed as Martha rolled her eyes.

"I've never betrayed a trust like that," she said. "I'm no angel, but there are things I won't stoop to. So why mess with a good thing? Besides, our afterlife wasn't meant to be improving, not like the Bible says. And I know, dad, cows are nice animals and I shouldn't insult them with that kind of comparison." Damian snickered into my hair. "So dinner went kind of splat after that. She made the mistake of appealing to Bucky." She sobered. "He said that he couldn't see the little girl that he'd played tea party with and that he thought she'd been a decent woman. That was the punch that hurt the most, I think. It obviously hurt him to have to say it. Hey, how come Uncle Bucky never played tea party with me?"

"Because you always wanted to either play 'running the multinational corporation' or "Uncle Bucky's sidekick,'" her father remembered. "Emma asked you once if you wanted to host a tea party, and you said no because we had Alfred." Both of us laughed.

"Alfred does a better job of pouring tea than I ever could," she defended herself. "The master at work."

"That's an interesting point you made, sweetie, about the Bible," I said. "This resurrection thing doesn't seem to be tracking what the Bible says, although I couldn't tell you the last time I read Revelations. At least Ragnarok is pretty much adhering to script."

"I wish Xander would hustle up and haul his ass back here," she burst out. "He could tell us more, I'm sure. And I miss him." I patted her cheek.

"You didn't hustle up either," I pointed out reasonably. "I had to wait. He's probably doing something and will show up when he's done. He knows we'd want to see him."

"But he's my twin!" she burst out. "It's bad enough waiting for my kids and husband, but if I have to track down Xander, he's going to be so sorry."

"Give it a couple of days, Missile," Damian said to her. "If he's not back then, then you're a go for launch." I yawned suddenly, and Martha leaned forward to peck my cheek.

"Night, Mom, Dad." She jumped up and scuttled out the door.

"She exhausts me, and we're about the same age now," Damian said wearily. "I feel old." Reluctantly, I sat up and swung my legs out of bed.

"You're not such an old man," I said flirtatiously, and he laughed and chased me into the bathroom.

Daniel apologized the next day and I apologized for causing a scene, and that was the end of it, at least as far as I heard. The practice was especially hard, and I ended facing off Serena more often than not. I didn't mind, though, she was working through some tough stuff. In the afternoons we all went to the embassy to help. The embassy had been officially designated a place to register and get information on relatives, and Daniel's IT department had imported data from our spreadsheet and half a dozen more to form a master database. There were open terminals for the database for those who knew how to operate them, but those who didn't needed an interface. I was helping a man in 17th century breeches (we also had a little fashion guide on our personal devices to help us recognize when a returnee might have last walked the earth) who seemed completely overwhelmed (I understood completely) when Karla hailed me and we switched returnees. I saw her assisting the man to a chair before I turned to the couple in front of me. Something about them just announced "1980's" to me. Perhaps it was the man's mullet or the shoulder pads of the woman's jacket.

"Hi there," I said amiably. "Welcome back. How can I help you?" They exchanged a glance.

"Please, we're looking for our son," the woman said, passionately entreating me. "It's been just so long."

"Hopefully, he's registered, but as you can see, there's so many people that he might still be waiting," I said with an encouraging smile. "But it's easy to check. What's his name?"

"Bruce," the woman said quickly. "Bruce Wayne."

My mouth dropped open. "Thomas and Martha Wayne?" I asked incredulously. They looked at each other and nodded to me. Their hands squeezed each other.

"Please, do you know who he is?" the man pressed me.

"Yes," I said with a firm nod. "I even know where he is." As they exchanged looks that lit with joy, I turned slightly away, switched to the phone mode and waited.

"Sweet pea," my husband's voice said affectionately.

"Damian, you've got to grab your dad and get down to the embassy immediately," I said.

"Alex, what's the matter?" he said sharply.

"Your grandparents just showed up. They want to see their son."

"We'll be right there." And he hung up. I turned back to them, smiling.

"He's on his way, Mr and Mrs Wayne," I told them. The Waynes clutched each other. I thought that Thomas might fall over and found them chairs. "I haven't introduced myself properly," I said when they were seated. Mrs Wayne looked at me curiously. "My name is Alex Barnes Wayne. I'm married to your grandson."

"We have a grandson?" Mrs Wayne breathed.

"The one and only Damian," I said, and crouched between them to show them some photos. "This is Bruce, when Damian and I were married the first time, he gave me your pearls as an engagement gift," I told her. "They're still in the family. And this is Damian," I said, flipping to another one.

"My word, he's handsome," Martha said, and I grinned at her.

"He's got your eyes, Mrs Wayne," I said, "although you can't really see them in this picture. And our daughter, Martha." They looked like them might cry. "She has a twin brother, Alexander, but he hasn't shown up yet."

"Is that Alfred?" Thomas asked, and I gave him my device and they swiped through the images after a brief instruction, me identifying others in the pictures. "Howard Stark's son? Spitting image aside from the...interesting facial hair."

"He's a friend of mine. Wayne purchased Stark during my time," I told him, and he grinned.

"Let me look at you," Martha said to me, and studied my face.

"When Damian and I were first engaged, I was introduced to some old friends of yours," I said. "I wished then that I'd known you. Didn't dream I'd get to." She smiled. I looked around at the signs of a disturbance and saw a wedge of people pushing through the crowd. "And they're here." I waved, and Bruce charged up to me, then looked at the people I was with.

"Mom? Dad?" His voice was tentative, as if he expected them to disappear. But his eyes welled up as he looked at them, and his mother flung her arms around him, followed by his father. They were both shorter and slighter than their tall, powerful son. I hugged Damian, who was watching closely and smiling, and Martha put her arms around the both of us. I freed an arm and drew Daniel into the group hug.

"Son," his dad said hoarsely, and Damian disengaged to be introduced. They examined him too, and he gently hugged them and introduced Martha and Daniel.

"I may have to revert to my first name," my daughter said.

"You don't have to, you gorgeous girl," Martha said. I turned away again and called Alfred, smiling. At first I thought that the connection had been lost, but no, Alfred was just speechless. For a moment, then he assured me that all would be ready.

I left them to the reunion--I still had people to help-- and assisted a couple other people with registration. One of them hadn't had family in the area and the people the other asked about hadn't registered. He looked at the Waynes enviously and turned away. As I watched him go, I saw a face in the crowd that caught my eye. I knew that face, though the skin tone was different.

The Joker was back.

As if sensing my shocked gaze, his head turned until our eyes locked.

He grinned.