The Queen's Wrath

Alfred Pennyworth was in what he considered his personal sanctuary inside of Wayne Manor: the kitchen. Every single appliance and cooking utensil down to the luxurious silver utensils used by the residents of the manor were placed and stored exactly where Alfred wanted them to be. Out of all the rooms in the manor, this was the only one in which the master of the house did not have any say as to where a certain piece of furniture should go. Alfred believed that it was only fair, as Bruce had his own sanctuary down in that cave below the manor.

At the moment, Alfred was preparing a light meal for the master of the house. It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and on this nice summer day the sun was still high in the Gotham sky. Bruce had just come home from his daily job of being the CEO of Wayne Enterprises.

Although Bruce portrayed his public persona as a dim-witted fool, Alfred was proud that Bruce at least made sure that his family's business was always taken care of. In the 10 years that Bruce had taken over as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, he turned it into the world's leading technological company, giving them a total networth of over a trillion dollars. Being the CEO, Bruce obviously took home a decent amount of this profit, but a portion of it was put to either charity organizations or to his nighttime activities.

Since Bruce had just arrived home from his meetings, Alfred knew that Bruce would go workout for a couple of hours, as was his schedule for the past few years. He would then review cases that he was currently investigating, trying to pick out little details that almost everyone but him would surely miss. Then, after performing his pre-patrol routine, he would set out to keep the citizens of Gotham safe throughout the night, not arriving home until around 2 am. Alfred tried his best to fit in meals for Bruce, as the only ones he would eat were just small portions throughout the day.

After preparing the small meal, Alfred decided that he would just give it to Bruce in the cave, as it was unlikely he would actually come upstairs and eat it in the kitchen like a normal person would. Then again, everyone that has passed through this household has never been truly 'normal,' as they have either been crime fighters, the wealthy, or the occasional eco-terrorists and cat burglars. Alfred was thankful that Bruce's days of dating known criminals had been over for a few years now.

While he always wanted the man he loved as a son to settle down and have a family, he wished that it would be with someone who actually loves Bruce fully, not just a single piece of him. Talia was only concerned with the Bat, as she always tried to persuade him into taking over as the head of the League of Assassins. Selina seemed to only be concerned with the Bruce Wayne side of him, as she made it clear in the past that she did not follow the same viewpoint as Batman does on his quest to save Gotham, believing that the city was a lost cause.

Alfred thought that the day in which Bruce would finally spend his time with the love of his life would never come, that was until a certain Princess of the Amazons made herself known.

Not too long after Batman had joined the Justice League, Alfred started to notice something different about Bruce. Sure, Bruce still had a large focus on Gotham, but it seemed that his attention was being divided to something else. There were many times when Alfred would ask Bruce about his current cases, and it would seem as if he had only the slightest idea of what he was talking about.

At first, this concerned Alfred, as he thought that the darkness that Bruce worked in was finally getting to him. However, it would seem that his fears were for nothing once Bruce requested him to order a $50,000 ancient book about the mythical Amazons in order to "research the sincerity of Wonder Woman's word."

Bruce had obviously spent time doing background checks on other members of the league, as was in his paranoid nature. However, those checks usually lasted around 1-2 weeks, with him learning only as much as he needed to know in order to conclude if he could trust his new teammates. His research of the new Amazon had taken almost 2 months of his spare time.