19 Phantoms
Batman returned to Cave 4 after the disappointing display by the Bat-Spiders. As he entered his head shook and he felt like the world was suddenly magnified and then became far away from him. This effect happened several times before it stopped.
He fell toward the floor when Alfred caught him.
"Is it happening against, Master Wayne?" Alfred asked out of concern.
"Again? Is it happening again? What's happening again?" Batman asked in confusion.
"You called it a Phantom sickness last time, Master Wayne," guiding him to a bed, Alfred helped Bruce remove his bat suit. Laying in his black spandex undergarment, Bruce's head throbbed.
"It hurts, Alfred, it's unlike any pain I've felt before," Bruce said as his body was gripped in pain like a steel claw that was crushing a car.
"You say that every time, Master Wayne, and then you forget about it," Alfred responded.
"Make a recording and then show it to me after I forget...AArghh!" Bruce screamed.
Tears streamed from his eyes, "It feels like my mind and body are being torn apart.
"Freeze," a voice from the void says.
A man in a blue suit with a white shirt, gloves, and a blue felt hat and gaudy cape appears.
Behind him, a bald woman wearing simple cotton clothes appears.
"Is this the person you were looking for, Phantom Stranger?"
"It is, Ancient One, thank you."
"I arrived in time, one or two more episodes like this and he would be unraveled," Phantom Stranger commented.
"What's wrong with him?"
"He fought a battle against foes from my universe. He lost, but he destroyed it as he was being tossed through a dimensional portal. The explosion caused him to shoot through my universe and several others before he arrived in your world.
The human body isn't meant to do that," Phantom Stranger explained.
"That doesn't explain what's happening to him now."
"When he passed through the multiverse, his body passed through and absorbed echoes of himself that existed in those universes. The differences in personalities among the many Bruce Wayne's have both vied for control and attempted to integrate with him.
Entering your universe stopped the accumulated of himself. It's just the other echoes are reaching back through the tunnel that was punched through the multiverses and are trying to take him with them.
Then, there's also the pull of your universe that "wants" him to stay. He is being ripped apart by the Phantoms that are, were, and could be Batman and the Batman firmly rooted in your universe.
It's caused him to time skip through events. He begins an event and without realizing it, he's moved onto something else. On the one hand, he has the memories that should have taken place during the time skip, but he never experienced those things.
This has affected his personality. Bruce was a paranoid, ruthless, lone-wolf in our universe. There almost wasn't a Bruce Wayne. There was only Batman.
In this universe, Bruce Wayne wants to replace Batman. He wants to live and with the echoes he inadvertently collected and with the help of your universe, this is happening.
Still, my multiverses call to him," Phantom Stranger explained.
"What's the solution?" The Ancient One asked.
"Either I take him back to my universe and repair the breaches of the multiverses along the way, or I leave him here and repair the breaches of the multiverses along the way.
"Why would you leave him here?" The Ancient One asked.
"Mercy. Bruce Wayne cannot live in my multiverse. Those universes need a Batman. Here, in your universe, Batman can be a useful tool, but Bruce will be free to choose his destiny. He will be free of Fate," the Phantom Stranger responded.
"What will you choose?" the Ancient One asked.
"That's up to you to decide, and it's up to him. What's your opinion?"
"I'm surprised I get an opinion, you are much more powerful than I," The Ancient One laughed.
"Sure, but in another sense I'm no different from you.
"How so?" I live not in one universe, but through many. Each version of myself is connected and we share the knowledge of each of our worlds. There are many of us, and only one of me.
My existence doesn't end in my universe, but spills into yours, Ancient One," The Phantom Stranger looks hard at the Ancient One.
"What are you saying?"
"You are my continuation into this multiverse. You must have felt it by now, the connection," he said.
"I feel it, but I do not understand it," The Ancient One admitted.
"I don't understand it either, but I understand that we are linked, we are the same person, but I'm not meant to be here. I need to leave and seal this universe. Our universes tried joining before, but it led to catastrophe!"
"I feel the truth of your statement," The Ancient One admitted.
"Good, now tell me, does Bruce stay here in your universe, or does he return to mine?"
