Back on the Board

Sera tightened her grip on the tablet, the weight of it settling into something more than just cold metal and circuits. The information inside—Bruce Wayne’s files, his research, his personal interest in her work—felt heavier than she expected. She had walked into Wayne Enterprises bracing for a fight, ready to negotiate for scraps, and instead, she was being given everything Bruce had known. More than that, she was being given a place to work, real resources, and—somehow—employment.

She blinked, processing the shift in her circumstances faster than her mind could comfortably keep up. Lucius had already moved ahead, treating this as a done deal, rattling off logistics as though onboarding a new scientist was just another part of his packed schedule. And maybe it was, but for Sera, it felt… surreal.

She exhaled, forcing herself to speak before she got lost in the weight of it. “I—thank you,” she said, her voice quieter, edged with something rare—genuine gratitude. “I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting anything, honestly.”

She glanced down at the tablet, the faint glow of the screen illuminating the borrowed sleeves of her blazer, the expensive fabric at odds with the reality of how she had acquired it. The situation was a paradox—on paper, she had just been handed the best possible outcome, but in practice, she was about to become visible again. STAR Labs had spent months without a confirmed trace of her. That was about to change.

Lifting her gaze, she met Lucius’s with a more measured tone. “I’ll start working as soon as I can, but… logistically, this is going to get complicated. I don’t exactly have an address to hand over to HR. Or a legal identity that hasn’t been flagged as missing. And I doubt my bank account is still active.” She let out a short breath, somewhere between dry amusement and a genuine concern. “And considering I showed up here in borrowed clothes, I don’t exactly blend into the standard corporate structure.”

Her fingers drummed lightly against the side of the tablet, grounding herself in the reality of the situation. “I’m grateful—really. This is more than I could have hoped for. But stepping back into a legitimate system means I’m going to pop back up on a lot of radars. STAR Labs. Maybe others. If they’re still looking, this just put me back on the board.”

She met his gaze, not as someone rejecting the opportunity, but as someone making sure he understood the full weight of what came next. She would take this deal. She would work, she would find a way to stabilize. But it wouldn’t be clean. It wouldn’t be simple.

“I just figured you should know what comes with bringing me in.”