AU: This is based on an RP I was involved in. Please read and review and sorry that there is so much dialogue! (spelt with British spelling)
Chapter 1: Confusion?
Bruce Wayne was sat at the bat-computer with a steaming mug of espresso coffee in his hand. He was searching through files on who Black Mask was. Bruce had only been batman for two years and was one of the youngest billionaires around at twenty-four years old.
Alfred came gingerly down the lift to the Bat-cave. Bruce turned around to see the fifty-five year old followed by another familiar face. The other person stepped out the shadows and into the floodlit cave. The other man was a grey-haired middle-aged man with a black handlebar moustache and a dark-grey suit. The man had an unlit cigarette in his mouth.
The man in question was Henri Ducard – French assassin-turned Detective. Bruce gasped in shock.
"Henri?" Bruce asked himself before realising he was correct. "Henri!"
"Bruce" Ducard confirmed, halfheartedly. Alfred remained silent.
Ducard walked up to the bat-computer, swiftly followed by a drawn-back Alfred.
"What are you doing here, Henri?" Bruce asked with a slight hint of confusion in his voice, "I mean the US is a long way from France."
"I came to Gotham to seek your help, old friend. I heard you're rapidly becoming 'the world's greatest detective' and I need your help." Ducard smiled.
Bruce huffed, "Need my help with what?"
Ducard lit his cigarette and took a puff before replying "Solving a crime"
Bruce frowns "Solving what?"
There was an uneasy silence as Ducard cleared his throat. "This is going to sound ridiculous…" He ruffles his moustache.
"Go on" Bruce said as he sipped his coffee.
There was a long pause.
"I need you to help me investigate the death of Bruce Wayne." Ducard said finally.
Bruce laughed and looked confused simultaneously. "I am pretty sure I'm alive."
"That was exactly what I thought, until I got to the scene." Ducard pulls out a wad of printed photographs. "It's you, dead in the centre of Paris."
Bruce's jaw dropped. "I'm so confused right now."
Alfred shifted uneasily "He hasn't even visited Paris, Mr Ducard."
"Last week in Paris, you died in front of thousands of people on their way to work. Bruce Wayne…you went crazy and jumped off the Eifel Tower, investigators concluded."
"Surely people know I'm still alive. I threw a party just last night."
"You also snuck into Blackgate Penitentiary, but that's not the point. The point is that a missing persons report was filed a week ago from an address on Gotham – your address and a day later 'you' turn up dead in the centre of Paris." Ducard said.
Bruce looked severely perplexed. "So what would you have me do?" he asked.
"Bruce turn around and put your hands behind your back." Ducard ordered sounding dismayed.
Bruce put his hands behind his back "Like this?" He asked.
Ducard looms over him and handcuffs Bruce. Ducard laughs and sniffles a bit. "It is with great confusion and sadness that I must inform you that, Bruce Wayne you are under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Bruce Wayne. Anything you day may be used as evidence which you may later rely on in court. Anything you do say will be given as evidence. I am so confused, but there is an international warrant for your arrest. Rather me then one of your corrupt Gotham cops."
"How could I murder Bruce Wayne? I am Bruce Wayne!" Bruce testified.
"Tell that to Bruce Wayne." Ducard said smiling at his wit.
Alfred was incredibly confused and had to prop up on a rock to avoid falling.
"Bruce is an innocent man!" Alfred bellowed. "You've got no right. I'm calling Lucius and he'll get the lawyers, Master Bruce."
Bruce shushed Alfred, "Don't worry Alfred; I am sure it is just a misunderstanding, I mean how many Bruce Wayne's are there!"
"Nine hundred and twenty three, but only two are twenty three years old and from Gotham with the exact resemblance right down to birthmarks. You and the 'you' that died." Ducard said.
"How is there someone exactly identical as me?" Bruce asked irritated.
Ducard stalled. "I don't know - that's why we need you to help Interpol and my police department."
Bruce bellowed "Where is the evidence that I killed this man!"
Ducard replied swiftly and produced a video tape from his trench coat pocket. "Right here."
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