"Say it." His voice faltered, and the fear showed through evidently. He was terrified. The other man, standing in front of him, didn't miss it, as he watched the others every move. The first man was on his hands and knees, bleeding...injured...gazing up at the other man, with a look of horror. It was the end.

And he reached out.

"All I need.." The man on the floor whispered, the bombs in the room ticking, "All I need..." he repeated breathlessly, his body shaking violently, "is you."

The other man was silent...speechless.

"BATMAN!" The man on the ground, Joker, screamed.

Batman, still standing, didn't move. Couldn't move. He wasn't sure what to do. Then it hit him. His mind racing, all this pointed back to that night, at Joker's carnival. The day he paralyzed Barbara. The joke he shared...The two men in the asylum...it had been cry for help. Batman was the one who had jumped across, and Joker was the one afraid of falling. Joker looked up at him in desperation.

"Say it for me." His voice wavered, "Say it and I'll leave this life...behind me." His eyes widened, as he awaited an answer. The Dark Knight was silent. He wasn't sure what to think. Or if he even should think. This was how it was always supposed to be. Since the very beginning. He was supposed to die here. With Joker. Together. It would be better wouldn't it?

Joker's eyes widened in realization, and in a final act of his desperation, he screamed, "Say it! Say it if it's worth saving me!"

Batman didn't know anymore. He didn't know anything anymore. He had always thought, planned, on it ending this way.

"Please," Joker pleaded, although Batman didn't think that it really was Joker anymore, but Jack Napier, "...Save me...Save me this time...show me right from wrong...please..." he pleaded, one last time "...Say it for me..."

Batman knew what he himself wanted. But he also knew what was best for Gotham. But now... it was time for what he wanted. No self-sacrificing this time. Not now.

"I..." He hesitated, if only for a moment, the bombs ticking growing faster. He reached out, dove, for the Joker. For Jack.

"I love you." The bombs ticking stopped; time itself seemed to stand still a moment, and their eyes met, and locked.

Emerald Green, and Ocean Blue. The light and the darkness. Evil and Good.

And they were similar.

"I love you, too."