"Tetch! Let her go!"
He had gone too far this time. The Dark Knight knew that the small woman before him was not in her right mind. Jervis Tetch had kidnapped her for his Wonderland; the Dormouse. As the stark white snow fell around them, the black of the bat stood out in plain contrast.
"I'm afraid I cannot, Jabberwocky! Dormouse, please dispose of our guest!"
The young woman with a curled mess of brunette hair merely nodded in response. Her eyes were narrowly open; she looked as though she would fall asleep at any moment. A long gash was cut across her cheek, trickles of crimson red blood seeping from beneath the skin. Her glasses were thrown askew from her face, buried in the snow beneath her feet. Atop her head, a grand set of mouse ears were mounted on a headband.
The source of the Hatter's control.
It took moments before she ran towards Batman. The pint sized woman ran with all her might at the dark knight, narrowly missing a slice at his abdomen with her knife. He dodged easily, the woman seeming undeterred. As this went on, with the Batman hesitant to hit the innocent woman, the GCPD pulled up, all aiming their guns at the woman. Not a single shot fired.
None dare take the risk of missing.
"Yes, yes! Do try to hit him, Dormouse, we haven't nearly got time for tea left!" The Hatter shouted impatiently as the cops dragged him back to restrain him. His marvellous hat was knocked clear from his head as the Dormouse was in mid swing with the blade.
Before her senses fully returned, however, it was too late. A yell of pain came from the tall guardian of Gotham. Drops of scarlet stained the white dashed along the ground. The widening of the young woman's eyes brought her awareness.
And with it, the heavy weight of realisation of the scene that lie before her.
It took only a moment before she spun around to the call of a man far behind her. And it took the split second in doing so before the piercing ring of a gunshot resonated. The birds perched upon the barren branches took flight and a sharp gasp replaced the echoing silence of the bullet.
The cold, bloodied steel fell from the limp grip of the woman's hand, and the same crimson red from her cheek spread from her stomach. Her hands urgently flew to the wound, trying to supress some of the gushing from her gut.
"No!" Two voices cried out. One belonging to the Hatter, the other… to the dark knight himself.
He held tightly onto the deep gash on his forearm, concealing the flow beneath his leather glove. He ran to the young woman's aid, whom had collapsed onto her knees into the freezing snow as the blood ran from her desperate hands. The Hatter stared in horror, ceasing all struggles that he had in the arms of the officers, whom had now frozen in their motions as time seemed to stop dead.
As time resumed its sorrowful pace, the small woman fell backward, colour draining from her features as her skin became as pale as the snow that rests as an icy blanket. The burgundy of her fleeting life bloomed out from beneath her, a stray drop escaping from the corner of her dark lips. The Batman caught her in her descent, her body lighter than ever as the darkness began closing in her sight.
"Somebody help!"