Title: Making Ends Pre-empt the Means
NOTE: Yes, I know, it's been ages. But summer's here, so I post more stories more quickly. Well, unless the disease called Writer's Block decides to rear its ugly head. Hope that doesn't happen. Anyway, please read on. This one's a little longer, angstier, and (surprise, surprise) darker than usual. Also keep in mind that while this like the other stories in this series can be read as a standalone, but you'd probably enjoy it more if you read those first.
Forfeit my future for feelings of few far betweens,
Mindless of merciful measures,
Making ends pre-empt the means.
I searched your eyes for an answer,
And shuddered at what I found there…
- Mad At Gravity, "Walk Away"
The wind was bracing, and Gordon shivered slightly, his feet dragging as he climbed up the fire escape of the recently closed movie theatre, which was this week's meeting spot with the Batman. He really, really wished he could have avoided calling this meeting, he thought. Again, he questioned whether the situation was desperate enough…but then he remembered a conversation he had had with the Batman only a few weeks ago.
"Have you tried to do anything about those people who've been impersonating you?" he asked, troubled by the defeated look in the Batman's eyes.
"Tried? Yeah, I tried, for all the good that did me. I followed this guy home after he robbed a bank wearing a Batman costume. I threatened to kill him if he ever tried to impersonate me again. Made this big dramatic speech about how this town was only big enough for one Batman and that if he ever tried to take credit for a crime wearing my face again, I'd hunt him down and kill him." The Batman sighed in frustration. "It didn't work. He laughed in my face and said that if I was really going to kill him, I would have done it already. I told him I had killed five people, including two cops, and I'd kill him, too, if he crossed me, but that just made him laugh harder. 'I don't believe you killed anyone for a second,' he said. 'You may have the rest of this town fooled but we know who you really are.' I knocked him out cold after that." He laughed a harsh, brittle laugh. "It figures that the only people who believe I'm not a bad guy are the bad guys themselves."
"There's more, isn't there?" Gordon asked. "The headlines today…"
"I went to return the money the guy had stolen, and the police got there just as I was leaving. I guess the guards had woken up by then or something. Of course, they thought I was the one trying to rob the bank…" He snorted softly, shaking his head.
"You shouldn't take risks like this," Gordon said after a pause. "Trying to return the money like that...your public image is bad enough as it is, don't you think. You need to be more careful!"
"What's the point?" the Batman asked bitterly, "It's not like I have that much to lose at this point- my public image can't really get much worse than it is already is. What's one more attempted bank robbery on my extensive rap sheet? Besides, I couldn't have just left the cash with the guy. He used to be one of Falcone's; God only knows what he was going to do with it. What was I supposed to do, take it with me?"
Better that than getting almost caught by the police yet again, Gordon thought, but bit his tongue, knowing the Batman would probably be horrified at the mere suggestion. "How many times do we have to talk about this? You're Gotham's last hope, you can't just-"
"Last hope?" the Batman interrupted. "Are you kidding me? Maybe I was once, but not anymore. All I am now is a diversion for the police department and all its resources. They spend all their effort and their resources trying to catch me! Meanwhile, the crime rates just keep rising because people have realized they can get away with murder if they do it while wearing a bat costume. Not to mention how fast all those guys who Dent put in jail are getting out now that he's dead." He hesitated. "Gordon.... if I was to get caught -"
"Don't you dare even finish that sentence," Gordon said, his blood running cold. "Are you insane?! Do you know what they'd do to you if they caught you?"
The Batman's eyes were sad, resigned. "I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be, remember?"
"No," Gordon breathed. "That's not what Gotham needs. What good will you be able to do if you're behind bars? The whole reason you decided to take the blame for the murders Dent committed was so that people wouldn't lose hope! It worked too, but Dent's gone now, and yes, that means that crime is making itself felt again. But that has nothing to do with you. If you're behind bars, everything we did, everything you sacrificed, it'll all be for nothing. Things will just go back to the way they were before you showed up. Maybe it'll take a few years, but it will happen. Just like it happened after the Wayne's died. "
The Batman's jaw tightened slightly. "Look, it's not like I've decided to do it tomorrow," he said, raising his hands in the universal gesture of placation. It didn't escape Gordon's notice that it was also the universal gesture of surrender. "It's just a back-up option," the Batman said, "Things aren't that bad yet, but if they get that way-"
"If they get that way, we'll deal with it," Gordon interrupted him. "Just promise me you won't do anything crazy without at least telling me first."
Silence.
"I promise I'll try."
"Batman-"
"That's the best I can give you right now, alright?" The Batman's growl was full of finality. "So drop it."
It was later that night, when he was lying in bed, unable to sleep, that the idea had first occurred to him. A voice had whispered from the darkest recesses of his mind that if only there was a way to make the criminals take the Batman more seriously, make them fear him even, some of their problems might be solved. He'd immediately clamped down on that train of thought, knowing where it would lead him, but it had kept nudging at him, every time he opened a paper and saw the Batman being reviled or blamed for things he hadn't done.
As Gotham began to slide, becoming the worst it had ever been since before Batman had arrived on the scene, as media and public opinion continued to wage its brutal war against the masked hero, as criminals and mobsters and corrupt politicians got bolder and bolder and as the police were too focussed on the Batman stop it, the prospect of intervening where the justice system had failed began became more and more appealing. After all, what other choices where there?
And then there was that other fear, always eating at the back of his mind that one day the phone would ring and Ramierz would tell him that the Batman had been caught. If that happened, he knew everything they had worked for would fall apart.
But still, he hesitated, knowing if he went down that road, if he actually started killing people off, even if they were the worst of the worst of humanity, there would be no going back. But when Alfred Pennyworth died, he could no longer ignore reality. Bruce Wayne's pale, grief-stricken face, and the way the public had once again blamed the entire thing on theBatman had been the final straw for him. Something had to be done, or Gotham would become even worse than it had been before Falcone.
He had set up a meet with the Batman, and now, just hours after Pennyworth's funeral, he forced himself to quicken his pace. He couldn't hold back anymore. As he reached the roof, he spotted the Batman leaning against a railing, weariness and despair pouring off him in waves. He sighed. Clearly, neither of them had had a good week.
"Hey," he said in greeting
The other man straightened. "What have you got for me?" he asked in a terse growl.
Gordon blinked at the non-greeting, and then handed him a file. "Trevor Lamburn. Serial killer and rapist, escaped from Arkham during last year's breakout."
The Batman opened the file and examined the picture on top, which featured the picture of a rather innocuous-looking man with blonde hair and grey eyes, somewhere in his thirties. Appearances could be deceiving, though, they both knew that. This man was innocuous in the same way that Crane had been.
"How do you know he's the one responsible for the attacks?" The Batman asked.
"Four years ago there was a series of rapes and killings, just like this one," Gordon said. "Same MO; he raped and then beheaded five victims- all young, petite brunettes, just like these attacks- before they managed to catch him." He grimaced slightly. "He's been out of Arkham for more than a year now- and frankly, I'm surprised he took this long to start up again."
The Batman continued to flick through the file. "I don't suppose you know the kind of places he frequents, anything that would give me a clue where to find him," he muttered, not very hopefully.
"Actually," Gordon said, bracing himself, "I know where he lives. It's in the file."
The Batman stilled. "But he's not behind bars," he said slowly.
"He's related to the right people," Gordon explained. "His brother is the new DA, believe it or not. He's the one who paid Crane to place him in Arkham a few years back. Now he keeps dumping reams piles of paperwork on any one who tries to go after his brother. And he's also paid enough people to ensure that he won't be going to jail or Arkham even if someone does manage to get through all the paperwork and tries to bring a case against him."
"And if we managed to arrange it so that he's caught in the act?" the Batman asked, thinking aloud. "In front of multiple witnesses?"
"It wouldn't be enough," Gordon said, briefly wondering how the Batman thought he could have pulled that one off. "Not even if you had the sworn statements of fifty witnesses. This guy's got way too much influence. And anyway, with your luck of late, you'd probably end up being blamed for everything if you were seen anywhere near one of the crime scenes. The last thing we need is for you to become labelled as a serial rapist on top of everything else."
The Batman suddenly flinched, abruptly turning away. Gordon stared at his back, and realized something he should have noticed at the start of the evening. Something wasn't right here- and it was something worse than could be explained by just a bad week. The way the Batman was holding himself, almost as if he was scared he would fall apart if he let his guard down even for a moment, the terse, flat way he kept speaking to Gordon…something was terribly wrong.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Fine," the Batman growled, frustrated. "Just tell me what you want me to do about Lamburn, because right now I'm not seeing a lot of options."
Gordon studied him for a long moment, suddenly wishing he hadn't chosen today to do this. "You're right," he said. "We don't have a lot of options."
There was a moment of weighty silence, and then the Batman's eyes widened in horrified comprehension. "No," he growled. "Are you out of your mind?"
"It's the only way," Gordon said, a little unnerved by the ferocity of the other man's reaction. He had sworn he would do what was necessary, for Gotham's sake as well as for the Batman's, but the look in the other man's eyes had brought all of his misgivings back with a vengeance. "He needs to be taken off the streets, Batman, or more women are going to keep dying!"
"Haven't you seen what happens when someone goes down that road?" the Batman asked, sounding beyond appalled. "You of all people-"
"I'm not Harvey Dent, and neither are you!" Gordon snapped- that last had touched a nerve. He'd had the same thought more than once since this had occurred to him. "I'm not going around asking you to kill corrupt cops or petty thieves- for God's sake, he's a serial rapist, he's murdering innocent women, and there's no other way he can be stopped-"
"It doesn't matter!" the other man shouted, his entire body vibrating with suppressed fury. "I won't take the law into my own hands- I'm not just a fucking vigilante doing my own thing!"
"So what, you'll just- look the other way?" Gordon retorted. "You'll let more and more girls get killed? What the hell good is being Batman if you don't step in where the justice system fails?"
"There has to be another way!" the Batman roared, his eyes anguished and desperate and furious. "I can't be an executioner! I swore I wouldn't cross that line, and I can't-" He broke off, breathing harshly, as if he had run a marathon, and Gordon, looking down, caught a glimpse of his gloved hands and saw that they were shaking. His anger and frustration suddenly drained out of him, replaced by concern and alarm. Something really bad had happened, he was sure of it, and again he wished he had chosen another day to spring this on the Batman.
"Look," he said, backing off a bit, "Obviously, it's your decision. I can't force you to do this. Just know that if you do decide to do this, Lamburn's blood will be on my hands too. You won't be the only one that feels...responsible. You won't be doing this alone."
The Batman stared at him, and slowly all the fight went out of his stance. "Yes, I will. It'll be my hands that pull the trigger, not yours."
"And I'm the one who decided he deserved to die, not you."
There was a long, fraught silence.
"If we do this, there'll be no going back," Batman said in a low voice, "Once we start playing God-"
"I know," Gordon said; his voice tight. "That option will always be open to us." That was the whole fucking point.
The Batman stared at him, his eyes tortured, and Gordon met his gaze, his own simultaneously intense and pleading. "I'll have to think about this," said the masked man at last, suddenly sounding shaky and unsure and far too young. "I don't know if I can...there are promises I made and I don't..." He took a deep, steadying breath. "I'm going to need some time."
"Okay," Gordon said, his voice rough. "Listen, I'm-"
But the Batman was gone, and Gordon stared after him, his chest tight. I'm sorry.
Two nights later, his cell phone rang loudly, jerking him awake. "Gordon speaking."
"Gordon, you'd better get down here," came Ramierz's voice. "The DA's brother's was found dead in the Narrows, though we can't figure out why he was there in the first place..."
"I'm on my way," Gordon said, sudddenly wide awake.
For a long moment, all he could do was just stand there, frozen with shock. The Batman had actually done it. And Ramierz had called him to the scene. He was almost surprised at how dirty that made him feel. As if he was one of the corrupt cops he had spent so many years trying to rid the department of. Bile rose in his throat, and he knew, with chilling certainty, that he had changed things irrevocably, for both the Batman had himself.
He stared out of the window into the night, and whispered, "I'm so sorry."
END.
Well, this is the oneshot that will make or break this series. If you guys can't accept Gordon and the Batman in the role of judge and executioner, then reading the rest of the series will be pretty much redundant, as it concerns the effects of this decision on them both. However, I honestly don't see what other choices they have. I didn't really intend to back them into a corner like this, but when I realized what I'd done I had to follow it through. I even got Alfred out of the way partly for this very reason- because he'd probably have held Bruce back from killing off criminals. Not to mention the great angst potential his death had. :D
Not that I support vigilante-ism in real life, just to be clear- I believe that if people started taking the law into their own hands, they'd eventually make mistakes even if they did some good at first and innocent people would get hurt.
Anyway, I really want to know what you guys think of the direction I've taken with this. There will only be one or two fics left in this series, I've yet to decide. Let me put a question to you guys- do you want an ending that's tragic but optimistic, or happy and optimistic? When I put it like that, it seems a bit like a no-brainer, but I know there are some people, myself included who like tragic endings. As long as they're not depressing. Yes, I know, I'm evil. Don't let that stop you from reviewing.
A/N: I have made a change to the last part of the chapter in response to two concerns raised by the reviewer Xrai, first that Gordon wouldn't find out about the murder in the paper, but get a call from the police department. That's a very good point which I never even thought of. Also, I never intended it to sound like the Batman had in fact 'brutally' murdered Lamburn. I thought that was how the media might exaggerate it. To clarify this, I decided to leave that bit out entirely.