The night was cold and dark, a light rain fell from a starless sky. Batman was at the zoo with Nightwing, waiting for Catwoman to show up. Yesterday a white tiger had been brought to the Gotham city zoo, an obvious target for her. While not exactly rare or valuable, he knew Catwoman would never let any type of cat be locked up, and that she would either set it free or keep it as a pet. He felt certain she would come tonight, not wanting the animal to "suffer" any longer.
Just as he suspected, she appeared only minutes later. They hid in the shadows and watched as she searched for the tiger's cage. He knew he would have to arrest her again, and it hurt him every time he had to cuff her. How he wished she would give up crime, but even then he knew they could never truly be together. Selina Kyle could never know his true name.
"Batman, did you hear that?" whispered Nightwing.
He listened and heard something, but couldn't be sure what it was. Apprehending Catwoman was never easy but didn't require Nightwing's assistance, but he had been visiting from Blüdhaven and since the night had been relatively quiet he had offered to join him.
Suddenly, the thing that had made the noise appeared. Two hyenas came out of nowhere and pounced on Catwoman. She threw them off of her and quickly grabbed her whip and whipped them both until they backed off. As they trotted away, their owners made their appearance. The Joker with his painted smile and Harley Quinn on his arm.
"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" asked the Joker with a wicked grin. "A stray cat? We should do our civic duty and give her the Bob Barker treatment."
"What are you doing here, clown?" asked Catwoman, her tone annoyed.
"Today's my birthday, so Mistah J said we could get the babies back from the zoo!" said Harley happily. "Isn't he the sweetest thing? He knows just how to make his girl smile."
Nightwing had been about to spring into action, but Batman held him back. The Joker had escaped two weeks before with his girlfriend Harley. The two had been causing random mischief but nothing too serious, so Batman believed they would do something big soon, but he had no idea what. He had been waiting for the Joker to make a mistake, or at the very least give him some hint as to what he had planned. He needed to be patient; he would deal with the Joker soon enough, but he wanted to wait to make sure he didn't divulge anything important first.
"If you'll excuse me, I have a tiger to rescue," said Catwoman dismissively as she turned to walk away.
"So noble…" said the Joker with a grin. "If only your dear boyfriend were here to see you being such a good girl, he'd be so proud."
Catwoman sighed exasperatedly and the Joker continued. "You know, I've been trying to think of the perfect way to get his attention for my next plan, but nothing I've come up with has really felt right. You wouldn't happen to have his number, would you?"
"I'm afraid he hasn't given me his number, so sorry to disappoint you," said Catwoman as she rolled her eyes and began to walk away.
"He hasn't? Some boyfriend he is, I'll have to give him some relationship advice some time," chuckled the Joker. "Well in that case, I guess I'll just have to go with plan B."
Before Batman or Nightwing could stop him, the Joker whipped out a gun and shot Catwoman in the head. She collapsed to the ground as blood poured out of her skull. Enraged, Batman leapt from his hiding place and ran at the Joker with Nightwing following close behind. The Joker's eyebrows raised in surprise as Batman tackled him to the ground as Nightwing went after Harley.
"Well if it isn't the big bad Bat come to spoil my fun," giggled the Joker as Batman repeatedly punched him in the face. "If I had known getting your attention would be this easy, I'd have killed the cat years ago!"
"Why did you want my attention?" snarled Batman.
"Because my latest plan is my best yet, but it needs you to truly be perfect. I wish I could give you the details, but then it wouldn't be a secret anymore, now would it?"
Batman gripped his fingers around the madman's throat, and this only served to amuse the Joker even more. Between gasps for breath he would laugh at the Batman, as though he had told some joke that he didn't get.
As he kept him pinned to the ground, Batman felt his rage and hatred of the man before him increase as memories of the man's terrible acts of cruelty washed over him like an ocean. He had murdered Robin so long ago and crippled Barbara Gordon and tried to drive Jim Gordon insane. He had ruined countless lives and stolen so many others, and behind him lay Selina, most likely dead. Why had he shot her? He could have gotten his attention in any other way, yet he had chosen this. Why? It made no sense, none of his crimes ever did. Why did he find so much amusement in the pain and suffering of others? Why was it that no matter how many times he locked him away he could never truly beat him, could never truly win the battle?
"Feisty tonight, aren't we Bats?" coughed the Joker. "My, the way you're acting you'd think I'd killed your girlfriend or something. Oops, too soon?"
Batman was losing control, his grip around the Joker's throat began to tighten, even so the Joker continued to laugh as best he could with what little oxygen he could get. Why wouldn't he stop laughing at him? He couldn't take it anymore, he was sick of the Joker always laughing at him, sick of trying to clean up the trail of blood the Joker always left behind him. He was trying to help the city, to save it from the monsters who terrorized it without end, while the Joker went out of his way to thwart his efforts and laugh at his need to protect those who needed him. Why had he not killed this man before? Why was it that every time he had the chance to end his reign of terror he showed him the mercy he never showed his victims?
"Come on, you can do it, almost there," encouraged Joker as he continued to laugh. "You know, I always believed in you. I always believed you had it in you to be like me. It took a lot of hard work to push you over the edge, and I'd almost given up on you, but you're just full of surprises, aren't you? You make Papa proud."
Part of his brain told him to stop and tried to remind himself why he shouldn't kill him. He tried to stop himself from breaking his one rule, from sinking down to the level of his enemies, but it was too late. With one swift motion he snapped his neck in two, but to Batman's revulsion, he didn't die immediately.
"Congratulations Bats, I knew you could do it. Now sit back and watch the world go up in flames. Goodbye, old friend, 'till we meet again," he said weakly as he laughed his last laugh. When his laughter ended, the world suddenly became deathly quiet.
It took a few seconds for it to register in his brain what he had done. When it did, he stood up and took a few steps away from the Joker's body. He was about to perform CPR, but then remembered that he had broken his neck and it would do no good. The Joker was dead, and the Batman had been the one to take his life.
Batman couldn't believe what he had done. He had finally done it, he had broken his one rule and ended a life. Why had he done it? Never before had he lost control in such a way, how could he have let the Joker do this to him? Why had he been unable to control himself this time? Was it because of what he did to Catwoman? No, it was that and everything else the Joker had ever done. It had become too much. He had had to end it, but not this way. He remembered a time when he had told the Joker that if he didn't stop what he was doing, if he didn't stop the madness, it would end with one of them killing the other, but never had he thought he would be doing the killing. It had always been a possibility, but he had believed he would always be able to resist. It was like the universe had just slapped him back to reality; he had been a fool to just believe he could always be strong enough to resist, and now he was paying for it. He felt a grim satisfaction in the man's death, and he was disgusted with himself for it. It didn't matter that the Joker was a sadistic monster, what he had done was wrong. He didn't know what to do, he just stood there, trying to decide what this meant for him.
"Batman, I got Harley," said Nightwing as he dragged an irritated-looking Harley over in handcuffs. "I called the police, they'll be here so-" he stopped dead in his tracks and his mouth dropped open when he saw the Joker on the ground, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
"Mistah J!" screamed Harley as she threw herself on the ground next to his body. Nightwing was in such a state of shock that he didn't even try to stop her.
"Puddin'! No, no, no, you can't be dead, you just can't be!" wailed Harley as she wrapped her arms around him and soaked his suit with her tears. "Don't leave me like this, I need you, please come back to me! This can't be happening, it just can't be! Please, I need you, I love you! You can't be dead!" She paused, then whispered as she gazed up at the man responsible for her boyfriend's death, "But you are, aren't you? You killed him. You said you never would, but you did. You killed him, you stole him from me. You stole my Puddin!"
Harley threw herself at Batman, but he had been expecting it and grabbed her by her wrists and held her at arms-length. She screamed incoherently at him and tried to free herself, but as she did the gravity of the situation began to sink in and he watched as her boundless energy was drained from her right before his eyes. She sank to her knees and took in gasping breaths, no longer strong enough to stand, too anguished and heartbroken to even cry.
The police came then, and Nightwing finally broke through his stupor and made to take Harley to the police. Batman released her and she wrapped her arms around her stomach and refused to move, so Nightwing picked her up and carried her to the cops.
Batman took off then, not wanting to face Gordon after what he had done. Jim had always trusted him, had always been a good friend, but now… He was too ashamed and disgusted with himself to face one of the few men in Gotham who were uncorrupted.
He went back to the Batmobile and drove back to the Batcave. Exactly fifteen minutes later Nightwing returned, as well.
"Catwoman is still alive, but they doubt she'll make it through the night," said Nightwing. "Harley's being taken back to Arkham, maybe there's finally hope for her now. I considered lying to the police and telling them the Joker's death was an accident, but I assumed you wouldn't want that."
"You're right, I wouldn't have you lie to the police, especially about something like this," said Batman grimly.
Just then, Oracle appeared on the Batcomputer. "I just heard the news, did you really kill the Joker?"
Nightwing didn't know what to say. He had always believed that if either of them slipped up like this, that it would be him, not Batman. He didn't know what to think.
"Yes, I lost control and murdered him," said Batman as he ripped his mask off.
"What will happen now?" asked Oracle reluctantly.
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Batman angrily. "I can't be the Batman anymore."
"What!" shouted Nightwing and Oracle in unison.
"I couldn't control myself, I let my emotions cloud my judgment and look what happened. I took a man's life."
"You can't let one incident get in the way of your duty, after all, it was just the Joker," reasoned Nightwing. "Look at it this way, all the people he would have killed, you saved their lives tonight."
"The Joker was still a man, and I swore to never take a life. You can't condone murder, even when it's life in its lowest form."
"I'm not condoning it, it was wrong, but I know you won't make the same mistake again. Everyone makes mistakes, nobody's perfect, so why should you be?"
"Because as Batman I set an example. If people see me killing they'll think it's the appropriate way to deal with criminals. But it's not just that. I swore not to kill because I knew that if I did I wouldn't be able to stop. Now that I have, I don't know if I can keep myself from killing other criminals."
"You can," said Oracle. "I believe in you. I believe that you are strong enough to resist, that you can keep Gotham safe without taking lives. I've always believed in you, ever since I was a little girl, but you need to believe in yourself."
"I appreciate that, but I can't take that risk. There will be no more Batman."
Nightwing had been about to protest, but Oracle spoke first. "I don't agree, but I'll respect your decision. We both will."
"Do you need me to stay in Gotham for a little while longer?" asked Nightwing.
"No, Blüdhaven needs you," said Batman. "Go, we'll be fine here."
Nightwing left the Batcave, having nothing more to say. Oracle turned off her computer and massaged her temples with her fingers. They both wondered if it was wrong of them to be glad that the Joker was finally dead, and they wondered what would happen to Gotham now that its greatest villain and greatest hero were both gone.
Author's Note: Things aren't always what they seem. I know it's cliché, but remember that while you read this story.