"the bat is here!" Jonathan cried out, making Jervis instinctively walk out the cell and try to fight him, not personally of course, but rather by using his recently acquired minions, the guards of Arkham themselves. He was able to see the giant shadow swiftly running around and knocking out every head that found its way into his fists, bodies went down on the ground senseless, it was a harsh scene for everyone that wasn't Batman. It was inconceivable to everyone not on his side that he was considered a crime fighter. Slowly but steadily Jervis could feel the mind control that he held on the guards slip away from him, one by one, on account that the minds he was controlling weren't available once Batman's fists reached them. Worse for him, behind the fight he could see the rest of the guards, all free from his mind control, making their way to contain the break out.
Out of nowhere he felt the Joker's hands on him, he violently put his arm around Jervis' neck and grabbed the bag of bombs on his other hand,
"if you know what's good for you you'll stay away from us Batman! You better! Or I'll blow our dear friend Jervis' head off, and everyone else with it,"
"don't touch my hat!" Jervis shouted,
"remember we were talking about hopeless creeps? Here's the worst kind of them all, the idealistic hopeless creep, you aren't different from us Batman! The only difference between you and the people you put in here is that you think something rotten can turn fresh again, you think that there's hope for all of us, here's your hope you creep!"
The Joker threw the rest of his bombs unto the air, then took out his gun and shot at it, causing a big explosion.
"are you crazy?!" Jonathan shouted behind them, "oh wait, never-mind."
The smoke dissipated, Batman's unscathed figure became apparent, "maybe there's hope for everyone, but not for you," he said.
Jervis identified one of the guards standing behind Batman, he closed his eyes and sneakily grabbed a card from behind his hat.
"Aww you hurt my feelings," the Joker said, offended, "as I said, get closer and we lose our friend Jervis forever."
A blonde guard sucked punched Batman right in the jaw; the Joker burst into laughter. Batman managed to stay on his two feet but before he could immobilize the guard she escaped him and ran all the way to Jervis and the Joker, per Jervis' mental orders.
"Now we have some real leverage against the bat," Jervis said,
"I couldn't have said it better myself," the Joker said before grabbing Jervis and their new hostage and disappearing from the scene. Jonathan, however, didn't fare so well, as another group of guards creeped up behind him, first subduing him, and ultimately shocking him repeatedly for his troubles, all of this while Batman silently stared at the fugitives from afar, which made both the Joker and Jervis realize that they had sealed their fates, and they didn't have a lot of time left until they met them.
They ran around the gray and brown yard of the facility looking for a place to hide. It was almost not worth it anymore, still they managed to pull from what was left of their willpower to hide behind another block of cells, knowing their future capture and punishment were a certainty.
"Welp, there goes my chance to escape, and I've also gained myself a free beatdown courtesy of the bat, hurray, I should've just left, you are a hopeless cause Jervis and I don't care that you know it, you've cost me my freedom, and you've probably saved the lives of many citizens of Gotham, so congratulations".
Jervis ignored the Joker and made the female guard kneel on the grass, then he knelt right in front of her,
"hi, my name is Jervis, what's yours?" Jervis asked,
"Alice," she answered,
"that's a beautiful name, I really like that name, it is probably my favorite name of all time,"
"thank you very much, Jervis is a really cool name too,"
"oh you are too kind...so, Alice, what do you like to do for fun?"
"A lot of things, I like to read and play games, prance barefoot through the field and smell the flowers, drink tea and eat cake, and dream of someone who would care for me and protect me and listen to me, someone to whom I could give all of my love,"
"would you believe that I like to do the same things? And I have the same dreams too, of course I also like to be alone sometimes, sometimes I like to pretend that I'm the only person in the planet, and that I live in a cozy cave sixteen feet underground, all by myself, and sometimes I also pretend that no one exists, not even me, does that ever happen to you? Do you ever get tired of yourself?"
"I do, I think that happens to everyone they just don't like to admit it,"
"and sometimes, sometimes when I don't drink my tea I get these very crazy nightmares while I am awake, I see monsters everywhere I go and I can hear them speak, talking to each other about me, they always need to make sure they know where I am at all times and don't leave me a single inch, nor a single second to myself, and they can always reach me but I can't ever reach them, so I have to silence them from afar, I have to keep them quiet and I feel bad but I have to you see, because if I don't they won't stop talking and they'll get me, they always get me,"
"my poor, sweet Jervis, if only everyone knew what you have to go through,"
"why aren't there more women like you Alice?"
"One is enough to make your life better forever, now come and rest your head on my lap."
Jervis timidly obeyed the female guard and carefully rested the back of his head on her lap, then she started stroking his cheeks,
"just be really careful with my hat please, and brush away any dead leaves that fall on my face, and sing me a song won't you?" Jervis asked,
"...you can really have no notion how delightul it will be, when they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters out to sea,"
"that's my favorite song," Jervis said with his eyes closed, then he raised and knelt right in front of her again,
"is there anything you'd like to say to me Alice?"
He asked, but she said nothing,
"anything at all, you can tell me anything you want and I'll listen."
Jervis stopped thinking and started looking around, he became aware of where he was once more; the joker was gone. Suddenly, from the top of his head he felt a sheer cold, Jervis turned around to find Batman with his hand on his hat.
"No, stop touching my hat!" Jervis cried and tried to stand up, but the cold that creeped through his body downwards stopped him from doing so. It was extremely painful, Batman was torturing him just because he was trying to talk to Alice, it was an absolute injustice.
Jervis' hat became too heavy for his head, and at the moment he felt his neck would break from the weight, instead he felt it being removed from him and Jervis did not know what was worse, that he didn't have his hat anymore or that it would explode immediately. Batman threw the completely frozen hat away from them and a few seconds passed before it exploded safely, freeing the female guard in the process.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Jervis shouted at the skies, until only a haunting whisper escaped his mouth, then he lowered his head and closed his eyes, and a layer of ice on top of his head broke into pieces and fell to the ground.
The blonde guard stood up and violently grabbed Jervis by his collar, she was livid,
"you want something real? You are the worst, most horrific creep that has ever existed, someone as mental as you shouldn't be allowed to live, I really hope that you die soon! For your own good,"
"I know."
She let Jervis kneeling on the ground and left, knowing there was absolutely no point in speaking to someone like him. As she walked away from them, still rabid, Jervis raised his head and looked at Batman, who was already looking at him, and they stared at each other for a few seconds before Batman left. The guards came back with all of their tasers ready.
Jervis was empty, but at the same time he wasn't open to be fulfilled by anything, not electricity, not pain, not hateful taunts or dehumanizing insults. He stayed silent, staring at nothing, until the guards took him to another simple cell just like the one he had before, then left him there alone in the dark and in silence. There he started talking to himself,
"Back behind bars and my hat is gone forever, this small cell in the dark is more than enough to contain my weak and frail body, and my troubled mind...and my desires, oh Alice, all of them out there, who will live and grow and yet keep the simple and loving heart of their childhood, and how they will gather about their own children and make their eyes as bright and eager as their own, and how they will all feel with all their simple sorrows, and find pleasure in all the simple joys, remembering
their own child life and the happy summer days...and me, a hopeless creep, too aberrant and corrupted to make any Alice happy, why would I ruin their existence? Why would I not want them to live happy lives, which I cannot have? If my desire for them brings them sadness then my desire for them must die, and I must stay hidden, away from them. That will finally give them what I always wanted for them, but what of me? Oh, what will be of my life without desire?"
The doors of the cell block opened, and the guards walked in carrying another inmate. Now purposeless, Jervis walked to the front of his cell and grabbed the prison bars. There he saw her, and could feel how the sight of her filled the hole that he had just created inside of him, as they
carried her, strapped from her limbs and her neck to a metal table semi vertically, she still tried to bite off the arms of the guards carrying her, with the eyes of a demon. She looked at him too,
"hi puddin', I guess we are roommates now," she said before they took her away,
"pudding," Jervis said to himself in the darkness, "pudding."
