She could do little more than watch, horrified, as chaos was unleashed upon the police convoy trying to answer her distress call. Guilt weighed heavy on her heart and soul. It was her fault the police were being targeted. She was the one to call her uncle. She was the one who begged him to bring help for Robin. It was her fault. They were dying because of her. Just like Jason...
No, you can't fixate upon that now.
Those bands were already around her chest, around her head though. Tightening, tightening. Only the boy she cradled in her arms kept her from curling into a ball and whimpering like a baby. Stay strong for Robin, she told herself. He needs you to stay strong. It was just as the panic began receding, though, that a familiar laugh echoed from the shadows.
"Oh, but you have been a very naughty thing, now haven't you? Calling the cops instead of ole Batsy. I mean, really, Toots! Who calls the pigs instead of the big guy?"
She slowly turned her head and saw the Joker standing at the opposite end of the alley, playfully wagging a finger while leering at her.
"You…" she managed around the bile threatening to erupt from her mouth. "You, loathsome, vile…"
"I need you to call Batsy, Toots." His grin stretched across his garrulous features, sickening her. "I need you to tell him where we are. So, do be a good girl and call him for me."
"No..." She hissed out the word between her teeth. "No, I won't call Batman."
That miles wide grin vanished. A dark and dangerous glint entered those green eyes.
"No?" It was said sulkily, his garishly painted mouth twisting into a pout. "You dare to tell me no?"
"That's right," she gritted. "I am telling you no. No, I won't call him here." She carefully laid Robin back on the ground and slowly rose to face the pasty-faced freak. "No, I won't allow him to play your sick game." She tossed her head, cool disdain and derision on her face; glittering in her eyes. "No, I won't let you break him."
"You should be careful of what you ask for, my dear," Joker sneered. "You just might get what you wish for."
She spied the hulking shapes behind the Joker and felt her heart drop into her stomach. There was at least thirty of them, one of her, and an injured Robin she needed to protect.
Time, she thought as the goons began advancing towards her. I got to buy enough time for Batman.
That would be easier said than done. A quick count was enough to tell her that. Thirty guys were a bit of a stretch. Even with all her skill and training, the odds were more than solidly in their favor. She counted her options. There were few. Speed would be her greatest ally. Strike fast, make the hit count, and get out before another goon could grab hold of her. A breath of wind billowed past her ear and she again heard that familiar rasp.
"Always remember to fight smarter, not harder."
What she needed was a weapon. A glance showed her a painted baboon in Blackgate prison garb smacking a lead pipe against his palm. Perfect. She reached for one of her projectiles, palming it before smiling at the men leering at her.
"So," she said. "Who wants to be first?"
The men started advancing like a solid wall of human flesh before they split off, slowly moving to surround her, and flanking her on all sides. Time slowed to a crawl as she drew her arm back. She never heard the scream of the police sirens or the squeal of a set of tires. The first dart was already leaving her hand at the same second a figure launched high into the air like a bat rising straight outta the pits of hell...
…
The Joker circled around the battle, watching and waiting for the moment when his Knight would arrive. Then, and only then, would he leap in and grasp hold of the little cutie by them luscious curls. And wasn't she just adorable doing all those little backflips and high kicks?
His grin stretched wide as he imagined the anguish that would be on the face of his Bats when he rid him of the little bird. Oh, the Dark Knight would finally snap, and that mantle of civility would be cast off when he saw the lights go out in those pretty little eyes. Oh, yes, the big guy would swoop across the distance separating them and grasp him by the throat before her body even had a chance to hit the ground.
It would be glorious!
His high, keening laugh echoed above the sounds of the sirens, the shouts from the cops, and the grunts and curses of his idiot henchmen. Morons who couldn't even take down one small girl! I mean really! He pouted. How hard was it to get a hold of a small slip of a girl?
A flash of something shiny caught his eye and the Joker turned his head. His eyes gleamed when he spied the figure racing towards the scene on a spiffy looking bike. A smile stretched his fractured mouth wide, and his brain began to tick as another plan took root. If killing Robin and the little lovely somehow were not enough to push his love over the edge?
Well, killing the first Boy Blunder was sure to finish the job!
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the walkie.
"Kill Nightwing," he chortled into the radio.
…
He couldn't let the boy die.
That was the only thing going through Jim Gordon's head when he spied the red dot on Nightwing's chest. He could not let the boy die. The clown had killed enough for one night. He wasn't going to add the boy's name to the list. Just then a voice that sounded like Harvey's sounded inside his head. Boy? That ain't no boy, Jim. That is a man. A man who your daughter cares for, that she almost married.
He sprang into action, years of training and long-honed instincts providing him with the reflexes necessary to reach the younger man's side before that bullet had a chance to leave the chamber.
"Sniper!" he shouted in the same breath he grabbed hold of Nightwing and yanked him down beside Bullock. The young man blinked his surprise, opened his mouth to say something, but a slug slammed into the passenger window of the police car, shattering it into a billion different pieces that rained down upon them.
…
Standing there on the opposite side of the street, feeling helpless, Batman could do nothing but watch as Nightwing fell beside Gordon. Rage and anguish surged inside him and he used his grappling gun to pull the sniper from the roof, saving anyone else from death by gunfire.
However, forever sealed now into his brain was the sight of his oldest son being shot in the chest. Unbidden memories superimposed themselves upon his conscious mind, taunting him in the clown's voice, and laughing at him in that high-pitched cackle that was his.
Batman saw again the explosion which ripped apart the night lying over that Ethiopian warehouse as if it was little more than a lace curtain. He could see the dancing tendrils of smoke and flame rocketing up into the starless sky in a sick dance. He could smell the acrid stench of blood, rotting garbage, burning wood, and scorched metal.
His belly pitched violently, and saliva flooded his mouth. He heard his breath rasping in his throat, felt it freeze in his chest. His thoughts were whirling chaotically. Too late, he was too late. He'd always be too late. Just like he'd been doomed to fail to protect Jason Todd and Tim Drake, he'd be doomed to fail Dick Grayson as well.
I'm sorry, he said to the man who'd been like a son to him. It's my fault, Dick. I got you killed. I got all of you killed. I own that. I'll carry that like I carry everything else. It's my fault that the Joker was able to get his hands on all of you. It's my fault for not seeing, not suspecting that he'd come after you, that he'd target you to get at me. I failed you. Failed you as a father. Failed you as Batman. And I will carry that guilt, and that regret with me, forever.
He heard that high, keening laugh echo and saw the Joker clapping and dancing in the middle of the street.
He never saw himself turning towards that gaily laughing figure.
He never felt himself launching himself at him.
He never realized he grasped the Joker by the throat.
All he knew was that he had taken all he was going to take.
And he wasn't going to take any more.
...
She didn't know why, or even exactly what had happened, she just knew that something had broken inside Batman. What they had long expected and feared was about to come to pass: Batman was going to go too far. When he grasped the Joker by the throat, she knew, just knew that the Dark Knight would not be letting go until the last breath had been squeezed out of the clown's body.
She wasn't going to let that happen.
She was not going to let Batman fall.
She moved towards him, not knowing what to do or say that would bring him back from that edge, but knowing she had to do something.
"Let him go." A veiled note of steel underscored her thin, reedy tone. "It's not worth it… he's not worth it."
"Don't be a kil..."
Whatever he might have been about to say ended on a choked gasp that almost sounded like a cackle. Joker's long, bony fingers dug into Batman's wrist gauntlet, but whether it was to gain his release from that gloved grasp or to push the hero into taking that final plunge into the abyss of no return was anybody's guess.
"Look at me." When he didn't comply with her request, she repeated it, more firmly this time. "Batman, look at me."
She waited for him to shift his gaze from the pasty-faced freak to her, and even while the panic threatened to tear her into shreds, she did not look away when those electric eyes shifted, pinning her.
"You taught me how to temper my thirst for vengeance with a greater ideal of justice. You taught me to refrain from killing filth like him because I was better. You taught me how to stand above the criminals we fight. And you taught me the greatest lesson of all when you told me I needed to fall so that I could do one thing…" she paused to take a breath. "Rise."
She held her breath as she waited. It took less than ten seconds, but he finally shoved the Joker away from him.
"Oh…! Oh, you!" the Joker wheezed. "You just had to spoil everything!"
"It's over, Joker," Batman growled. "You're finished."
The Joker merely smiled.
"Over? Why, my dear, delusional, Dark Knight," he purred. "The fun has only just begun. Soon as I get free..."
Her elbow smashing into his face silenced whatever threat the Clown Prince of Crime might have made.
"I will never let you break Batman," she swore in one long breath. "No more than I will ever allow you to kill another Robin."
The Joker fixed her with a baleful look.
"Oh, my dear... I'm really gonna have to hunt you down and kill you one of these days!"
"Take a number," she shot back. "My father's been trying to kill me for years." She signaled to one of the waiting SWAT. "Put this clown back in his box."
The Joker laughed and kept laughing as he was cuffed and hauled away.
A/N: Hello, all and goodbye! I hope that you have enjoyed the journey as much as I have!
Please, if you liked this story, favorite it. Also, let me know in the comments below if you liked the story (or didn't).