A/N: Thank you to everyone who commented on the last chapter and I am truly sorry that I didn't get to respond personally, but the run up to Christmas has just been crazy. But I want you all to know how much I appreciate your wonderful words. :)
Oh, and I think this chapter pretty much gives the game away as to what Christmas classic this story is retelling, but for those who may not have seen it, this is a reworking of It's a Wonderful Life.
oOo
Batman ignored his fellow Leaguers as he swept past them, heading for the door. You're mine, Petrov.
"Batman, where are you going?" Wonder Woman called after him, but he ignored her.
He was almost at the door when a strong hand clamped down hard on his shoulder and spun him around. Superman stood there, frowning at him. "Batman, I hope you're not thinking of doing something stupid."
"You don't know what I'm thinking!" Batman snapped, furious. When had the Boy Scout become so good at reading him?
"Maybe not. But I know how I'm feeling about whoever did this to Robin, so I can only imagine how you're feeling. And I'm telling you, don't do anything stupid."
Batman shook off his hand. "We don't know what happened to Robin." That wasn't strictly true since Dick had told him that Petrov was responsible, but Superman didn't need to know that. "And I'm not going to just sit here waiting and twiddling my thumbs. I'm going to find out what happened tonight."
"Then let me help."
"NO!" Batman barked, before turning and disappearing into the night.
oOo
Petrov's headquarters was located over a nightclub in one of Gotham's seedier districts. Batman had suspected for some time that the club was a front for his money-laundering operation. He had hoped that smashing the crime lord's drug ring would cause his other operations to crumble, but after tonight's debacle it looked like that wasn't going to happen.
He watched the bouncers admit two well-known drug dealers into the club, the sour taste of anger ripe in his mouth. Every conceivable late night business in Gotham had closed its doors in the face of this storm, but for scum like Petrov, even weather like this was an opportunity: he could meet with his lackeys to arrange the peddling of his poison without fear of police interference – Gotham PD were too busy defending the city and its citizens from the storm to worry about crime tonight.
Batman clenched a fist. He could no longer allow such a malignant influence to continue. This evening may have been a failure, but he would use any means necessary to assure that Petrov's reign ended. Tonight.
Slipping around the back, Batman used his grapple gun to propel himself onto the roof. The weather ensured there was no security up there, so it didn't take him long to pick the lock on the rooftop door and get inside. He descended two flights of stairs before meeting any security, and it took him less than thirty seconds to incapacitate them and hide their unconscious forms in the nearest closet.
Every security guard he encountered thereafter was dispatched with in the same manner, taking him less than three minutes to reach Petrov's office: the storm was making the guards lazy. They didn't believe there would be any threat tonight.
Once Batman had taken care of the guards outside Petrov's office, he listened carefully to what was happening inside. After several minutes, he'd determined that there were four people in the room. One of them had to be Petrov, two were most probably the drug dealers he'd seen entering the club, while the fourth was likely to be a bodyguard. Batman had to assume all four were armed.
Pushing open the door, he took a split second to assess the situation while the men froze in momentary shock. Petrov was sitting behind the desk while his bodyguard was lounging against the wall behind him with his arms crossed. The two drug dealers, seated in front of the desk, were the first to react, on their feet in seconds with their guns drawn. Batman used a batarang to disarm them both, and then charged forward, knocking the first one out with a hard blow to the jaw and smashing the second one head first into the desk.
By now the bodyguard was moving forward, his gun aiming for Batman. The Dark Knight ducked behind a chair just as the weapon discharged, sending splinters of wood scattering over him. Releasing a smoke bomb, Batman used the coverage to deal with the bodyguard, leaping over the desk and taking him down with one swift strike.
Which just left Petrov. Batman heard the sound of a gun safety clicking off somewhere behind him and spun quickly. He jerked sideways just as the gun went off and felt something graze the side of his neck, but he was too high on adrenaline to feel pain. He reached through the smoke and grappled with the crime lord until he gained the upper hand with a savage knee jerk to Petrov's stomach. While the man was bent over wheezing, Batman emptied the bullets from his gun onto the floor.
Sounds thundered up the stairs outside the office – the gunshots had obviously alerted the guards in the club below. But Batman wasn't finished with Petrov. Rage and adrenaline were pumping through him, enabling him to pick up the leather chair that Petrov had been sitting in and hurl it through the window. As the glass shattered, he seized the crime lord by the front of his shirt and snarled, "I hope you're afraid of heights!" Before Petrov could respond, Batman had fired his grapple gun out the window and the two men were hurtling into the storm.
Swinging high above the streets, Batman could hear Petrov screaming over the blizzard while his hands scrabbled at Batman's own. Good. He deserved to feel fear. For a brief second, thoughts of dropping Petrov flashed through his mind.
But the Dark Knight didn't want to let Petrov off that easily. He wanted him to suffer like he had made Robin suffer.
Thoughts of Robin's butchered little frame and pain-filled whimpers filled Batman's head and with a wild roar, he flung Petrov down onto the nearest roof.
The man hit the brickwork hard before tumbling over and over in the snow, white powder clinging to his clothes. Batman landed beside him just as Petrov rolled onto his hands and knees, and delivered a brutal kick to the man's stomach that dropped him, gasping and wheezing, back onto the snow.
"You're going to pay for what you did to Robin," Batman promised in a low voice, fists clenched as he stood over Petrov.
The man gave a low, guttural chuckle, punctuated by gasps. "So you…found him. Tell me, Batman…is the little bird alive?"
Batman stomped down hard on Petrov's back, flattening him against the snow. "You think it's funny to torture children?!"
Petrov tilted his head up at Batman and smiled wickedly. "Only yours."
Batman growled and smashed a fist into Petrov's face before hauling him to his feet. The father in him was baying for blood and he wanted nothing more than to make this monster writhe in the direst agony for ever laying a hand on his child.
It stunned him to realize that he thought of Dick as his child, and he wondered when he'd started to feel like that.
"Temper, temper, Batman," Petrov taunted. "Are you always such a poor example to Robin?"
"Shut up!" Batman snapped, punching him hard.
But his rage was making him sloppy. He didn't see the knife in Petrov's hand until it was coming at him, giving him only a split second to dodge. It wasn't enough. The blade slid into his side, too far out to hit any major organs or cause any real damage, but still enough to hurt.
Batman clenched his teeth and shoved Petrov away from him as the man pulled the knife out and prepared to stab again. The crime lord landed in the snow, red fluid from the blade seeping into the white.
"You are silent when injured, Batman," Petrov commented, the horrible smile still on his face. "Not like Robin. He screamed so loud when the knife went in – it was heartbreaking really."
It took everything Batman had not to rush at him. He knew the man was baiting him, trying to make him careless, but he wasn't going to make that mistake again – Petrov was going to pay for what he'd done to Robin.
Batman attempted to disarm Petrov using a batarang, but the crime lord dodged expertly. The two men circled each other for several minutes until eventually, Petrov charged. Batman sidestepped the knife, but Petrov managed to get a brutal hit into his injured side that made him stumble.
Regaining his footing quickly, Batman eyed the man warily. Petrov was better at hand-to-hand combat than he had originally anticipated. But it didn't matter; Batman had resolved to take him down tonight. "You've committed your last crime, Petrov."
"You think you can stop me?" Petrov smiled in amusement. "I own half this city."
"Not for much longer," Batman growled. "I guarantee it."
"Gotham doesn't belong to you, Batman," Petrov sneered. "It belongs to me and others like me."
"Gotham belongs to its citizens! You and your kind aren't wanted."
"Oh, really? Then why am I so successful? If Gotham truly does not want the services I provide, then why do I make more in one night than a doctor makes in a week? Admit it, Batman, this city thrives on its own filth, this city doesn't want to be saved."
Batman narrowed his eyes at him, but didn't respond. Part of him sometimes wondered that same thing.
Petrov laughed as though he guessed that was exactly what Batman was thinking. "You see the true face of this city every night and still you pointlessly try to save it. You know, Einstein claimed that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. Perhaps you are insane. Maybe that is why you dress a child up in costume and send him out into the night for men like me to tear to pieces." He paused and lowered his voice. "Or maybe you just do not care about him."
"Shut up!" Batman snarled, trembling with rage.
Petrov gave a cold smile. "Strike a nerve, did I? But you cannot blame me for thinking that. After all, where were you when Robin was crying and begging me to stop?"
Batman was throwing himself at Petrov before he'd even thought about what he was doing.
Wrestling and slipping in the snow, the two men grappled viciously; Petrov trying to drive the knife into Batman's face, while Batman pushed it back towards the crime lord. But slowly, Batman began to gain the upper hand, and it may have been that which prompted Petrov to throw another taunt at him.
"Oho, you want my knife, Batman? Well, in the interests of full disclosure, you should know that this is what I used on Robin." An evil smile stretched across his face. "It slid into him like he was butter."
With a roar of pure fury, Batman headbutted Petrov in the face, a loud crack echoing around the rooftop.
"Ungh!" Petrov grunted, as his head snapped back and blood spurted from his nose.
While Petrov was dazed, Batman leveraged a savage kick to his knee that dropped him to the ground, before violently snapping his wrist. The knife slipped from Petrov's fingers and Batman delivered a brutal blow to his face that sent him reeling backwards.
"You have…no proof of my guilt," Petrov wheezed. "Beating me…will only destroy your reputation." He smiled a blood-stained smile. "And it will not fix…your little Robin."
Petrov may have been right, but Batman was past logic or reason. His head was too full of Robin's whimpers and the tormenting image of him vomiting blood onto the floor of Leslie's clinic. And this man had the gall to goad him about it? To laugh?! Clenching his teeth, he hit Petrov harder.
The crime lord was sagging in his grasp when strong hands seized Batman's fist and yanked him away from Petrov. The crime lord crumpled to the snow, gasping and wheezing.
"Batman!" a voice hissed. "What the hell are you doing?!"
He turned to find Superman beside him. "Teaching him a lesson."
Superman looked both angry and concerned. "You of all people know we don't do this. We're not judge, jury and executioner!"
Batman glanced at Petrov. "I don't see the problem. He's alive, isn't he?"
"That's not the point!"
"That's exactly the point."
Batman turned to leave, but Superman called out. "Batman, wait! I…I came looking for you for a reason."
The hesitancy in his tone made Batman's stomach plummet. He turned back quickly. "Is Robin alright?"
Superman fixed him with a look of deepest pity. "Dr. Mid-Nite sent me – Robin crashed again. I think you should get back to the clinic."
Batman's world crumbled around him. This wasn't happening.
"Batman–" Superman's attempt at consolation was interrupted by broken, gasping laughter.
They both turned to where Petrov had managed to prop himself upright on one arm, his expression triumphant as he smiled at Batman. "Just proves…my point. How can you save Gotham when you…cannot even save one little boy?"
The Dark Knight growled and moved towards him, but Superman stepped between them. "No, Batman, not like this."
The Dark Knight clenched a fist. "Not like this? He deserves to be punished for what he's done!"
"And he will be. But that punishment is not up to you."
Superman had a point. But Batman also knew there wasn't a judge in the world who would deliver punishment enough for the torture that Petrov had inflicted on Robin.
Wordlessly, he activated his grapple gun and swung away, leaving Superman alone with Petrov.
oOo
Batman was almost at Gotham's free clinic when the sound of someone screaming for help permeated his misery. Abruptly, he turned and swung towards the cries of distress. Less than a block away, he discovered what was obviously an attempted burglary gone wrong. Two men were racing down the front steps of someone's home while a third man lay at the top of the steps in the arms of a woman, blood pooling the snow around him. The woman was screaming and sobbing, while two little boys in their pyjamas stared in terrified shock from the doorway.
Batman processed the scene and quickly took down the fleeing men. Once they were incapacitated, he called the police and then knelt to see what medical assistance he could provide for the injured man.
He needn't have bothered. The man was already dead.
"Oh, John…" the woman moaned, sobbing as she rocked him in her arms. "Honey, please…"
"I'm sorry," said Batman, his own sense of approaching loss making him feel hers keenly.
Brown eyes came up to meet his. "Sorry?" she repeated bitterly, cradling the dead man as she stared at Batman. "Where were you when he needed you? I thought you protected Gotham!"
The accusation was like a knife to Batman's soul. Another family ripped apart and he'd been powerless to stop it.
Somewhere in the blizzard, he heard the wail of an approaching siren and got heavily to his feet. "The police are on their way," he told her, a bitter bile that tasted like grief rising in his throat. "I am truly sorry for your loss."
The utter uselessness of his words was reflected in her eyes as she shook her head, and then buried it on the man's chest, wretched sobs shaking her body.
Batman's last image before leaving the broken family was of two devastated little figures standing in a doorway.
oOo
He was on Gotham Bridge before he realized it, gripping the steel girders and staring down into the freezing waters below. Happening upon one family's shattering loss had made Batman unable to face his own. Running had seemed like the easiest option; if the loss wasn't confirmed, then it hadn't happened.
He was perfectly aware of the pathetically childish logic of his reasoning, but he just couldn't bring himself to face the terrifying reality of losing Dick. His world had ended once already – he wasn't prepared for it to happen again.
Anguish shrouded itself around him and Batman buried his head in his hands. What the hell had he been thinking?! He had left Robin, an eleven-year-old child, by himself in the middle of a blizzard, to watch for dangerous criminals bringing drugs into the city! Petrov was right, he was insane.
Petrov.
Batman levelled a hard bunch at the steel girders and gritted his teeth as he howled to the winds in anger and despair. With no evidence of his criminal dealings, Petrov would walk away with little more than a slap on the wrist, while an innocent child was left to suffer! It just wasn't fair.
The injustice of life weighed heavily on Batman, his own worthlessness nearly strangling him. What was the point of it all? What good was he? After almost ten years as Batman he had accomplished nothing; Gotham was still as mired in its own filth as ever.
And now Batman was about to lose his everything and it had all been for nothing.
