Batman grappled onto a nearby rooftop and watched as Rue came onto the rooftop. "Kagome, what are you doing up here? I've been searching all over the suite for you." He walked up behind and nuzzled her neck. "To think, in one short week, we'll finally be married."

Kagome looked at the Dark Knight for one moment longer. "Yes, my love, I know. I can't wait." She turned around and kissed Rue briefly. "Let's go back inside. It's getting ā bit breezy." Rue turned and walked back to the hotel. Kagome lingered back for a few seconds, before waving at the Bat. She then followed her fiancé inside.

-DKS-

Bruce handed Dick about 5 grand. "Go buy a small car. Make it seem like it would be at home in the 7th Street Slums." Dick nodded and walked without another word.

"Plans for visiting, sir?" Alfred asked as he handed Bruce a tall glass of water.

"You might would say that, Alfred. I'm just trying to attract as little attention as possible tonight. Hopefully, an older car would help with that."

"Indeed it would, sir. Might I inquire what your plans are in that part of town?"

Bruce sighed and rubbed his temples. "Kagome told me about an anti-drug organization that is based out of a small bar there. They should have valuable intel against not only Rue, but Jenova as well. You know how long Gordon has been trying to build a case against him. If one can take out multiple birds with one stone," Bruce drained the glass in one long gulp, "then why not throw it?"

-DKS-

Bruce drove silently as the car rattled on the rough roads. Streetlights reflected off the puddles, and the Dark Knight did well to avoid the pot holes as well as he could. Dick had definitely done well on the car. He just hoped it would be able to make it back to his home before it fell apart.

He slowed down slightly as he pulled up to a building that had saw it's prime days back during the Korean War. The building had a hand painted sign with dim lights shining up on it. The paint had peeled so much, it was hard to make out that it said, "7th Heaven", at least at some point in the last 15 years. Bruce could faintly hear rock music coming from inside the heavy oaken door. He stepped out and straightened his jacket as he walked inside.

As soon as he walked in, he realized he was severely overdressed in his dress jacket. The closest any of the patrons came to wearing anything remotely close was a tattered overcoat. He felt all 20 pairs of eyes on him at once. He nodded at them each individually. Slowly, the atmosphere returned to normal as Bruce walked up to the bar and took a seat. The barkeep walked up to him and said, "I don't what you're trying to pull here buddy, but if you don't want to get hurt, I suggest you go back to your part of town and stay very far from 7th."

Bruce cleared his throat slightly. "Ma'am, I'm just passing through, and I was just wondering if I could get something to wet the whistle, and then I'll be on my way."

Bruce heard knuckles crack behind him. "You heard the lady. Get the fuck outta the bar and you won't get hurt." The Dark Knight looked behind him and saw a slight man with greasy hair and a battered cigarette in his mouth. Behind him was standing a large African American with a metallic arm. The man spoke through the haze of smoke that was surrounding him. "Are you fucking deaf or something mate? I said get outta here!"

Bruce just swiveled in his stool and looked back at the barkeep. "Ma'am, may I have that water so I can leave?"

Batman felt something grab him by the scruff and his jacket, and next thing he knew he was literally being thrown out the bar. "And stay out, ya bastard!" The large black man was turning around when he heard the man he had just tossed out say something. "What the hell did you just say?"

"I said, you just made a very bad mistake." Bruce was looking down at the seat of his pants and was examining the back of his jacket. "This was one of my favorite jackets."

"Ya think I give two fucks or not? Why don't you come up here and try to make me pay for it?"

Bruce got up and calmly walked to the larger man. Barret tried to throw an upper cut for Bruce's jaw but he merely leaned back and let it whiz by his face. Barret began throwing a flurry of punches and kicks that Bruce merely dodged or parried with relative ease. "Okay, so you got moves, but let's see you dodge this!" The large man jumped back as his metal arm changed into a gun. Barret pointed it at Bruce and fired several times but Bruce had already rolled off the back of the deck and had tooken cover.

Bruce ran around to the back side of the bar and was looping back around when Cloud grabbed him by the jacket. "Are you trying to get yourself killed or something?" Cloud reeled back in slight surprise when he realized who he was talking to. "Kagome said she had someone powerful coming to help out, but I would have never guessed it to be Bruce Wayne himself."

Bruce Wayne smiled slightly, and said, "Well, you mind calling your friends off? I have someone ever better than myself that may be willing to help out if we can talk this over. But if I end up with a slug in myself, then he would never be willing to help out."

Cloud nodded his head. "Just follow me in there, and we'll get this sorted out. Just don't mention anything about your little brawl with Barret. You hurt his pride something serious."

They walked through the door once again. The bar was exceptionally quiet when the patrons saw Bruce was inside once again. "Strife, why the hell you bringing in that fucking yuppie again? We's just finished throwing him out!" Cid yelled through a fresh haze of smoke.

"Cid, calm down. We need to go in the back and discuss things with our new acquaintance."

-DKS-

"…and that's how I came to know of AVALANCHE's existence. I personally would be willing to offer funding, and Batman will also be of assistance as needed." Bruce finished explaining, omitting and adding certain parts as needed.

"So, you're telling me the Bats came to you personally, and asked you to provide funding? That doesn't make any sense at all; doesn't seem like his style." Cloud said.

"I know, I was puzzled at first, but he has his reasons I'm sure. Plus, if we rid the city of Sephiroth and Rue, I can finally fix up your part of town. I've held several fundraisers as it is trying to get the money together to renovate this part of town. Maybe Batman himself thought it would help lower crime rate significantly if one of the worst parts of town became nicer. I have no way of knowing his logic behind contacting me. I had planned on coming here before he even said anything due to Ms. Higarashi asking me. She had valuable intel that may help you. And anything that helps you, ultimately helps Gotham, which in turn helps me."

"I fucking knew it! You're just in this fir yerself!" Cid cried out.

"That may be Mr. Highwind. But I can provide funding to your organization. That will in turn help everyone involved."

"Did you say Higarashi?" An unfamiliar voice to Bruce said.

"Yeah, he did InuYasha. Did you find out everything we needed?" Barret asked.

"Feh, don't I always? The warehouse is over behind State Avenue, right where I told you it would be. Now tell me more about this Higarashi woman."

Cloud started speaking before Bruce could. "She's engaged to my boss, Rue Takashi. There's supposed to be this huge deal going down right after the wedding. I'm not for sure the exact date, all I know is that it's supposed to be a few days after they tie the knot."

InuYasha growled low in his throat, the woman he had loved for literally nearly 500 years was going to be married to someone else? Highly unlikely if he had anything to do it. "I'm going to do some more reconnaissance on this warehouse. You have my number if you need it."

-DKS-

InuYasha was trying to pick out Kagome's scent out of the smog infested city. Even though it had nearly been five centuries since she had last been snatched out of the Feudal Era, her smell was imprinted on his mind. The soft smell of caramel infused with cherry blossoms. "Don't worry Kags, I'm gonna get you out of this situation, and everything will be like it used to be."