"He shot me."
Shayera looked at Green Lantern, who looked at Flash, who looked at Diana, who gently elbowed Superman.
"Bruce…"Clark started, and faltered.
"He shot me. Twice."
They were all standing around the medical bay bed. Bruce was lying on it, staring up at the ceiling. There were bandages wrapped around his lower chest.
"Well, he missed you once," Flash said, and Shayera stomped on his foot.
Bruce kept staring up blankly. He had actually stayed in the med bay for more than an hour, which was very disturbing. Even worse was the fact that he seemed to be taking J'onn's advice to take it easy.
"My own father," he kept repeating, in the same hollow tone.
Superman sat down next to him. "You want to catch him, though, don't you?"
"What's the point?"
Green Lantern almost fell over.
"He'll just get out again. Or vanish. Or kill someone. They all do." He wasn't really talking to them, but instead just conversing with the empty air.
Clark took a deep breath. "Every time you put, say, the Joker behind bars, its more time he doesn't have to create mayhem and murder."
"The Joker?" Bruce said, distantly, like he'd truly forgotten. "He didn't come until I did. He's my fault. Just another monster I created."
"The Joker is not your fault," Clark said, as firmly as he could.
Bruce laughed quietly and darkly. "And what if he is? Maybe they all are. There's no way we can ever win this, Clark. People will just kept dying and stealing, and it never ends. It never—"
Flash could take no more. He leapt over Clark, grabbed Bruce by the hands, and dragged him onto his feet, all in the space of a breath.
"You are not going to do this!" He yelled, waving his hand at Bruce. "You're the goddamn Batman for crying out loud! You are not going to break down and stay there like some kind of invalid. You are going to get up, get dressed, and go catch the guy. It doesn't matter if it's your father, no father would ever shoot their kid. Go get him! That's what you do! Don't make me slap you, darn it, because I will!"
There was dead silence. Superman looked stunned. Bruce blinked. Wally brought his hand up.
Batman glared at him. "You realize that if you actually hit me then you'll be asking me to kill you."
Flash beamed. "I could hug you right now."
"And then you'd wish you were dead." Bruce grabbed his costume from off the end of the bed, slipped it on, and turned around.
"All of you stay here," he said. "This is my fight, and I'm taking him down."
He walked out of the med bay.
Green Lantern turned to Flash. "I thought for sure he was going to kill you."
Wally smiled.
In a warehouse in Gotham, Thomas waited. He waited for his son to arrive for the final battle. It wouldn't take long—Bruce was trained well.
Soon, he would be found, and then the Reckoning would begin. They would fight, one would win. It was to be the last time they played this game.
It would end here, in the streets of the city that had created them both.
Next up--the final chapter.
