CHAPTER VII:
SHOUT AT THE DEVIL
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
-John 1:5
An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.
-The Buddha
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built my hatreds up over the years, little by little. Henry... to have you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people.
- Daniel Plainview, There Will Be Blood
Note: For those wondering how someone as massively powerful as Doom could have endured agony just from Constantine's blood getting in his eyes, Chapter VI has been expanded to include an explanation. Doom might be one of the most hardcore villains in comic history (and he is), but no one is quite so sly as the patron Saint of the Bastards. Cheers!
Also: I won't lie: I'm an angry person, and I think that I actually need to finish this story in order to get my feelings about life in order. However, the most inspiring story of 2013 and the one that has made me cry like a baby would be Miles Scott aka Bat Kid saving all of Gotham/San Francisco. I know, we all like to joke that Batman is one of the most depressing, cynical, and gloomy of all super-heroes. But to think that someone like that could help act as a source of strength and inspiration for a little kid... God, that humbles me. And it gives me hope. Thank you, Miles. You will probably never read this and we will probably never meet, but you have proven to me that super-heroes are indeed real. Merry Christmas and God bless.
BATCAVE
"The Bat Wraith has been stolen," Batman repeated.
"That is, ah, that is correct," Iron Man said.
Bruce closed his eyes, concentrating hard enough not to lose himself to his anger. This looked bad, this looked very bad, this looked very really bad, but this was also not an insoluble dilemma. Bruce mentally repeated something he had heard Clark say once, something that Bruce doubted he would ever admit to admiring: "It's never as bad as it seems". Bruce repeated this over and over as he grappled with his slowly burning ire.
"How is that even possible, Tony?" Bruce asked evenly. "Your lab possesses some of the most advanced security known to man. How could anyone sneak in there past all that?"
"Well, I checked all the equipment, and it doesn't look like our perp blasted his way in here," Tony said. He sounded grim; Tony the party animal was nowhere to be seen. "Both the eye and fingerprint scanners were successfully bypassed, and the correct encryption keys were inputted. But as to who could have actually gotten into here, I have no clue. How 'bout you?"
"I know who did this," Batman said.
Tony paused. "You think it's him, don't you?" He finally said. "You think it's the new kid on the block."
"I know it is," Bruce said, beginning to clench his hands. "I just know it is."
"But if it is him, how could he have been active in the theft all the way from Arkham?" Nightwing asked.
"That's what I'd like to know," Tony said.
"Let me take a wild guess," Batman said. "The GPS chips were deactivated, weren't they? Which means that we can't find it."
"I've already tried about fourteen times to locate the prototype by using the chips," Tony said. "All six regular chips were deactivated and so were two of the ones that I went to great pains to hide. So even if it wasn't him who took our mecha, someone with at least an advanced knowledge of robotics, cybernetics, and electrical engineering must have had a hand in it. I know He-Who Must-Not-Be-Named is a genius, but I doubt that rocket science is his forte. So it's more likely that either someone knowledgeable in those areas helped him, or that he acted together with at least one other techie. Calculator? Doc Destiny? Ivo? Your guess is as good as mine."
"I can interrogate them if all need be," Batman said. "I seriously doubt that he would have obtained the aid of someone like Luthor or Ra's al Ghul for a job like this. No, he would have wanted someone quieter to help him, someone not in the limelight. So-"
"That's assuming he's responsible," Tony noted. "I know that this guy is one of the best students in the class-room, Bruce, but it already stretches my imagination to think that the modus operandi of Hannibal Lecter's intern has been a magic book all this time. Can you really see him using the Wraith to throw down with Gojira on top of all that?"
"You don't know him like I do," Batman said. His voice implied memories best left unsaid. "You don't know what he's capable of."
"Oh, well, in that case, I guess you won't mind if I get wasted before I start work," Tony said, blithely in spite of himself. "Care to join me? This scotch isn't going to drink itself, you know."
Batman stared at Tony wordlessly.
"Anyone ever tell you talk too much, Bruce?" Tony asked, unable to resist. Humor rarely worked on Bruce, but at this point he would recite all the George Carlin jokes he could remember to get something, to get anything out of him.
"Goodbye, Tony," Bruce said, putting his mask back on and turning away. "I'll contact you later with what info I can shake out of him."
"Wait, Bruce, there's something else too," Tony broke in just as Batman turned to leave.
Bruce stopped. "Yes?" he asked.
"Bruce... it... look, I know you prefer to keep to yourself," Tony said, choosing his words strategically. "But recently some of the guys have become worried about your, ah, lack of availability. I mean, in the beginning I got it. We've all got our Ahab sides, and the whale you've been chasing is a particularly nasty one. But Bruce... you've been going at this non-stop for months now. Just look at you: your skin is pale, your eyes are bloodshot, and it looks like you haven't taken a shower for days."
"Is there a point to all this, Tony?" Batman asked curtly. What did any of this have to do with the matter at hand?
"The point is that everyone is becoming worried about your mental state, Bruce," Tony said, seemingly unfazed. "Look, I respect your Lone Wolf thing, OK? I really do. There aren't many masks who can operate as independently of both Avengers and JLA as you do. But there comes a time when even the best of us could use a helping hand. And I think that time might be now, Bruce."
Bruce let it all sink in, holding his tongue. Eventually, he spoke: "What exactly do you have in mind?
Tony sighed. "Truthfully, there's not a hell of a lot that I can do," he said. "But even if there's no way I could have prevented this jack-ass from sneaking in here, it did happen on my watch, so I can at least try to come up with a few toys to counter-act the Wraith. Guess I'll be your Q for awhile, Bruce."
Bruce wanted to stay angry at Tony but found that he couldn't. If someone like him was able to orchestrate theft from a genius like Tony all the way from an asylum cell, then there was no reason for Batman to believe that his foe couldn't have done likewise to him. No, no one could have seen this coming. This was that demon's fault and that demon's fault alone.
Well, if that's the case, you know the quickest way to end this monster¸ the critic in him jeered. Problem is, Bruce old boy, is that you simply lack the backbone to do what's necessary. No wonder he had no problem leaving you with one of his Death Notes: he must've known just from looking at you that deep down, you're just some pampered, spineless worm. Keeping one freak alive at the expense of the entire human race: Mom and Dad must be so proud of you.
"Shut up," Bruce muttered in a low voice.
"Do what now?" Tony asked, hoping that he hadn't heard what he thought he heard, more concerned than angry. The last thing he needed on top of this debacle was one of his most efficacious allies giving him the cold shoulder.
"Nothing," Bruce said, pinching the sides of his eyes. "It's just been a long day, Tony. Go on and develop some new tools for me like you planned. I'm going to see if I can pry the truth out of our mutual friend."
Batman headed to one of the cave's many platforms, this time heading for one of his personal favorites, the Batmobile 4.0. True, plenty of other vehicles including his cars, motorcycles, and even jets stood waiting in their respective spots, but this particular Batmobile, assembled from both Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and a Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, possessed exactly what Batman felt he needed at the moment: incredible speed and exemplary stealth.*
Batman tried to control his impatience as much as he could but couldn't deny that he wasn't going to feel satisfied until he got his hands on the most recent nightmare of his life. In any event, none of the heavy, high-damage vehicles were needed now, or at least so far as he knew. And even if he was able to somehow improbably spring a full-fledged assault from Arkham this soon, Batman could always call in for backup later.
First and foremost I need to grill him on the Wraith Batman thought to himself. Keep it as vague as you can, but start taking privileges away if he refuses to cooperate. If he really does have his hands on it… the entire city could go up in flames. Dammit, what do you want?! Why have you deliberately given yourself the disadvantage of coming to my home-field!? You want perfect order and control above all else. So why the Wraith? Why something that could burn all of Gotham to the ground? Or is that how far you're willing to go to secure your autocracy?
Perhaps it was the somehow even darker than usual look on Batman's face as he moved towards his car, but Nightwing felt like he needed to say something, to say anything at all to keep his old man from losing his cool. Batman seldom lost his temper, especially ever since he recently started re-emphasizing Zen, Daoism, and Hinduism in his thinking; surprisingly, Bruce was always more or less open-minded regarding religion and mysticism. But ever since Kira started his reign of tyranny, Batman seemed more interested in the stuff than ever. However, when Bruce did really, really lose his temper, it was like watching a tsunami rip its way across a country: brutal, quick, and unstoppable. Thankfully, such times were few, even rare for Batman: being trained in a Shaolin temple apparently had a way of teaching people impeccable self-control. Still, just about everyone in the Bat family knew that this kind of furious action was to be minimized as much as possible, if not for the sake of his physical self, then for the sake of his mental health. If you were skilled enough to enrage Bruce, you could expect fractured ribs, broken teeth, and/or (but probably "and") several concussions. But if Batman were to actually ever kill someone… the consequences would undoubtedly be devastating, to say the least. Dick wasn't sure what was worse: a murder convincing Bruce that it was the best way to solve the problem of crime, or a killing convincing Batman that he deserved one.
"Bruce!" Dick said.
Batman turned to the young man he secretly regarded as his oldest son. "Hmm?" he said.
Dick thought before speaking. "I won't tell you to take it easy on him," Dick said at last, "because God knows that's the last thing that he deserves. But be careful, alright? Yagami is a planner, one of the best we've come across in a while, and the last thing anyone wants is for you to walk into the dragon's cave all helter-skelter."
Batman fell silent, staring at Nightwing like anyone else he might come across the street, his eyes slanted into a characteristic glare and his mouth set into a straight line.
Oh great, looks like I overstepped my boundaries again, Dick thought. Knowing Bruce, he'll keep as quiet as a clam in deep water.
Instead, after a few moments, Bruce's eyes softened just a tad. "Alright," he said. "I will."
Batman turned too fast to notice Nightwing's mouth open a little in astonishment. Before Dick could say anything else, Bruce had already leaped into the Batmobile and sped off, leaving behind only exhaust and fumes.
"I hope he knows what he's getting himself into," Dick sighed. "Oh, Hell, I don't know. What do you think, Ace?"
In response, Ace leaned down his head and began to clean himself.
"Great," Tony said.
ARKHAM ASYLUM FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE
"Where is it, Yagami?" Batman said.
Light looked up from his Go board placed upon a crate in the center of his cell. Dressed in his asylum garb and lying languidly against a steel folding chair, Light looked to be about as comfortable as a sloth hanging from a tree. Another chair sat on the other side of the board and crate, empty and yet strangely inviting. Light also sat smoking an old time pipe: the strange scene made him look like a thug playing at being a listless but attentive old man. Batman stood on the other side of the cell, staring at him from the bulletproof, plastic barrier.
"Hello, Koumori," Light said.
"Where is it, Yagami?" Batman repeated, teeth clenched. "Where's the Bat Wraith?"
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Batman," Light said, moving a game piece. He didn't seem particularly engaged in the conversation. "Have you lost something? You know, sometimes the things we lose end up right underneath our noses. 'Le préfet jamais une fois que pensée il probable, ou possible, que le ministre avait déposé la lettre immédiatement sous le nez du monde entier!' to quote our old friend Auguste C. Dupin!"
"You go ahead and keep playing innocent all you want, Yagami," Batman growled, pointing an accusatory finger at Light. "But I will find it, and I will put an end to whatever it is you're plotting. The sooner you come clean, the sooner I can add some perks to your current living situation. You think that books and Go are enough to keep you from losing your mind? One more month with Crane and Zsasz and you'll be begging me to transfer you to Black Gate. I suggest you consider that."
Batman turned to leave. For the rest of the night, Batman planned to have everything Light owned taken away from him while devising how best to extract the vital information from him in an interrogation. The wheels began to whirl in Batman's mind until...
"Have you ever considered that you and your friends are losing, Batman?" Light asked.
Batman stopped where he was, his back to Light. The question did not sound like hot air.
"I don't mean that as an insult," Light continued. " I mean that as an honest opinion."
Batman turned around. Light sat in his same spot, but now giving Batman his full attention.
"Come inside, and I'll tell you how," Light said. "I've got no tricks up my sleeves, and even if I did, you could easily pummel me within this small space."
Batman paused a moment more, weighing the issue in his head. Even if Yagami had something in his cell that could incapacitate him, Batman could always press the distress signal on his utility belt to override the asylum's communications system and alert the guards. The risk seemed worth taking: Batman couldn't imagine what he had to lose, and if he was lucky, he might have something to gain.
Batman waited one more moment, then walked to the door of the cell. Taking out a key card from his utility belt , he slid a key card through the door's electronic card slot, and then stepped in through the open door. As he entered, Batman was immediately struck by just how cold the cell was. It wasn't Victor Fries cold, but then it was definitely more than just a nip to the air. This was all the stranger then, considering how the hallway's temperature was lukewarm at best and how the AC units only turned on in the cells when it became hot enough, usually during blistering summer days. Light did not seem to be particularly concerned with the iciness of the room.
"Make yourself at home, Koumori," Light said. "Mi casa es su casa, I believe the saying goes. Which reminds me: Which language would you prefer to converse in? English? Japanese? French? Mandarin? Oh, just a head's up, my Russian is a little rusty."
"Let's just alternate between Japanese and English for the time being," Batman said, taking a seat. "No more games, Yagami. No more pretenses. What did you mean by what you said? How am I losing?"
"First thing's first," Light said, gesturing toward the board. "Would you care for a game of Go? It's rather tedious playing by myself even if I have memorized Ryuzaki's playing style. One of the few reasons I regret sending the heretic to Hell."
"I thought you were going to talk to me," Batman growled. "I didn't come here to play Go."
"We can do both at the same time," Light replied, putting the pieces back in their original order. "Besides, you can use this as an opportunity to study how I utilize strategy."
"A very generous offer," Batman said, 'Especially since you can use this to study me as well."
Light gave Batman an unimpressed look. "Then please allow me to clear the elephant from this room," he said. "You know as well as I do that we're both going to use whatever situation we can to study each other. Right now, you're looking for anything and everything you can use to get a leg up on me. As I am doing to you. As we both do to just about anybody significant who has entered our lives. But that is simply our nature, Koumori. We wouldn't be who we are today if it weren't for that."
Batman hesitated. He wanted to tell Yagami that their natures were nothing alike, that he was in fact nothing like Light, that Yagami was a pitiful sack of crap while Bruce at the very least made some lives better in an otherwise cruel and merciless city. But no, that was his pride speaking, when really logic told him that this "We're Not So Different" trash was used by just about all of his enemies who never shut the hell up. And Yagami was right: as much as Bruce disliked being near the scum-bucket, he did want to hear what Light had to say. He had in fact wanted to hear what Yagami had to say ever since this whole Kira atrocity started. A significant part of what Light would say would be lies and half-truths, but he could always filter through that later. What Batman wanted now was not just the info about the Wraith but also an explanation. An explanation as to someone like Light Yagami could have become a twisted monster like Kira.
Batman moved a white stone. "How did this happen, Yagami?" he asked.
"Kira?" Light asked.
Batman nodded.
Light rubbed his chin and looked away at the wall, apparently in concentration. It didn't look to Bruce like Light was trying to blow him off but seemed more like the sign of a build-up before the dam was empty.
"Everyone has become a criminal, Batman," Light eventually began. "All my life, I was taught to believe in human society. That the general direction of humanity was positive and progressive. That if I contributed, everything would turn out A-OK and I would be happy. Years of school, books, and following the rules later, and what did I have? No hope. No passion. No happiness. And what did mankind have? Global warming. Two world wars with a spectacular blockbuster of a sequel well on the way. Grown men and women more inclined to devising ways to wiping each other out than to forming alliances. And you and your little super-friends? What were you doing? You were putting a band-aid on a cancer, at best. That's why I stepped in, Koumori. Because unlike your alien BFF, I am a true Superman. Humans have proven that they are unfit at autonomy. They are the disease: Kira is the cure. The hominids have become complacent; they believe that they're virtuous, but they allow crimes at all levels to occur, either because they're too lazy to stop it or because they believe that rampant crime is what life is like."
Light placed a hand over his black stone, hesitated a moment, then placed his stone down in another spot. He continued: "Now, you know by now that I'm quite keen on strategy, like yourself. You probably know then that the Art of War teaches us to leap at opportunities when they present themselves to us. The Death Note was my opportunity. Me choosing not to use it would have been a wasted opportunity. So I weighed my options. One, I could have thrown away the book and allowed humanity to destroy itself and the world around it. Or two, I could have used the book to put the appropriate muzzle on the mad dog that we call homo-sapiens while simultaneously fulfilling their true potential. The correct choice was obvious to me. It is because of me that crime in all sectors has been dropping worldwide. It is because of me that people no longer live in extremes of opulence and poverty. And it is because of me that Earth is sustaining less damage than it has in decades. And all because I was the only one with the nerve and the fortitude to take on the gargantuan task of saving this once doomed species."
There was a beat. Batman stared at Yagami as if he had two things on his mind and was now determining which one to be of greater import.
"I suppose that's not tobacco you're smoking," Batman finally said.
Light smirked softly at this. "Now why would I want to go and endanger my health like that, Koumori? Especially when I have miles to before I sleep?"
The allusion to Frost unnerved Batman more than he thought it could. Early in his career, Batman had to bring down a madman who held an entire wedding cathedral hostage. That man, having been driven insane by the death of his wife and son, had rambled on in lines only from Byron.* That had been the very definition of tragedy. The immediate situation was closer to heresy.
"Where did you even get that?" Batman asked, brushing aside the comparison with some effort.
Light eyed Batman as if he were speaking to a small child. "People actually have to work in this sector of Hell, Koumori," he said. "They might get paid a few more bread crumbs than the average nut-house employee because of the abhorrent state of this hellhole, but with the economy being what it is, there aren't too many career options available for the sad saps. Really, what else is going to get them through the day?"
"So you bought it from some guards," Batman said. He exhaled from his nose, making it sound like a sigh. "The sad thing is that I'm not going to take it away from you because I'm afraid it would be like depriving a schizophrenic his anti-psychotics."
Light, still smirking, put his free hand into a gun-like posture and then "shot" it at Batman, the "weapon" flicking upwards after its release. Batman decided to hide his irritation at this smug, flippant move.
"Now that is a public ad I would pay to see," Light said.
"You're deluded and you're full of crap, Yagami," Batman said, moving his white stone. More justifications. Probably thousands of them if he were to let Yagami go on all night. Batman was hardly surprised but wished the conversation to continue anyway. "You're not doing any of this for them. You're doing it for you. You get off on killing people. Even if you killed off only criminal degenerates, you would have ultimately just been murdering your own kind. But you've also killed innocent people whose only crime was to stand in your way. And just look at you: even as I speak to you about murdering millions, you show no indication of remorse or regret. You've been playing God for so long that you actually believe that you are Him."
"Godhood is a right, Koumori, one that I have earned in spades" Light said, moving his black stone. "What, do you think I've ever actually believed in some benevolent, interventionist deity? No, if godhood is anything, it's a title and a position to keep the primates in line. You and your frat siblings have only been keeping the savages alive long enough that they can figure out new ways to kill each other off. That's why Kira is here. It's time for a true Superman, for a true Übermensch-"
"You're butchering Nietzsche's philosophy, Yagami," Batman interrupted, moving his stone. "You have been ever since you used the will-to-power argument to justify your murders."
"Ah, then you know that I'm quite the Nietzsche aficionado?" Light asked, moving his stone.
"How could I not?" Batman asked, thinking over his next move. In a few moments, he moved a stone. "It's been your design to get me to notice that about you all this time. You left behind quotes at the murder scenes. You left a copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra in your room where you knew I would find it."
"All so that you might catch a glimpse of the genius I plan to unleash upon this world," Light said, moving his stone. "I'll give Superman his due: he truly has risen to heights incomprehensible to the average mind. And because of that, he has given a great deal of hope and will to the multitudes. Oh, I suppose that could be construed as cruel because the vast majority of the herd will never be able to obtain his demi-god status. Still, I seriously doubt that was ever his intention. Just look at what the man wears: red, blue, and yellow, resulting in one of the most garish costumes in the entire pantheon. And I've seen pictures of Captain Boomerang's first costume, by the way. But the costume makes sense from his point of view. Unlike you, Superman wants to be seen: he wants his actions to be conspicuous so that all may believe that they possess the same potential for benevolence that he does. Sadly, what Superman most likely believes to be his greatest contribution to humanity is undoubtedly his worst: regurgitating that Jefferson nonsense that all men are created equal, who cherished liberty so much that he owned black slaves and helped remove natives from their land. So, wittingly or not, Superman, by his very name, has perverted one of Nietzsche's most significant theories."
"He's more of an Übermensch than you'll ever be, Yagami," Batman said, nearly hissing as he moved his white stone.
"'No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant'," Light quoted, placing his black stone in place. "Superman an Übermensch? Don't make me laugh. The alien's very existence is cruel irony: Übermensch translates to Superman, but the Superman we all know is anything but that. The boy-scout is super moral; the Übermensch transcends morality."
"Yet Kira, the embodiment of all 'good', battles the forces of evil," Batman said, ruminating on where he could place his stone next. "That's what you say anyway. So you haven't transcended the laws of morality, Yagami. If anything, you use them in order to justify your manipulations and murders."
"Don't get the wrong idea, Koumori," Light said while Batman placed his next stone on another square. "I'm not some blind devotee of Nietzsche, accepting and practicing his each and every word as if the otherwise phenomenal man were infallible. The greatest philosopher of the nineteenth century? Indubitably. The greatest thinker of all time? Probably. But for all of his insight, for all of his ingenuity, and for all of his genius, Nietzsche was still just a man, and not even a Superman at that. And men, as you are very well aware, are quite flawed. Nietzsche's flaws? In thinking that the Will To Power could best be expressed cosmically and not in anthropocentric scenarios. Because the fact of the matter, brutal as it may be, is that every being capable of sentience vies for power against everyone else. It's only natural: as '2001' so brilliantly staged it, our ancestors' first tool was probably used to bash someone's brains in. It's a cruel paradox, Koumori: the tribe tries to drown the individual with their demands of conformity while so many in the herd make their little plans as much as they are able, skulking about like petty mice, speaking only in the softest of whispers, terrified to show the world who they truly are."
"A mass murderer and would-be crusader deliberately misinterpreting the works of Nietzsche in order to further his own agenda," Batman said, moving his white stone. "Now where have I heard that one before?"
"Ah, yes, the obligatory Hitler comment," Light said, moving a black stone. "You know, I've seen your country's news programs. People left and right accuse each others of beings Nazis, as if they actually knew what it was like living underneath the rule of the Third Reich. They even draw Hitler mustaches on images of your own President. And considering that America only entered World War Two after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, I don't believe that your countrymen are entitled to use comparisons regarding old Adolph. Now, the French and the Russians, on the other hand-"
"I have no country," Batman retorted, moving another stone. "I have only my city, and maybe my species. But we are both aware that morality has little to do politics."
Light considered this, staring at his own stone. "I suppose you're right about that," he said, eventually pushing a stone of his. "But in any event, I was digressing. See, as Batman has no country but the world itself, so too does Kira own the entire planet. So I can assume that our current… 'disagreement' has nothing to do with what Uncle Sam did to Japan or what the Land of the Rising Sun did to the United States. Anyway, my point about Hitler. A failed artist? Yes. A pathetic neurotic? Yes. A monster? Oh my goodness gracious, yes. But, and this is with a capital 'B', Hitler was right about one thing, and that is this: that things are horribly, horribly wrong in this world. Hitler kept a tight grip on Germany, and that was about the one impressive thing that he ever managed to accomplish. But no, he couldn't leave it at just that, could he? The piss-ant had to go and blame an entire ethnicity for the fact that he never would have made it as a painter. Hence the Jewish Holocaust. That jack-ass! Nietzsche deplored all the Abrahamic religions, not just Judaism! And the Aryan race of Supermen? Complete and utter bull-crap! There never has been a race of supermen, not even with all the capes that we have today! The rarity of the Übermensch is what makes them so valuable and what makes people follow them in the first place! That moron! He made me, Bonaparte, Caesar, Khan, and the rest of us look bad! Like we were in the same league as him!"
"My heart gushes for you," Batman replied, moving his next stone. "But you're forgetting something, Yagami. Nietzsche thought that none of those men were Übermensch. In fact, Nietzsche believed that the Superman had yet to appear before or during his lifetime. Moreover, Supermen are creators, not destroyers. And Übermensch are aware of their flaws: in your mind, you have none."
"Three points", Light replied, moving his stone. "One, we must destroy if we are to create. Just like how I must destroy this corrupt, rotting dystopia if I am to create a just, virtuous utopia. As Friedrich put it himself, 'The lover wants to create because he despises. What does he know of love who has not had to despise precisely what he loved!' Two, just because Nietzsche was my mentor and the greatest philosopher of all time doesn't mean that the man wasn't flawed. No, like all great pupils, I intend to soar where Nietzsche only sprinted. That is simply the Will To Power, Koumori. Even when I stood enraptured by the utter brilliance of Nietzsche, I still continued to plan how I might improve upon the old man's philosophy. How my ideas might have more power than his. A necessary consequence of the Will To Power. Not even you are immune to this Will, Koumori. You have a persona to act out, after all: you're the big, dark, scary one, and so naturally you have to play out the part of a monster. But what about the others, Bats? What about the Lantern? And the Martian? And all the meta-humans and non-humans that can fly, summon lightning, or punch their way through steel? I know you, Koumori, I know you and I know your kind better than you want me to, so I know that it must be a continual struggle for you to be The Dark Knight amidst so many potentially challenging masks. But that's all in the past now. This charade of secrets and lies and knives in the dark… this all ends with me. This all ends with Kira. You and the rest of the 'Higher Men' have fulfilled your mission, Batman, and you in particular have fulfilled it spectacularly. You have prepared the way for the Übermensch, and now I'm finally here."
"Except that if you really idolize Nietzsche that much, then you have made a fatal flaw in your logic," Batman said, moving his stone. "You've forgotten that Nietzsche didn't believe in universal morality. He didn't believe that there was good or evil. Yet you yourself proclaim yourself to be the pinnacle of benevolence, meting out justice to the wicked."
"Once again, I am no servile member of the Church of Nietzsche," Light said, moving his stone. "For awhile I accepted his theory that 'good' in the sense of morality was merely a label that the weak and the pathetic used to dignify themselves while 'evil' was just a term that those same petty slaves used to curse their rich and powerful masters. Indeed, as I have never believed in a personal God, I found no qualms in thinking that there was no moral phenomena at all, but only moral interpretations of said phenomena, that the rich exploiting the poor was merely an impersonal fact of life, no more sinister than a tiger mauling a gazelle."
Light's eyes narrowed as Batman made his next maneuver, but this action was made not due to Batman's move but due to the thought that came into Light's head. "But somewhere along the line, some time after I received that blessed book, I noticed something disturbing. The poor man steals money from a cash register. The rich man steals money from the stock market. The poor man litters. The rich man creates massive oil spills. The poor man murders. The rich man profits from the very wars he and his ilk have instigated. I have finally learned what Nietzsche could never have foreseen: all of the castes break the law. The aristocrats, of whom I used to be a member, have become as decadent and corrupt as any common street thug. They, who are at the top of society's ladder, should be sustaining the existence of society and yet are complicit in gradually destroying it. In breaking the law. My law. The holy and infallible Law of Kira. Oh, I suppose that I do still believe that there's a distinction between good and evil versus good and bad, as Nietzsche once wrote. That what's good is what's efficacious and what's bad is what's worthless. But the non-existence of good and evil? No, now I do believe in it. It all comes down to order, you see. Those who break the law and create chaos consequently impinge Kira's perfect society. Therefore, those who sin against Kira are evil. But those that obey Kira's law, those that contribute to the maintenance of my glorious utopia… well, they are quite naturally good. So as you can see, Koumori, not only am I here to fulfill Nietzsche's prophecy of the Übermensch, I am also here to supersede one of the greatest men to have ever walked across this rotten carcass that we call human society."
Light took his stone into his hand, moved it over to an empty square, waited, then placed the stone down. "Moreover, I am well aware of my one flaw", he said. "It's the one that has prevented me from writing down your name the first chance I got. That flaw is mercy. Really, the smartest thing for me to do would have been to write your name down years ago when I first got the chance. Leaving you alive has already decreased my chances of victory. But that's OK. I can live with that. So long as I get what I want."
"And what is it that you want, Yagami?" Batman asked, trying to sound casual and not anxious as he moved a white stone in spite of his steadily rising consternation. Did the freak really know what his name was? At this point, it seemed like it would have taken some kind of miracle to prevent Yagami from discovering it.
Light had been reaching out for his black stone, but now he stopped. Light paused with his hand over his stone, his face blank and unreadable. Then he leaned back in his chair and gave Batman his complete and undivided attention.
"The Kryptonian," Light said. "The Amazon. The JLA. The Avengers. Each and every single mask, cape, mutant, demon, alien, and super-human. But what do I want most of all? You, Batman. I want you."
Batman stared blankly at Light for a few moments, not sure what to say. The possibility he dreaded more than anything else was beginning to develop flesh and bones.
"You're too intelligent to pull this all off just so that you could hit on me, Yagami," Batman eventually said, hoping that Yagami would believe that he wasn't really aware of what Kira wanted. "And the intel on you indicates that you're heterosexual. So if this isn't about sex, what is this about? What do you want with me and my friends?"
Light waited a second, then leaned forward with his fingers folded across one another. "I want you to understand something, Koumori", he said, placing his elbows on his ankles, pressing the hands against the nose, and covering his mouth. His eyes had little humor in them now. "I am Kira. I am God Almighty. But I have never once said that I am the only god. In a world of people who see through solid objects, outrun jets, and wield magical hammers, do you really think I would be so deluded as to consider myself the one and only Deity? No, there are other gods out there besides myself. But as you may have already well noted, there is no King of the Gods. And that is precisely the problem of the superhero world today. Oh, you all have veterans of the game that you look up to, but you have no true structure. No true organization. No true leadership. And that is precisely what I am willing to offer to you, Batman. That is what I am graciously willing to provide for you and your kin. In other words, Koumori, there is a clear and distinct reason that I haven't eliminated you yet. You, Koumori. I want you. I want Batman to work for Kira."
"...you want me." Batman said, enduring the tightening of his stomach. It looked as if the Fates had found another way in which to utterly screw him over again. "To work for you. Me. For you."
"Yes," Light answered.
Batman paused. "Where's the second Death Note, Yagami?" he said.
"I take it that means 'no'," Light said. He sounded perfectly calm.
"You should take it that there's no way in Hell I would ever accept your methods of mass murder, let alone help continue it," Batman said, as Light serenely moved his white stone. He tried to sound somewhat contemptuous, and he probably succeeded. However, in all honesty, another part of him, a part of him of considerable depth and weight, was completely focused on Light's revelation. All the signs had pointed to this, to this imagined scenario that had cost him sleep many a night. Kira's apparent lack of interest in killing any superhuman, good or evil. Light evading the mask community for years with no attempt made at any offense. The fact that Yagami didn't write down "Batman" or "Bruce Wayne" when he had a chance, even though it was now likely that the scum-bucket knew his name. It all added up to a potential World War, one that Light could actually win if he played his cards right. And 99.9% of the time, Yagami dealt a royal flush. For one of the few times in his life, Bruce actually wished that both his comrades and his friends were there with him to end this vampire's reign of blood once and for all. But no, no this had started with Batman, and it could only truly be finished by him alone.
"Or maybe you're just afraid to take a risk," Light replied. "I don't blame you, Koumori. Not even you are fearless, though you do pretend to be. The thought of a veritable utopia... it's an intimidating one , I'll admit. It's one that mankind has been trying to achieve since the days of Plato's Republic. And it's been something that, at best, only the most able of statesmen have been able to enact for only a limited time. But now we have it, don't you see? Now we finally have the means to make Paradise last forever. This is an opportunity that not even you can pass up. No more crime. No more murder." Light paused. "And no more children watching their parents die."
Batman hoped that a look of utter horror hadn't suddenly flashed over his face because he sure as Hell felt it, and he was also sure as Hell that Yagami would notice the change if the emotion weren't restrained enough. The likelihood of that Yagami knew about Batman and Bruce Wayne had just sky-rocketed to about ninety two percent, and if he really knew all that much, how much could he also know about his allies, friends, and family? Perhaps far, far too much. The slime was resourceful and clever enough to pull it all off. Batman had felt this black, coarse, ragged horror before on a number of occasions. The light leaving Mom and Dad's eyes as they lied on the gravel and the rain. The shining white knight of Gotham transformed into a monster of boundless hatred and all-encompassing rage. Jason's limp and battered body cradled in his arms. The revelation that his best friend since childhood was indeed a sociopathic murderer hellbent on ruining his life. The knowledge that he wouldn't be able to help Tim save his father's life.
The horror passed and was replaced by anger: Yagami was trying to use the memories of his parents against him. Batman would have liked to have thought that even this was too low for Yagami, but Batman knew Yagami far better than he would have liked.
Batman stared at Light coldly and without emotion for a few moments. "Except for you," he finally said. He moved a stone without taking his eyes off of Yagami.
Light curled his nose. "It had to happen," Light said. "Dad never would have lasted. He was too old, too stubborn. This may win the award for Tragedy of the Year, Koumori, but it's best for him and everyone else that he's gone. At least now he's somewhere where's there's no more pain."
"And what if he's not, Yagami?" Batman asked, as Light stiffly moved a stone. "Superman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow have all come back to life. If the Death Note really means that there's more out there than we know like you say, then that could very well mean that your father is still out there, watching you." Batman waited before delivering his key line. "And disappointed in you."
Light again clenched his hands underneath the table, this time not out of excitement but out of a loss of his composure. "You want to talk about disappointment?!" Light snapped, pointing a slightly shaking finger at Batman. "Let's talk about how my father disappointed me. How he disappointed me with his futile efforts to save a species that preferred crime to law! How he disappointed me by lacking the nerve to collar and execute the worst of the animals once and for all! And how the whole damn world disappointed me with it's lies!"
Light paused, as if reconsidering, then moved his finger and hand over his hair with a chuckle. Batman was glad that Light moved his finger before it was snapped in two.
"Only a few people could ever get me to lose my temper like that," Light said, sounding amused. "First L. Then his two brats, especially when they worked together. Choosing you to become my disciple was truly one of the greatest decisions I've ever made."
"Except that you can never have me," Batman said without any hint of hyperbole. "You know that I would sooner die than ever accept your warped notions of law and justice. That goes for a vast majority of the mask population too. But why me anyway, Yagami? Why not go after Lantern, Flash, or any other super-human? Why chase around a detective with nothing to offer you except for maybe a few gadgets and a few martial arts moves?"
Light's arms had been resting on his thighs after his right hand had moved through his hair. Now he moved his hand to the right side of his eye, pressing in on the flesh. His face was largely expressionless, but this was almost certainly a deliberate stratagem on his part. If one studied him closely enough, one could see that Yagami was thinking things through while studying his adversary. Eventually, Light leaned forward a little, his face now somber, as if to emphasize the significance of his reply and the trust he was now placing in Batman's hands.
"Koumori, do you know what happened to me after I first used the Death Note?" Light eventually asked. "I hid in my room for days, terrified. I drank for the first time in my life. The alcohol numbed the terror, you see. Because for those few hellish days, there was a thought that played itself through my head like a broken record until I became sure that I was going to lose my mind. Do you know what that thought was? 'Batman is coming to get me. I broke the law, I killed a man, and now Batman is going to come and get me.' An illogical perseverance, of course. You could have had no idea that it was me who used the Death Note. Hell, I doubt you could have even known what a Death Note was. And yet, all this goes to show one thing, Koumori. That we are connected. That we are bonded. I may not believe in a personal creator God, but after all this, after everything we've both been through, I've come to believe in fate. Because it was fate that we should have met each other all those years ago. Because it was fate that we should become adversaries now. And because it was fate that I should finally, finally come to meet a true member of my family."
Batman hoped that he stared at Light blankly, but suspected that some disgust might have shown on his face. "You cannot be saying what I think you're saying," he finally said.
Light held out his arms wide with a self-assured smile, as if he were about to hug the colossus sitting across from him. "Oni-san," he said. "Big brother."
Batman felt sick in the center of his stomach, but continued speaking anyway. This time he took a little longer moving his white stone. "We're not family in any way, Yagami," Batman stated as bluntly as he could. "Not by blood, not by friendship, and not by any similarity."
Light moved his black piece. "We're two of the greatest Übermensch out there, Koumori," he said. "You and I have both built legacies that will affect mankind long after we both kick the bucket. We have both ignored the more superfluous regulations of our cultures and have come up with our own rules for living, our own morality for being. We have both prevented Apollo from manacling us with his left-brained excess of reason unlike so many of our uncreative constituents. We have both allowed Dionysus to rule alongside his prim and proper sibling and with the resulting bursts of imagination we both have been able to craft tributes to the summits of greatness: you, the best that man can achieve, and I, the veritable transformation of a man into a God."
"You had a family once ago, Yagami," Batman said, glowering while Light moved a stone. "A sister. A mother. And one of the best fathers a son could ever hope to have. You might be a genius, Yagami, but even extraordinary men make extraordinary mistakes, and you have erred greatly in tossing away the one thing that still kept you human."
Light didn't move for a few seconds, and he stared at Batman as if the latter had made some kind of obscene, tasteless joke. Finally, he leaned forward.
"My family?" Light asked, nearly incredulous. "My family? Let me tell a little something about my so-called family, Koumori. My mother is a spineless sheep with no initiative, doing only what society expects of her. My sister is a fatuous imbecile who allows her life to be dictated by the vapid tastes of her idiotic friends and by her love for stagnant pop music. And as for my father... for all of his strength, for all of his bravery, he was still ultimately fighting on the wrong side of the war. He didn't want to change the world: he wanted to keep it the way it was. A world where criminals possessed rights they never deserved to begin with! A world where thieves and murderers walked in and out of prison like a revolving door! A world where a select few were above the law as if they weren't a part of the herd themselves!"
"What your father did was to protect everyone he could to the best of his ability, not by authoritarian zeal like yourself, but by bending the law when the time called for it," Batman said, moving his stone. "The society that he tried to take care of was imperfect, but then it's a hell of a lot more preferable to this fascist dictatorship you've created."
"Call it what you like, Koumori," Light said, sounding unfazed as he moved his stone. "You call it fascism? I call it order. Order that my father failed to produce so abysmally. But your defense of my father doesn't negate anything that I said. My father was great for his... 'class', but I was always the superior son, destined to exceed him in every factor. So those three stooges? Nothing in common with them. Plenty in common with you though and with the rest of our ilk. And you know what? I love it. I love the fact that eventually your family and mine will merge into one. You, me, Nightwing, Teru, Robin. And, hey, if you ever stop long enough to get your ass with the program and accept Talia's advances, perhaps even Ra's and his League could be permitted to join us. Our goals are similar enough as it is."
Light paused. "Of course, out of that list, only you, I, and the Demon's Head himself could really be labelled as Supermen," he eventually said. "Everyone else more or less plays by the rules we three have devised." A thought came to Light, and he smiled with cocky self-satisfaction. "Still, Robin seems to be showing great potential in acting beyond both good and evil-"
"You talk about him like that again, and I'll sever all the tendons in your body," Batman hissed. A dangerous gleam formed itself in his eyes.
Light stared at Batman without expression for several moments, then sighed. "Koumori, you of all people should know this Nietzsche maxim," Light said, unperturbed as he moved a stone. "Because, while it may have permeated pop culture to the extent that now every inbred half-wit is aware of it, it is still indubitably true: 'What does not kill us makes us stronger'. This undoubtedly applies to both you and I. I have been locked up; I have been interrogated and investigated without mercy; I have been only inches away from being exposed as Kira. Hell, last time I was exposed as Kira! But I walked away every single time, every single time smarter, every single time stronger, and every single time better than before."
Light hesitated, weighing his next words cautiously. "And you: exactly how many times have you suffered only to come out all the better for it? How many times have you failed to save the day? How many times have you had to break off relationships to keep your precious identity a secret? I mean, just look at you! Look at how strong you are! You're so strong both mentally and physically that I'm really the one who could ever win against you! You spilled a lot of blood to get that kind of strength, and don't bother telling me otherwise. I don't need to know your past to tell that you must have been broken once before, either in body or in mind. Perhaps both. I wouldn't place that kind of recovery above you. So go on and do your worst to me. Break my legs. Shatter my jaw. Put me in traction. Because in the end you will never kill me. The only thing you can do is knock me around, and for every time I visit the medic I'll become an even more formidable foe for you. You want a stronger opponent? Go ahead, and be my guest. You'll only be delaying the inevitable and improving my odds of success all at once."
Batman considered all this. Brute force would most likely not solve this problem. In fact, it had been Nietzsche who had written that brute force was one of the weakest and most limited wills to power compared to, say, the will to power of ideas. And the power of ideas, of creation, of intellect and imagination would be precisely what was needed to shut Kira down. More to the point, what would cold-cocking Yagami really amount too? A few weeks in the medic quarters, two and a half tops? That would only delay the conclusion to this conflict, and there was no reason not to believe that added time could work to Yagami's advantage. Moreover, who was to say that an ass-kicking wouldn't figure into Yagami's plans? No, Yagami had won this hand, and the only sensible thing for Batman to do at this point would be to continue the conversation to the end, the sooner the better.
"Why haven't you killed off any of my enemies?" Batman asked as he moved a white stone. "Gotham is home to some of the world's most deranged criminals. And even if you weren't able to discover Joker's true name, you could have written down the name of all the rest, which are freely available to the public. So why is this asylum still filled with the most notorious of the freaks?"
Light hesitated, apparently focusing on his next board move. Eventually, he moved his eyes from the board up to Batman.
"Oh, what, you don't believe in redemption, Koumori?" Light asked, as normally as he could. "How… intriguing. You've only been able to give Catwoman, Two-Face, and Robin second chances. Now you're the only one allowed to issue repentance?"
"Funny how all the people I've given second chances to afterwards at least tried to do the right thing afterwards," Batman said. "You, on the other hand, are just stopping the likes of Penguin and Black Mask from committing more crime, not keeping them alive because you actually give a damn about them, but most likely because you might be able to use them against me later."
"I'm merely instructing them to bow down to the infallible authority of Kira as proof of their willingness to change," Light said, eventually moving his black stone. "Isn't that what this nut-house and that abhorrent prison is supposed to do and yet repeatedly fails at? Reforming their kind? Rehabilitating the animals? Curing the freaks? Besides, you've seen what's happened to the ones I've magnanimously spared: they've either quit criminal activity or are now in the sole business of importing the best wacky tobacky they can get their hands on. Yes sir, Gotham is a far more dangerous place now that I've tripled the rate of people who watch the Daily Show."
"You know as well as I do that… that Bruce Wayne was well on his way to convincing Governor Gibbons to introduce a new state-wide bill legalizing its sale," Batman said, thinking over his next move. "That's the kind of action that's really needed, Yagami. Patient, steady, precise action. Not drastic, arbitrary, violent action like you've been taking. And eventually, it's all going to blow up in your face. It always does for people like you."
"You keep telling yourself that, Bats," Light said, as Batman put his stone in place. "Meanwhile, I'll just be kicking it here, waiting for The Promised Day, maintaining my dignity while humanity continues to reject the inefficacious methods of you and your allies and continues to embrace the efficient means of Kira."
"'The Promised Day'?" Batman asked, giving the new term his full attention.
"Hmm?" Light asked, staring at the board, as if the term didn't carry much import.
"The Promised Day," Batman repeated, staring even more intently at Yagami. "What is that? What do you mean by that?"
This time Light slouched back in his chair, as if he didn't have a care in the world. He wore a complacent grin as he filled his pipe from a pouch that he took out from his pocket.
"Oh come now, my dear Koumori, do you really think I expected you to simply bow down to the almighty power that is Kira after I offered you my stewardship?" Light said. He lighted his pipe, and then blew out a great amount of smoke upwards, in a carefree and unconcerned manner. "No, by all accounts, you're a great man, and so naturally you're going to require a great deal of persuasion in order to convince you to join the right side. And, sooner rather than later, that Promised Day will come. The blessed Day in which you are presented with incontrovertible evidence that Kira is truly God Almighty and is truly needed to save humanity."
Light's eyes, previously surveying the ceiling with a languid air, now dropped back to Batman. The pupils sharpened, and Batman did not feel fear in being the object of those mercilessly keen eyes, but an increased sense of vulnerability nevertheless. There weren't many with the temerity to try to stare him down and analyze him at the same time.
"I won't tell you when that Day will be, Batman" Light continued. "But when that Day comes, you'll know. And finally, after everything is said and done, after the smoke settles, after the blades stop flashing and the guns stop firing and the rockets stop dropping, you will finally become what you were meant to be all this time: Kira's Dark Knight."
Batman's teeth clenched far harder than they normally did, but he did not notice the ache. He was far too concerned with whether or not Yagami was bluffing. The slippery little smooth-talker tricked people left and right by sprinkling his lies amongst his truths and his truths amongst his lies, and so now he was not completely certain that this Promised Day was genuine warning or some deceitful bravado. If everything that Batman learned from L's, Mello's, Matt's, and Near's report were true, it was that the sick puke had orchestrated a massive yet genius plot that made him lose his memories, clear his name, gain his memories back, kill L, and then gain total access to both of the existent Death Notes. This was clearly not something to ignore. Still, none of this was enough to obtain Batman's allegiance, and Batman knew that Yagami wouldn't have pulled all this off unless he was sincere about all this disciple business. However, if all this were the case, then Yagami must have also known that warnings, threats, and ostentatious displays of power wouldn't have been enough to convert the likes of the Bat. Something was missing from this equation, and Batman was simultaneously repulsed yet determined to wade through even more filth and slime to get his answer.
"You forgot to mention something," Batman said.
"What?" Light asked.
"Why would someone like me ever work for someone like you?" Batman asked.
"Other than world peace?" Light said.
"If I really wanted that to this extent, don't you think I would have acted like you long ago?" Batman replied.
This was true. The Koumori was dedicated, maybe even obsessed, with battling crime and fighting for justice. However, he was also a man who had lived with his ridiculous no-kill creed long enough to make removing it a significant chore. However, this was precisely the moment that Light had been waiting for. The anvil was as hot as it was going to get, and if Light didn't strike now then time –perhaps even precious time—would be lost to him. If the trump card didn't completely immobilize the Bat, it would at least clip his wings.
"The resurrection of your parents," Light said.
Batman sat frozen in his spot. At first he felt nothing: that was because he did not know what to feel. The breath left his body entirely. He did not know whether his mouth had opened or whether his eyes had widened, but at that particular moment he was oblivious to the strategy of gestures.
The void left Batman as he caught a hold on some loose strand of reason; raw, deep, molten rage began to quickly fill the black cavern. Would Yagami really make a bluff this enormous, a bluff that could likely get him torn apart ? No, that wasn't likely. He knew Yagami well enough to know that he really did want to control the entire cape community and the entire world along with it. More to the point, Yagami specifically wanted Batman at his side. Yes, with all that they had between them , Yagami would surely delight in the Dark Knight becoming the Dark Knight of Kira. And if Yagami couldn't possess Batman, then he would perceive it as a failure that would probably haunt him to the rest of his days.
"... you are well aware that I can start tossing you around in here for about four minutes before anyone comes to stop me," Batman said, practically gnashing his teeth.
"I don't blame you for not believing me, Koumori," Light said. his voice softer now, all pomp erased from his face. His eyes had lost any predatory glimmer that they had before; he looked at Batman with such compassion that Bruce might have actually believed it had he let his guard down or had he not be struggling with his to keep his rage in check. Whether or not he truly cared, he indubitably sounded and looked like it."But you're well aware that I'm too smart to start screwing around with you on this. Especially where I am, and especially that I lack proper defense. And you can't just shrug this one off either. You've seen too many things happen. The ghost of an alien god trying to destroy existence. Global operations run by a nearly immortal monomaniac. And now a book that can kill anyone I want just by writing in it.
"But this is the most important point of all," Light continued in the same steady, gentle tone. "The point is that you deserve it, Batman. You deserve to have your parents back. After all of the sacrifices, all of the loneliness, and all of the sacrifices, you, above all else, deserve to have that part of your life back. You deserve to be happy once more. And your mother and father… don't you think that they deserve to be alive? They were good people. They were great people, in fact. Your father, a wealthy doctor who treated rich and poor alike, but significantly reduced his fees for the latter. Your mother, a woman who could have spent her husband's fortune on fine living, instead spent time visiting sick children and volunteering at the soup kitchen. They're the exact kind of people who should be alive- honest, productive, and virtuous. And before I became Kira the world was run by your parent's polar opposites, by corrupt politicians and by decadent CEO's. I've mostly stopped all that; there are only a few rats left to bait and trap. But more importantly, I can finally fill that void within you, Batman. I can finally give you all that you've ever wanted since the moment you became alone. They're the ones that deserve to be alive in Kira's perfect world. It's a win-win, Koumori. Everyone gets what they want. I get the perfect warrior to defend my planet, and you get to finally be happy again for the first time in years."
Batman leaned in further. Inside, he was thunderstruck. If Yagami wasn't lying to him now, if he really had studied books of magick and was gaining new… powers as a result, then there was no telling just how much damage he could wreck. However, on the outside Batman did not let slip any of his anxiety. His eyes managed to slit even further. He squeezed his hands, clenched his teeth, and expanded his nostrils. All in all, Batman did not look amused.
"So there are no misunderstandings, I'm going to be crystal clear with you, Yagami," Batman said in a furious sense of monotone. "Believe me when I say that I would rather my parents be dead and buried and at eternal rest than alive in your fascist dystopia."
Light furrowed his brows. He did not look surprised, but he did not look pleased either, as if he had guessed that the Bat would rudely reject his most magnanimous offer.
"I suspected that you would say that," Light said stiffly yet evenly. "I realize that this is all a little much and maybe a little too soon, but not even you can ignore something with this kind of gravity. And I won't lie to you, Koumori. I don't yet possess the power to bring the dead back to life. All I can do now is purge the world of the criminal scum intent on ruining my new global order. But I'm getting there, Bats. Every day I'm getting closer and closer. It's the books, Batman. Even the most obscure and rare of texts have only hinted at the powers of resurrection, but the hints are all I need to guide me along the trail. There is more in Heaven and in Earth than in our deepest philosophy, Koumori, and you know as well as I do that the Lazarus Pit is proof of that. Sooner or later, I will have it. Sooner or later I will become God of both Life and Death."
"I don't care if you've learned to raise Christ from the grave," Batman snarled. "This is how it is, and this is how it's going to be. You won't kill me because then you'll lose a potential ally. But you loathe losing, Yagami, and because of that it's going to be your pride that will end up bringing you down. Because even if you do write down my name on this Promised Day of yours, someone will replace me. And if you kill them, then someone else will replace them too, and the cycle will continue ad naseum. You've done a stellar job of evading my community, but not even you can keep that up forever. You're a genius, Yagami, but you're a genius fighting an uphill battle. And all that you've been doing… all this death and all this scorn and all this hate… it's going to rebound on you, Yagami, and when it does it is going to hit you hard. What you put out into life is exactly what you get back, and someday you will learn the sad and pitiful truth that behind your disguise, behind your lies, and behind your mask, you amount to no more than the scum already in here: a freak."
Light gritted his teeth. This time the Koumori had gone too far. Family be damned: he had given the Bat enough leeway, and now the ingrate had the nerve to utter such abhorrent blasphemies. For this, blood needed to be spilled.
"Oh, I see what this is now," Light said coldly. "I should have seen this one coming. You refusing to join my Holy Crusade. Your insistence on returning to the old Gotham, back to all the murder and heroin and female slavery. Because that was yours, wasn't it? Gotham was your godless sewer of a city, and you could exert enough power to maintain a status quo adequate to your lax standards. Because the truth of the matter is that if your parents hadn't died, you never would have been able to have anything of your own. More to the point, you would have never been able to become Batman. So, really, Bruce, all this time you've actually been glad that Thomas and Martha were filled with lead-"
"DAMN YOU, YAGAMI!" Batman roared, smashing his fist through the go board and the table itself. "I saved you! I saved your life! And this is how you repay me?! BY BECOMING A MONSTER?!"
Light froze, staring downwards at the debris that had been a relatively thin table but also a relatively thick block of wood. As Light lowered his face out of Batman's vision, the room somehow seemed to grow even colder. Batman knew that it could not really be, that it was all just a result of his exhaustion combined with his imagination, but he began to see more of a Yagami's true appearance nevertheless: at this particular instance it was that Yagami's hair had transformed from merely brown to a far more infernal orange. Batman was not afraid, but he dreaded looking at Light's face anyway. Dreaded looking at the face of complete and utter evil.
Bruce's ominous expectations bore spoiled, rotten, maggot-writhing fruit. Light turned his head to look at Batman, and the Dark Knight could feel his stamina plummet.
Batman knew that he had been working hard, but now he knew that he had been working too hard for far too long. His vision was surely playing tricks on him. There was no way that he could be actually seeing what was really there. And yet he saw it anyway: Light Yagami with keen blood-red irises, his demeanor that of quietly demonic anger, a sense of bestial indignation reigned in with stoic discipline. Beauty and the Beast in one.
"What you did back then was for you and for you alone," Light said slowly, precisely, deliberately. "To make you look so big. To make the rest of us look so small. Well, no longer. Not for me. You and the rest of the glory boys have had your shot; now it's my turn. But that's OK. I don't hold the fact that you commit your heroics out of self-interest against you. If you're smart, then you live for yourself, and living for yourself is the best way to live for everyone else. I will not deny that I receive pleasure from acting as Kira, but neither will I deny that satisfaction ought to be the fruit of one's labors. I might love the flawed people of this planet enough that I'm willing to spend my life insuring their safety, but I'm also well aware that my colossal achievements make the majority of mankind look trivial by comparison. That is simply the nature of the beast. People like you and me, like Hawkman and Wonder Woman and Spider-Man… we naturally make the rest look like so much dust. And for that, some of the ungrateful ants try to persecute us, to call us freaks and monsters and murderers. Before, our kind condoned this horrendous ingratitude; as of now, I am ending it. It is time for humanity to learn its limitations."
"And I'm telling you all this to save your life, Koumori," Light continued, but now in a manner more akin to hissing. Resentment, impatience, and disgust bled into his cold voice. "You know as well as I that you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. Moreover, you are one of the few people alive fit to rule over the monkeys, and for that reason I have not written down your name. But as much as I want Batman to be on my team, I do not need Batman to be on my team. If somehow you fail to see the utter genius of my ways by the time of the Promised Day, I will write your name down and you will die. And if you still think that you have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning this fight, then you'd better consider the facts. You refuse to kill; I tenaciously eliminate anyone who hinders my perfect world. I know where the second Death Note is; you possess a copy but you won't use it against me under any circumstances. To put it simply, I have the high ground. So the sooner you pull your head out of your ass long enough to realize that you're fighting on the wrong side of this war to save mankind, the better.
Batman stared at this twisted young man, and Bruce could feel all the hatred in him vanish. Those humorless, burning eyes. That cold, disgusted sneer. The complete absence of any compassion, mercy, or love. Of all the people that Bruce thought this could happen to, Light Yagami had been on the bottom of the list.
Light relaxed his posture a little at seeing Batman's reaction. Not anger, no, not the piercing glare of fury that he had been expecting. Maybe it was all just a bluff, but… the Bat looked grieved. There was some animosity in that look, some sign of disappointment mixed with revulsion, but to Light it was readily apparent that the Bat felt this way more about the situation in question. Maybe even about himself. Either way, it was all quite… unexpected…
"What happened to the boy I used to know, Light?" Batman asked, his voice lowered.
Light's eyes softened. This man, for all of his self-righteous idealism, deserved at least the truth.
"He died," Light said, taking no delight in the deed. "He died a long time ago."
Batman sighed through his nose in reply, closing his eyes as if it were better not to stare at what was very likely one of the greatest mistakes he had ever made. The sigh was a long, extended breath that dripped with controlled tension and even better controlled despair. He sat still for a couple of moments, staring at the debris with an unusually dejected gaze. It still looked faintly angry, but it also looked tired. Tired and uncertain. As if the man behind the mask was not sure where his ire belonged or even if he was right to feel it.
Light noted this look almost mechanically. Having someone as incredible as The Batman brought down this low gave him no pleasure, but at the very least, a crack in the armor was beginning to widen. Once everything fell into place like Light knew they would, the old, outdated, archaic Batman would finally die. Only on the Promised Day would the Batman of Kira be born anew.
Eventually, Batman stood up, albeit silently. Turning around without a word, he walked over to the cell's door with regular, deliberate footsteps. Light watched, equally silent.
Only a matter of time now Light thought dispassionately, as if reading off a list of facts. Only a matter of time.
Batman pulled out his key card and swiped it through the door's slot. The door opened with a faint hiss.
Batman stopped where he was, not doing anything but standing. Light, unable to see Batman's face, could not make out what this meant. In truth, Batman's white demon glare was now staring nowhere and everywhere at once, searching for any answers he could find on the outside while also stumbling for answers on the inside. He could only discover one as he searched his heart. It was faint and it was unclear, but it was the one. For the moment, it was all he had, all that might be able to stop Kira. And if it didn't…
… then Batman never stood a chance against Kira to begin with.
"This isn't over," Batman said, his voice ringing like brass iron, grating like brick against brick.
Then Batman walked out of the door, locked it behind him, and walked off down the hall.
A few moments passed. Light picked himself up out of his chair, looked at the destroyed table and board, and then shrugged. Only one way out of tens of thousands ways to keep himself busy was stricken down. There was still much to be done, much to accomplish if the Promised Day were to conquer. Still, the next phase of his master-plan would occur in either the next few hours or the next few hours or the next few days, so he could relax for the moment.
Light picked up a book from his table, inspected it, and then lied down on his bed. It was time to learn from pain once again.
"I hope he wasn't upset that we were tied," Light said.
LATER
"Give us that book, new fish," said a grinding, ragged voice outside the window.
Light looked up from his book, not surprised in the least to see one of Arkham's most feared madmen standing at his cell's window. That snarl. Those accusing eyes. The face of angel; the face of a demon. Exactly the freak that Light had wanted to meet.
Correct, per usual Light thought, restraining a smirk and retaining his poker face. I knew you would eventually show up. A maniac like you simply can't control his aggression all that well.
"Hello, Two-Face," Light said.
"The book, fish!" Two-Face barked in reply.
"What happened to yours?" Light asked, not at all acting as if he were tip-toeing around several bear-traps.
"Are you going to put that book through the door slot or not?!" Face snapped. His right eye throbbed with glistening menace. "We may not be able to get to you in there now, but sooner or later they'll let you out of this cell, and that's when we'll find you. Gut you. Flay you!"
"You know that big Asian guy who usually hangs out with me?" Light asked. "The one over two hundred pounds? Who lifts weights whenever he can?"
Two-Face thought. "… yeah…" he answered.
"You might be able to shank me if I let down my guard," Light said, sounding hardly excited in spite of the pounding of his heart. It was all finally coming together. "But it's a safe bet that Mikami will shove a broom stick down your throat right afterward. You know upset emotional a big softie like Teru can get."
Harvey looked irritated; Face looked absolutely livid. "Is that a threat, fish?" he hissed with a shaky sense of constrained fury.
"It is only a mere fact," Light said. He picked himself up off his bed, walked to the window, and stood straight across from Two-Face, staring at him right in his eyes. He held his book downwards in his right hand. "Don't touch me, and I won't sic my brutally insane bodyguard on you. Not that I want to. Not that you'll want to either. Because I've got something that you want, Two-Face. Two things, in fact. And neither of them are in my hand."
Face thought. The pretty-boy was seriously beginning to aggravate him, but then he had heard that this one was smart. Smart enough to give him something even better than a book, maybe. Had better be, if the punk didn't want to find himself stabbed with a sharpened toothbrush.
"What are they?" Two-Face asked.
"Cash," Light said. "And lots of it. You've overheard it from the guards at least, haven't you? That I used to be a detective? That I used to work alongside L in finding Kira?"
"… something like that." Face acknowledged. The old golden boy side of him was decidedly impressed by this level of achievement; the more current homicidal lunatic inside of him knew that he was going to drown this little turd in the toilet if he didn't go somewhere with this.
Light did a remarkable job of not laughing. Just as he had predicted, the moron doctors had only told security that Light had once worked alongside L, not that he had actually been L. The less that everyone knew the true story of Light, the better. At least, that's what the Koumori had been thinking. And what Light had been anticipating all this time.
"Your deal with the Guan Yu Family went sour, didn't it?" Light asked. "I read about that one. Thankfully, if you venture out with me, you'll be able to make up for all those benjamins you've lost. Moreover, you probably already know that not only am I a detective, but that I am the greatest mind on Earth, superior even to L. It doesn't matter to me whether you believe that last part or not, by the way. What matters to me is that you acknowledge that I'm far too brilliant to screw around with someone like you, especially when I have nothing to gain from it. That leads me to the second thing I can give you if you agree to work with me, something that will occur as a result our mutual endeavors and that you've been wanting for a very long time now. Someone who's failed to save Gotham the way you could have. Someone who's failed to save you."
Two-Face stared at Light with less anger and with more inquisitiveness. The punk was probably one of the better looking loonies in the nut house, but... his beauty was more like a disguise. A disguise that he wore very well, but not perfectly. Face had tortured, shot, and stabbed more people than Harvey Dent ever imagined he could, and so he knew just how nasty life could get, especially when you were willing to get your hands dirty in order to do what no one else would or could. Perhaps that's why he thought he could see something, faint, inconspicuous, and very well hidden, behind Yagami's eyes. It was something that told Face that this boy, however arrogant, might actually be able to deliver on his promises. But what...?
Fire Two Face thought, unusually calm. There's fire in your eyes, Yagami. Fire that only freaks like us can have. How the hell did a puny little book-worm like you get that?
"... say it," Two Face eventually said.
Light's lopsided grin became even wider and smugger as he dropped the bomb: "The complete and utter destruction of Batman."
Two Face drew on as much of Dent's cool logic as he could while he pondered this over. Plenty of people had tried to bring down the Bat, and none of them had ever managed to do it. Not Joker. Not Ra's al Ghul. Not even Hush, even after he bought the services of all the freaks and had Ivy control Superman's mind. For now, until Yagami could prove that he had the chops, Face thought he would do well to learn more about the operation and to play everything by ear. If he needed to, he could eviscerate Yagami after earning enough cash.
"How?" Face asked.
"How come you don't have a book?" Light asked again.
Two-Face gritted his teeth. The little bastard sure as hell had better deliver if he was going to flex his ego like this.
"… they took away the book we checked out," Face finally said. "Heart of Darkness. LoVED Apocalypse Now. Wanted to read the book. But they took it, THOSE ARROGANT IMBECILES, they took it away from us! Took what was rightfully ours! Said that the book was too "DARK" for us. Doctor suggested that we read 'Twilight'. We put five staples into the moron's forehead before they pulled us off."
"Ah, so that explains it," Light said, looking at the catwalk over the opposite set of cells. Not far from a small outpost, a guard stood, holding a sniper rifle against his chest, watching Face's every move with blank, hostile eyes. "I gotta give it to you, Harv, you're one of the few of us that gets more than just batons and tazers."
"The name is Two-Face, you smug little scum-bucket!" Face snapped. "You said that you would get us money. You said that you could destroy the Bat. And you said that the two were connected. Start talking now, new fish, or your next time outside of your cell will be your last!"
Light paused. Weirdly enough, it seemed that the sick-bag was hesitating much less out of fear and much more out of calmly thinking what his next action would be. The steady, unfeeling, flickering eyes gave no indication as to what he was thinking or feeling. His face could have been carved out of granite, handsome as it was.
It was shortly after those observations had been made that Light curled his lip. Soon the curled lip became a satisfied smirk. Eventually it transformed into one last final entity: a knowing, confident, and utterly blood-thirsty grin. Those once dead eyes had been resurrected, were now acting as beacons of penetratingly acute and brilliantly malicious energy.
Two-Face did not feel fear as much as he did consternation at this scene. Face was an excellent judge of character, not only due to Dent's past as an erudite lawyer but also to living with some of the world's most violent freaks for over a decade now. In fighting ruthless gangsters as a "normal" man, and in fighting the berserk and savage as a "freak", Face had learned to read people well. That look of hidden sorrow on The Bat whenever they were near. That look of unadulterated, pure joy when The Joker found out that Face had become one of "them". That self-assured and even cocky smirk of Maroni's that Dent stupidly shrugged off before having half of his face melted off. But all that pain had a point. All of that heartache, disappointment, and agony had achieved something. It had made him both smarter and stronger, smart enough to see life for the maddeningly absurd tragedy that it truly was, and strong enough to throw down with some of its worst demons. All of that death and destruction allowed him to see people at their worst, to see them as they truly were. Yagami had worn his mask quite well for the first part of the conversation, but throughout all of it Two-Face had known that something was off, that the outside of this snot-nosed punk somehow didn't match his inside, that unfortunately there was far more to this little sick-bag than just a subtle sense of smug superiority.
And now here it was. Yagami's true face. The face of monstrous pride. The face of a natural born killer. The face of a Devil in disguise.
Face furrowed his brows, both normal and crispy alike. Face had fallen too far into his own ring of fire to start fearing anyone else, no matter who they might be, but an uncomfortable thought nevertheless occurred to him: this seemingly innocuous stain could hurt him, if he really set out to do it. This was not a man to simply toss around. This was a potential demon to keep his eyes on. A fortuitous ally or a relentless foe. Maybe neither. Maybe both. But this time Two-Face was sure that the coin would not tell him.
"So, Harv," Light Yagami grinned, placing his book's front cover against the dividing wall. "You ever read 'Fight Club'?"
CHRIST ON HIS THRONE THIS CHAPTER TOOK FOREVER! I really hope that quality is more significant than quantity (and also that this chapter possesses an ass-load of the former), but I don't know. Hopefully, when I've fully moved from my old house to my new place, I can devote more time to my writing. The next chapter is going to be much shorter, so you can expect that to be posted sooner rather than later. Thanks for keeping up with the chapters!
And now for something completely different:
Sometime in the 1950's, a science fiction writer named Theodore Sturgeon was asked by an interviewer whether or not ninety percent of SF wasn't crap (this was back when people actually thought that sci-fi was trash; nowadays, you can expect such a remark to have a mob of cos-players throwing forties at your windows). Sturgeon's answer? That ninety percent of everything is crap. This is known as Sturgeon's Revelation, and, based on my experience, it certainly does apply to most things: books, films, video games, and especially both anime and manga. Unfortunately, most anime and manga is crap. Magical princess stuff makes me think that maybe the Devil exists, and I always end up hating the guys in harem comedies (You really expect me to believe a guy wouldn't try to hit all that as much as he could? ["I never struck her!" Oh, God, you really need to see that Venture Brothers episode if you haven't already]). That being said, the great animes and mangas that I've had the privilege to experience have been what keep me coming back for more. Just in case anyone here who reads The Light In The Abyss doesn't know too much about Japanese animation and comics, here's a quick list of my personal favorites to get you started. I don't claim to be an authority (merely a fan) but for anyone who likes this fan-fic, this may prove to be up your alley. Also, if you'd like, I'd be interested in hearing what you guys are into and/or what you would think I would like. Merry Christmas!
DEATH NOTE (Duh)
ELFEN LIED
COWBOY BEBOP
AFRO SAMURAI
SAMURAI CHAMPLOO
AZUMANGA DAIOH (I know, it's a girl show, but it was just so adorable and genuinely funny. Plus, Osaka is gangsta.)
TOKYO GODFATHERS
ANIMATRIX
AKIRA
GHOST IN THE SHELL (This and Akira are absolutely essential)
KILL BILL (The O-Ren Ishii sequence, anyway. Mad props to Tarantino.)
ANYTHING BY STUDIO GHIBLI (Especially My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke. Its especially encouraging that Totoro's street cred is still recognized after so many years)
PARANOIA AGENT
MILLENIUM ACTRESS
DRAGON BALL AND DRAGON BALL Z (Forget Goku versus Superman: those two boy-scouts would sooner have a picnic than fight. Now, let's talk Batman versus Vegeta!)
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
BERSERK (The anime was OK, but the manga is Dark Fantasy with a capital D)
FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN
HIGH SCHOOL OF THE DEAD
PARASYTE
UZUMAKI/SPIRAL (Also a great live action film)
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN
VAMPIRE HUNTER D BLOODLUST
HELLSING
SAMURAI X (I could never get into Ruroni Kenshin, unfortunately. Simply too cute for me: now Samurai X, on the other hand, was one of the most beautiful and violent tragedies I've ever had the luck to see)
NINJA SCROLL
LONE WOLF AND CUB
*These were the two bad-ass cars that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Eduardo Noriega drove in The Last Stand. TLS was a supremely fun popcorn movie, but I would argue that Kim Jee-woon's American debut is not his best work (please understand that that's like me saying that Ride The Lightning isn't Metallica's best album due to Master of Puppets). Of Jee-woon's films, I've seen A Tale of Two Sisters (an unnerving fairy tale ghost story), The Good, The Bad, and The Weird (an excellent and unique take on the western), and I Saw The Devil (A great movie but really dark. It's no coincidence that Jee-woon directed TLS afterwards). I combined the Camaro and the Corvette because I know jack crap about cars other than when they look and act awesome (It's one thing to drive a car off the top of a skyscraper and into the building below in order to pursue your adversary; it's another thing entirely to remember to release the emergency brake when you drive). If this story ever turned into a movie, Jee-woon would be at the top of the list for potential directors.
*In the story "Uneasy Allies" which I read in a paperback version of the Batman: Turning Points limited series. Those stories about Gordon and Batman were awesome sauce.
