Happy Easter everyone! Praise Jesus that He has risen! :D


In the afternoon after both of us were able to get some sleep, the aura in the penthouse hadn't changed at all. I came down to find Bruce and Alfred watching a news report…where Reese allegedly held the identity of Batman. I really, really disliked him…

"I wanna how much they're gonna pay you to say who Batman really is," a caller in the background said.

"That's simply not why I'm doing this," Reese answered calmly.

"Let's take the next caller," the announcer said as he pushed another button.

"Harvey Dent didn't want to give in to this maniac," the second caller said angrily. "You think you know better than him?"

"I think if we could talk to Dent today, he may feel differently."

"And we wish him a speedy recovery," the announcer said to the camera. "God knows we need him now. Let's take another call." Eerie laughter sounded on the phone line. "Who is this?"

"I had a vision," the Joker's sickening voice said over the phone line. "Of a world without Batman. The mob ground out a little profit and the police tried to shut them down, one block at a time, and it was so…boring. I've had a change of heart. I don't want Mr. Reese spoiling everything, but why should I have all the fun? Let's give someone else a chance. If Coleman Reese isn't dead in sixty minutes, then I blow up a hospital."

I put my hand to my mouth as I watched Reese's eyes go wider and wider. "No," I said softly. "No more death."

Bruce got up and headed for the elevator. "Kris, I need you over the headset, checking Gordon's men and their families."

"What for?" As if I didn't already know.

"Hospital admissions."

"You got it."

"And Kris? I promise I'll listen this time."

I smiled and nodded at him and prepared to leave.

"Will you be wanting the Batpod, sir?" Alfred asked.

"In the middle of the day, Alfred? Not very subtle."

"The Lamborghini then. Much more subtle."

I smiled again as Alfred drove me down to the lair. On the way, I knew I had to ask him to do something for me.

"Alfred," I said. "Can you do me a huge favor?"

"What is it?"

I showed him a letter I had written for Bruce that morning. In it contained everything about me. I explained to him who I really was and that I was not from this world. I told him that after today, he would not see me again for another eight years. Then when he did see me, it would only be for a little while, and then I was going to leave…and I would not be able to come back. I could never tell him all of that in person. So I just wrote it all down on a piece of paper.

"I need you to give him this when the time is right. It's the explanation about everything that Bruce deserves to know. I just…I can't tell him in person. Especially since…I'm leaving tonight."

"You're going away again?" he asked astounded.

"Believe me, Alfred, I don't want to, but it's not my choice, just like before. Just…give that to him sometime in the next couple of days. Hopefully, he'll understand."

We pulled up to the special shipping container and I hurriedly sat down in front of the computers and put on my headset. Then I hacked into the Gotham Police files and waited for Bruce to give me a list of names. In the heat of the moment, I completely forgot whose relative was in the hospital, which irritated me as I could not give him advance warning.

"I see O'Brien and Richards," Bruce said to me.

I quickly typed in the names and looked up their family histories and current health situations. "Nothing," I told him. "No relatives in any hospital. Give me someone else."

After a bit more time, he said, "I saw Burns and Zachary."

I pulled up their information as well, but there was still nothing. "Nothing on them either."

"And a patrolman I don't know."

I scanned through the list of names as fast as I could until one finally registered. Berg Ramirez! I mentally slapped myself for forgetting that name. "It's a Berg Ramirez," I told Bruce as I pulled up his file. "His wife is in the hospital fighting cancer."

"Send the information to Gordon."

"I'm on it." I sent out a message to Gordon's phone, through the computer so it wouldn't trace to any of us, about how Berg had the woman he loved more than anything at the risk of being blown up. Of course, I sent a much shorter message than all of that.

I may have hated Reese, but I was done with death for a long time. I knew Bruce would get to him in time. I just wished he didn't have to get into a car accident to do it.

I listened in agonizing anticipation until I heard the crunch of steel and glass and I knew he had been hit. "Bruce?" I called. "Please tell me you're okay!"

"I'm okay, Kris," he said calmly through his earpiece. "I promise nothing's broken. Not even a scratch."

"And Reese?"

"He's fine."

I heard the sound of sirens and paramedics as they hurried to the crash site.

"That's Mr. Wayne, isn't it?" I heard Gordon say.

"Yeah," Bruce mumbled.

"That was a very brave thing you did."

"Trying to catch the light?"

"You weren't protecting the van?"

"Why? Who's in it?" There was another pause, and I knew Reese was looking at him and probably feeling guilty for almost giving him up. Serves him right. "Do you think I should go to the hospital?"

"You don't watch a whole lot of news, do you, Mr. Wayne?"

I knew that it was probably the wrong time to do so, but I removed my headset and just laughed. Hearing that was so much funnier in person and it was nice to have some comic relief after everything that had happened. I just loved how clueless Bruce acted about all the good things he's done since day one.

My happiness lasted for about five seconds before I heard an explosion come through the headset, even without it on. Gotham General had gone up in flames. At least I was positive no one had been inside.

A news report suddenly came up on one of the computers. I looked on in horror as the newscaster that interviewed Reese came up on screen, beaten and bloodied. He nervously read sheets of paper in front of him with the Joker mumbling behind the camera. I watched the screen intently as the Joker turned the camera and revealed himself as he laughed again.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I screamed and whipped around. It was Bruce. "Sorry," he said with a smile. It was good to see him smile again.

I put my hand to my chest, my heart racing. "That's the second time you've done this since I've been back."

"Listen, I need you to go to Mr. Fox. I need his help with finding the Joker. I've got a plan to finally catch this psycho. I'm going to use that sonar thing he showed us when we were in Hong Kong."

I nodded and he began to suit up again. I headed over to Wayne Enterprises and went up to Mr. Fox's office.

"Mr. Fox?" I said as I opened the door.

"Kris!" he exclaimed, standing up. To my surprise, he came over and hugged me. Even though he was my boss, I didn't feel uncomfortable in any way. "I'm so sorry about Rachel. How are you and Mr. Wayne holding up?"

"We're just trying to get through the days ahead. Actually, that's why I came here. A, uh, mutual friend of ours has requested your presence down in the R and D department. Let me just warn you right now that you may not like what you see, but it's the only way to bring the Joker down."

The two of us walked down and he was met with 384 screens (yes, I did count them when I watched the movie for the umpteenth time at home) all displaying the sonar Fox had created at a different location.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Batman rasped as he appeared in a gap behind the screens.

"Beautiful," Mr. Fox remarked. "Unethical. Dangerous. You've turned every cell phone in Gotham into a microphone."

"And a high frequency generator-receiver." Batman came around the screens to face us.

"You took my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city. With half the city feeding you sonar, you can image all of Gotham. This is wrong."

"Told you you wouldn't like it," I mumbled.

"I've got to find this man, Lucius."

"At what cost?"

"The database is null-key encrypted. It can only be accessed by one person."

"This is too much power for one person."

"That's why I gave it to you. Only you can use it."

"Spying on thirty million people isn't part of my job description," Mr. Fox said hardly.

Batman pushed a button on the panel and the Joker's voice from his last "newscast" came out across a few of the speakers. "This is an audio sample. If he talks within range of any phone in the city, you can triangulate his position."

"I'll help you this one time, but consider this my resignation. As long as this machine is at Wayne Enterprises, I won't be."

"When you're finished, type in your name."

"Wait!" I called as he walked away. I knew I wasn't going to see him again after this time. I was leaving right after his showdown with Harvey, and he wouldn't be back in time to see me off. That was why I gave Alfred the letter. Not only could I not tell him in person, I just didn't have the time to. I took his cowl in my hands and pressed my lips to his in a firm kiss. "Be careful. Please."

"I will."

I kissed him again even longer, making the moment last.