S/N: The bold lines are lyrics from a song that should be familiar if you have seen Donnie Darko.
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Bruce is brought into Dr. Elliot's office with his hands restrained in such a way to prevent him doing a Houdini number on the Asylum staff again. He would always being trying to escape now and again except every time he got within any distance of going over the walls or through the sewers something stops. There is either an obstacle or actual people stopping him and this is the umpteenth time he has been brought to Elliot. Two knew each other as children, both of them survived their parents' murders, except Thomas' deepest secret is that he murdered his whereas Bruce's parents were murdered by an apparent mugger.
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
"The orderlies tell me you tried to escape again, something about finding who is 'behind' why you were sent here, but do we have to do this again, you were put here because you feel guilty to the point that you are denying having been remotely responsible for a total five deaths in the space of a week a few years back."
"Ripper killed Barbara, Bullock shot Alfred when he tried to stop Bullock from shooting Tim, Bane almost broke my back, Bane threw the Bat-Signal at me and Gordon, and of course Nightwing and Robin tried to save both of us except Tim…"
And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world
"Tim could hardly shoulder an old dying veteran of the force whose life you endangered on countless occasions and of course on the fall Tim died too because you couldn't see pass the dangers of costume vigilantism as usual."
A pause as Bruce shakes his head as if mentally denying that being Batman was killing others.
"We have had conversations like this or at least I think we have had ones like this every time I have been in this office."
Part of him believes Eliot yet part of him also believes that this is not right, for him to be in this position.
"They will continue until you admit the truth of what has happen… one other bad piece of news that's very recent."
No one knew me, no one knew me
"Your ex-fiancée Andrea Beaumont was killed while apparently going after the men she believed responsible for her father's deaths even though it was later proven that he was shuffling money for the same individuals who managed to kill Andrea."
…what's my lesson?
"Doctor why are you even bothering with me if you think I am lost cause?!?" asks Bruce.
"It is my job to look after the emotional and psychological well being of the 'residents'."
"I think it is more than that."
"Think whatever you want Wayne, but it is time for you to go back to your room, take this afternoon's round of pills, eat your meal, and the rest of the day is up to you though don't think of trying to escape again… it never works remember that when you consider trying again."
He is led away down the corridor back towards what's been nicknamed the Arkham Park, which is where all the famous 'crazies' are put away. Those on the right side of this corridor include Gil 'Janus' Mason, Veronica 'Velvet Vixen' Vreeland, Adam 'The Creeper' Royce, and Roxanne 'Roxy Rocket' Sutton. On the left side of the corridor one finds, Jack 'Ripper' Cross, Lyle 'Lock-up' Bolton, and Fiona 'Vesta' Vance. The standalone cell in at the end of this particular wing belongs to Bruce Wayne, and those who had known him out of costume mock him as he is brought along while those who had known him in costume only make gestures. If he were in more a confident as well driven mind would not save them from being knocked unconscious right now.
***
In this time line virtually none of the individuals that had become Batman's Rogues Gallery are villains, in fact many of them for all intents' purposes seem to have ordinary lives except for the fact that they attend frequent parties secretly held at the Stacked Deck. At those parties they dress up and pretend to be the bad guys to the witless servants who are kept silent by the fact they earn more money doing this stuff than they during daylight hours. The almost perverse nature of these party games would almost make Pamela Isley's personal secretary nauseous if not for the fact that when her boss dresses up, she kind of loses all inhibitions when drunk enough.
She recalls quite well the first time a drunken Pamela came onto her and she was not ready for it especially not when Pamela gave her a really hot kiss as she would later recall. As if a bizarre way to take part in the irregular costume ritual, she would go with Pamela dressed in a harlequin outfit. The outfit got the attention of one guy who usually shows up looking a bit like a clown, but in more sinister way with a disturbingly confident smile. She saw him very rarely yet when she did, she would be with him instead of Pamela. This from time to time made Pam jealous of the guy except she took some fun in 'stealing' her back when the party was over.
Pam's husband Harvey never really got wind of these parties except until someone mentions to him about these costume parties at the Stacked Deck so he goes there a few times as a mobster and surprises his wife. He is rather careful about how often he goes simply because well his job is more professionally important to him plus Pam is grateful for the infrequency of him turning up as she has more fun without him. In this time line, the two are married yet have no children at least not for the moment.
Finally there was the night that Pam's secretary invites her to her place as both are almost too drunk to go home separately so they take a cab. Pam takes great care with making herself unrecognizable in costume when she goes to these parties and luckily nobody figures out that it is her. The two women go a little further than usual when Pamela kisses Harleen again, but that far as both pass out after awhile from the exhaustion of spending half the night at the party. It is somewhat embarrassing the next morning, but it is still the weekend. Harleen lets Pam uses the bathroom to clean up and so forth before going home so she gets lucky again as Harvey is still sleeping when she gets there.
***
Meanwhile back at Arkham, Dr. Elliot is arriving for work and for new sessions with the 'residents' so this place is basically his purpose yet he knows Wayne is just a tormented mind except on one level he does not care as Wayne always had the better life. How does he believe this well because Wayne's dead parents loved him, Wayne's late butler was terribly devoted to the point that he died to protect Wayne, Gordon respected Batman to a point, and so on. It made him aggravated from childhood that Wayne seems to have the edge always in his mind even after having lost his parents to a double homicide. This was the ultimate revenge to have Wayne under his thumb like this yet otherwise the rest of them were just other subjects to shuffle through until the next round with Wayne.
He always feigns sympathy and nudges the cyclic thought patterns. Otherwise by night he would always torment Nightwing especially with photos of Wayne in Arkham, of the scene where Tim died, of the Batcave where Alfred literally bit the bullet, of many other such scenes. He was also aware of the night life of many of Gotham's currently revered elite, but he kept those secrets to himself for now. Chaos theory was always funny to pull on anyone so long as nobody could pull it on him and the only one who could that was her except she more or less swore to tell no one. However he is not inclined to believe that for long.
Pamela Isley's secret was the juiciest of them all with her having a paramour in her secretary, which is something her husband is clueless about whereas Harvey has been to these parties as well except he is an infrequent attendee. As for Pamela's paramour Harleen, she has been periodically spending time with Councilman Conrad Larker. Things were definitely getting interesting and he almost laughs at the fact that the parties are held at the Stacked Deck. It was dumb irony to say the lineup of you is my Stacked Deck.
Meanwhile in sessions Fiona, Veronica and Roxanne would flirt with him, which he didn't mind and some they found it arousing for him to 'reject' them. As for Gil, Adam, and Lyle, they often had to be restrained more so than Bruce. Gil would rant about Barbara 'betraying' him even he deceived her in regards to her father taking bribes from Maroni. Adam would go on about the girl that left him in college that being Harleen, which almost would a put sinister look on Dr. Elliot's face. As for Lyle, he had been the head of security at Arkham until he started being more aggressive towards the inmates, and it would cost him his job though by comparison if anyone had known the real Thomas Elliot, Bolton would look benign by comparison.
He uses psychology in much more verbal way than Jack 'Ripper' Cross ever did, but Jack was always more visceral except he tends to be more often in Dr. Crane's care. Elliot had long ago learned the back story of Arkham's founder and of course he had more in common with Arkham than Bruce insofar as killing his mother. Bruce's only commonality with Arkham had been his professed intentions to help Gotham even in Arkham Asylum, but Elliot inwardly chuckles you still can except from the inside literally.
***
Meanwhile Harleen is met by Councilman Larker for lunch and of course he is enjoying himself more than usual by saying let's go back to your place and you put on that harlequin number. She giggles and decides to oblige him because last night with Pam was not as fun as usual except when Pam forced herself on Harleen when kissing her with black lipstick. However it was always different with Conrad even though he would dress like some smiling psycho in a good pricey suit.
***
Elsewhere Nightwing or rather Dick is shredding more anonymous photos of all the old familiar dead people in his life. However he took some solace in the fact that he still has Kory and she is happy with him despite the fact they are in hiding most of the time. The Titans had disbanded years ago as they went on to go solo except that did not work so well especially after the government or more so Cadmus in this time line had turned on them. The Near 09 in this time line was stalled from the start when Talia killed her father to protect her son from his plan to eventually transfer his consciousness into the mentally unprepared boy. It took many by surprise how cut loose she went on Ra's but by large most were grateful yet once more things took a turn for the worse as old qualms resurface especially in Gotham so that is how Bruce ends up in Arkham.
***
Look right through me, look right through me
She saw him, saw her father, using high tech goggles to 'look' or 'see' through the asylum walls near his room of a cell.
It almost broke her heart to see him like this after all the good he had done in her memory and it would definitely devastate Mom if she saw to this she thinks to herself after turning around with tears in her eyes. Donna pulls the younger woman towards her as they get into Detective Allen's car, which was driven there by Wally in Allen's body of course. They had to fix the time line otherwise before long nothing that Bruce did as Batman would be left intact nor anything else done the other heroes elsewhere in the world.
When people run in circles it's a very, very mad world, mad world.
***
Meanwhile Selina Kyle is still around somewhere except like in other time shifts she is still apparently reformed though very much distancing herself from any feelings she used to have for Bruce. However she knows whatever happen those nights where so many close to him died as his parents had died was not his fault, but how she could hope to convince him of this notion. The world had slid into a far more decadent and corrupt place without him especially in Gotham even though the police still struggle to maintain a loose sense of order. As for his other supposed allies outside of Gotham they were entrenched in their own problems especially with that secretive Cadmus having turned on them after Near 09 plus they were still resentful of what almost happen with the Thanagarians, the Invaders, and neutrality of Themyscira in midst of several planetary incidents.
Amazonians while trained beyond peak conditioning, they would not fight out of necessity, they would fight if necessary, but not just because Man's World demands their involvement. They ruled themselves for thousands of years and usually kept the mandates of the Goddesses except to allow some level of contact by 'sending' Donna to be their voice after Diana's slip up especially when Faust made her retrieve artifacts to release Hades. It was in the midst of that she met Batman, but he had been reluctant to help her even though he had met Donna during the Invaders' incursion. The two never connected romantically because the situation then was strictly him, Superman, J'onn, and Lantern helping her to retrieve the artifacts.
She was not banished from Themyscira, only told to remain near the tower that alternately housed Aresia before Aresia attempted to poison the males on Earth. Diana had seen the winged woman that Donna told her was Hawkgirl during that time as well. The chaos that had spread across Earth had left mostly all hidden societies untouched including Themyscira. Luthor was still killed by Superman yet neither Diana nor Bruce was at his back that day rather it was John and Shayera. There was never a crossover incident into the Justice League reality so the only thing that stopped the Lords from going stewardship mode was the fact that Ra's had been preparing for such an occasion though he waited until things worsened.
He waited too long so that is how Talia got around to killing him except stopping him did not stop the madness that had claimed the nations worldwide so now they had settled into a more militaristic lifestyle. This is how people like Bruce Wayne, formerly Batman, end up in places like Arkham while the former Superman remains imprisoned following the incident where he lobotomized Doomsday. Shayera went into hiding with John at Fate's Tower yet there seems to be no child at the moment.
Familiar faces, worn out places, mad world, and more to describe what happen to reality.
A/N 1: I basically patterned this story's version of Elliot after his comics counterpart except as I wrote in the previous A/N section, that he is a psychiatrist that enjoys playing mind games with everyone especially Bruce. The other Arkhamites include Velvet Vixen, Roxy Rocket, Vesta, Janus,The Creeper, Lockup, and Ripper. Vixen is a stand-in for Poison Ivy except as already seen Ivy is still Pamela. Roxy is a thrill seeker except here she's a bit more dangerous than usual. Vesta is a flipped version of Freeze, so instead of a guy stuck in a cold suit, she is a woman who enjoys fires, kind of like merging Volcana with Pyro from the X-Men.
A/N 2: As for Janus, I already established him as a swapped version of Two-Face except he is more delusional and anti-social than Dent. As Dent is still D.A. as for this current shift. As for The Creeper, he exists in the DCAU though he is not quite that crazy. Also here is a stand in for Joker who is in this time line Councilman Conrad Larker, larker is a synonym for joker or jester. As for Lock-up, he is basically unchanged from the Lyle Bolton first seen in BtAS episode Lock-up.
A/N 3: Diana has been confined to Themyscira for some past 'transgression' that led to Donna becoming Wonder Woman instead, that transgression occurs when Faust forces her to get the pieces for the key to release Hades from Tartarus. She still met Batman, but they never really connected because after what happen with the key, its decided that Donna shall remain as their representative in Man's World.
A/N 4: The latest shift has also trigger a darker, more fantasy oriented side to many of Gotham's current elite including Pamela Isley pursuing a relationship with this shift's version of Harleen Quinzelle who also has Councilman Larker after her too. The costume party has them all sort of dressing as they would appear in the 'regular DCAU' reality. I'm also toying at the fact that Ivy and Harley are periodically brought up as having a sapphic relationship at least in the comics. Alternate reality, time line, universe, fair game? Maybe.
A/N 5: A whole segment featuring Arkham just sort of 'spilled out' onto the screen after I decided to insert an alternate version of Elliot/Hush into the story as well him in this story having a son that he knows nothing of and that son well being responsible for fathering the story's time travelling villain Aeon.