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{ Chapter 10}

Her gloved fingers gripped the piece of singed metal tightly that was the door handle of the smoldering vehicle melting in the flames as tears brimmed from her eyes, staring at the horrific scene unfolding around her, she wasn't sure to scream or cry out her sister's name.

The stench of charred flesh nauseated her as she felt her body pulse rapidly, falling on her jeans and jolting to the chill erupting through her bones. She slammed her teary eyes shut, allowing the hot tears to roll over her cold cheeks, as blood drained from her face-the roaring flames glowed the leather of her jacket, disheveled hair and she allowed the burning sensation of remorse to sear inside her veins, a harrowing sense of death never escaped her body.

Fire fighters controlled the violent flames, as she caught the glimpse of something black and practically melted to the seat, a small frame of charred bones and tattered clothing belonging to young female-teenager. Selina felt her heart sink deeper into the acidly pit of her whirling stomach, she covered her quivering lips with her gloved and tried to prevent herself from screaming out a cry as she felt as if her lungs exploded in her chest. She tried to lift herself off the slushy ground, but the dread of staring at the remains of her baby sister weakened every fiber in her body. She crashed hard against the ground, jacket became soaked from the puddles.

"No!" she finally screamed out a mournful cry that was too great for her to vocalize. "Maggie!"

Blinded by the stinging tears in her eyes, Selina clutched her stomach with her trembling arm, her lips parted as she screamed with high pitch cries and slammed her fists into the puddles of melting ice. She squeezed her shut, making her head pound as bile rose up her throat.

Selina dared herself to stare at the skeleton smoking in the back seat, and then she lowered her head feeling a knife jab in her heart as flames died-and there was nothing left of her gentle little sister-nothing.

"Why!" She growled with a vicious tone, making her jaw tensed. "She was my sister. My sister!"

A soft hand of warmth touched her back, she shuddered as a gentle voice with a creamy English accent wafted in her pulsing ears. "It will be alright, dear."

Selina panted for breath, glancing over her shoulder at a very elegant looking English woman crouched down at her side, she glared into the tender blue eyes and her gaze drifted to the white trench coat covering her small figure and a black doctor's bag. "That's my sister!" she raved body trembling in shock.

The older woman wrapped her arms around Selina, cradling her into comforting embrace."It's okay." Her dainty hand stroked through the damp strands of Selina's hair. "You can cry all you want to you, dear." Selina looked at the smooth wrinkled face of the woman, and dug her face into her chest, allowing the tears to pour out of her-for once after watching her mother being beaten to death in front her, Selina felt the comfort of humanity wrap around her.

As the blood flowed out of her body, Selina felt the metallic of sickening acid taste rise in her throat, Selina lifted her unsteady gloved hand in the air trying to reached for Bruce as he raced to her with, screaming out her name with the darkest and fierce growl her ears could ever gather. He slashed his arms at Alberto's bodyguards preventing him from reaching her, he reached out his gloved hand.

"Selina!" he cried out to her, bashing to heads of his attackers with aggressive force of his hands. His body lowered to the ground as he dodged a knife jutted to his chest. "Hold on!" He looked at her with smoldering teary hazel eyes under the slits of the mask lashing out with his boots and fists.

Bruce became a black flurry of lightning fast round-house kicks and take down combat holds, not a move wasted. He flew a bat-shape projectile disarming an attacker to his left as a bullet emptied from the hammer of the gun, and he reacted with quick response time, rolling on the cement as his legs raised as he kicked his boots hard into the stomachs of the two attackers and with sharp and formidable movements he flipped back on his feet.

Alberto watched the intense scene in the shadows with the muzzle of his gun pointed at Selina. "What the hell are you? Another jewel thief with issues?" His sweaty finger rubbed over the hammer of the gun, daring Bruce with cruel gleam in his taunting green eyes as his cut through the red haze of agony shrouding of Bruce. "Make one move and your beautiful kitten goes to Hell."

Bruce felt his nostrils flare under the mask, "Drop the gun!" he unleashed a deep, threatening growl.

"I'll drop the gun when this bitch is finally silence for good," Alberto snarled, glaring down at Selina, watching the blood trickle from the corner of her mouth, "She's been a thorn in my side ever since her little sister died-if she just played by the rules she wouldn't be sucking on her last breath."

He turned his cold gaze to Bruce, before adding, "Her precious little family needed to wiped out of Gotham just like Doctor Thomas Wayne and his wife" He gritted his teeth. "My old man was so glad when the pigs filled with lead-he was so close of icing their pathetic son...the prince of Gotham."

Bruce felt his nails pierce the skin of his firm palms, a knife cut through his heart gauging it out of his chest and throwing into flames. It just like when he witness the death of his parents and the stood on the ashes of his childhood friend, but this was execution of his soul, as he settled tear filled eyes on Selina, her chest was still rising and barely falling but the ground beneath his feet was cracking.

He found himself struggling move with defiance to balance the pain that was pulling him into the abyss, visions of the Joker, Scarecrow and Bane in his head taunting him with blood-churning words that made the bile reach his throat.

He continued to stare at the woman he loved, watching the oozing blood pour out of her wound, still crying and dizzy with the sickening sense of death that wrapped over his trembling body, but the voice of the Joker entered his mind, cutting through the clouded thoughts of failure.

Kill him. You know you want to it. Pick up the gun and pull the trigger and watch him fall into a grave.

The repulsive of the voice of the monster that made blood spill on the streets of Gotham chimed in his thoughts.

Give him something to laugh about... The Joker heckled in his mind. Come on... Kill him... Kill him!

Bruce felt heart reached a standstill when he listened to Selina's ragged breathing-dying. She was dying because he let her go-he didn't do the will to act and chase after her that instant when she disappear from the light of dawn.

"No!" Bruce screamed out an inhumane piercing growl, he charged directly at Alberto with blazing hazel eyes as harsh breath escaped his pained lungs as he raved. "You are not going to take her away from me!"

Cold rage fizzed in Bruce's pulsing veins, fueling his vexation and grief, and barred his teeth under the mask. He clenched his jaw tightly—he pounced aggressively on Alberto knocking the man off his feet, his shaking fist leveled with the head of the eldest son of Carmine Falcone as he the sound of the gunshot awakened something dark and monstrous within the wells of his soul, Bruce knew he couldn't control the fury seeping out the cracks of his shattered heart.

He pried the gun from Alberto's hand and let his finger enclose around the weapon that took everything from him—he narrowed his fiery gaze down the pistol with the same hollow expression of when he stood on the docks with the gun he wanted to take Joe Chill's life with at the courthouse and his finger touched the hammer of the clip. He shook violently, eyes livid embers of hazel as he fought to control his own anger and turned the muzzle gun away from the man who stabbed his love. "No," he seethed in a grated voice, tossing the gun to the cement. "I'm not your executioner."

"Who the hell are you?" Alberto fumed out his protest with a baleful glare, "Answer me!"

Bruce squeezed the tears out of his eyes, images of his parents' graves skimmed in his thoughts. He saw Rachel's face and the faces of the all the cops that murdered by the mob. He saw a small grave with Selina's name etched in the stone. Everything he ever cared, lost and loved taken by monsters disguised in human flesh. "I am the son of the two people your father took from Gotham."

His teeth gritted looking at Selina's lips quivering, with abysmal growl bubbling up his throat. "The one that he tried to kill... Pointed a gun to his face..." He placed his hands over the fabric of the ski mask and pulled it off his face, throwing to the cement. Alberto's eyes widen as he stared at the sharp-chiseled face of the billionaire prince of Gotham, the man who brought his family to ruin. "I am Bruce Wayne."

"You," Alberto gasped with an exploding breath, locking his furious eyes into the darken stare of the orphan son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, he reached for a knife at his side from one of his incapacitated goons, and then he stabbed Bruce in the shoulder, listening to the billionaire grunted in pain as he twisted the blade deep into the muscle.

"I get to finish what my father failed to do when he wasn't rotting on his death-bed in Arkham...I get to carve out the heart of Bruce Wayne."