Author's note
Well, here we are at the end of this adventure that took over a year to finish. I cannot thank you all enough for the support you have given to me, thank you for the compliments and for the participation. You all truly made me enjoy this experience of writing my first fan fiction.
This fan fiction actually came to life after a bet, I had the story in mind but I lost a bet and had to add smut. I think it's quite obvious that sexy writing isn't my strength, unlike crime and mystery, but I did enjoy the challenge it added. Good thing I do ship Batman and Joker, otherwise it would've been odd.
To Jinx, I'm sorry I did not post your review, but your detective work was just too impressive. Posting it would have unfortunately spoiled interesting elements of the story to new readers and maybe lead others to figure out the ending. Therefore, I truly hope you haven't figured out even more of my story because I'd love to surprise you with unexpected turns of events. You truly impress me.
Dear readers, I hope this ending will move you, make you angry, shock you, anything. Honestly, all I hope for is to offer you a story that will somewhat mark you, that will make you think, that will make you feel emotions.
Bonne lecture.
Final chapter
"A mistake about what?" The detective asked and after a moment of silence his butler spoke up.
"But you did train him, sir. I thought that the Champion was a name he gave to himself in this alliance with you, for he never got it from the gang."
"What do you mean?"
"Although the Joker was a big part of this investigation, so was I, and I cannot recall a moment when anyone from Harleen's gang mentioned a Champion."
The dark knight's heart sank as he went on reflecting and trying to remember such event, however the older man seemed to be right for he himself had no memory of anyone speaking of the Champion beside the lunatic. He felt nauseous upon speaking his next words.
"The suit. He designed the suit with my company's technology. Nothing gang related..." He said in a defeated voice.
"What about Nygma's role in all this?"
The butler asked and Bruce scratched his chin, almost hopeful to have find some way to connect his ally to the gang in the way he believed he was. Yet, something came up in his mind that once again drowned his thoughts in almost complete obscurity.
"Nygma's last words to Joker were -Trust no one.- He must've been a traitor. That's why they killed him."
"Everything he ever told you was a lie."
"No." The hero stated firmly. "Something this big, I would've known! I would've figured it out!"
"Sir, we all make mistakes. I did not knew either."
But Alfred's words didn't reach the larger man who had the phone away from his face as he started charging out of the garage and into the basement.
"No... This can't be!"
"Sir? Can you hear me?"
He ran upstairs, already out of breath as he was panicking for never has he made such a moronic error in a case and now it was as if he was suddenly arriving to this world after abruptly being taken from one of delusions.
"Joker?! Joker!?"
"Said he was goin' out to take some air!"
Francesca's voice answered his shouting. He ran back to the basement to search through the pale man things and placed the phone back to his ear.
"It's all gone, Alfred! He took everything and left! He took the suit!"
The older man had nothing to add for both him and the vigilante already knew what they had to do.
"Expect me at the cave."
He stated in a deep cold voice, not the one of a defeated man but the one of a betrayed warrior.
Upon arriving he lost no time and started suiting up while his butler updated him on the situation.
"The entire city is out of control, but GCPD is handling this. They asked of you to take care of the small squads that are hunting for the Joker, those people keep on breaking into houses and torturing former inmates hopeful that they would get any clues of his position."
"Of course, but I must also review Claire Williams' evidences. I still don't trust Harleen."
"Speaking of the Devil, she covered all of the laboratory's cameras."
The dark knight who had finished gearing up quickly reached the Batcomputer to load up the videos and saw nothing. Furious, he looked up the number of the place and contacted her.
"Finally!" She arrogantly said upon answering the call.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm offering ya two options, Bats. Either I leave with Red and hide her somewhere in Gotham or y'let me hire some guys to protect her and ya don't arrest them."
"No deal."
"Bats! She's the only hope for a cure, she's the only friend I have left and I'm not leaving her here alone while he's out there." The hero kept silent for moment and she spoke again. "Hey! I got work to do! We're kind of in the middle of a crisis here!"
"Fine. Uncover the cameras and hire some protection."
He watched as the first of his surveillance equipment was freed only to reveal that the lab was already full of mercenaries.
"Deal!"
She hung up and he ran the his Batmobile, enough time had already been wasted, his city needed him.
All the workers in the GCPD building were running all over the place, so many things were happening, so many people brought in; regular New Year drunks who might have went a little too far, Joker-hunters, regular criminals, Malach rioters. Commissioner Gordon was not present at the moment for he was on the field among his men. The vigilante went on intercepting the doctor from the morgue who as usual did not seem surprised at all by the man's presence.
"I need to know all about the recent updates about the evidences on Claire Williams case."
"Oh! That's one hell of an interesting case." She answered so blasé from death, yet full of life. "Follow me."
They entered the evidences room were she accessed the computer, put on some gloves and went on searching for something. She came back with a chain.
"See, this was one of the chain used to restrain Jervis Tetch's body. When we first received them, we analyzed only a bit of the blood that could be found on them and it matched Tetch. We stopped further investigation when Claire Williams showed up covered in the victim's blood, but that was a mistake."
"Did she killed him or not?"
"Yes, totally, but she wasn't alone." The woman picked the end of the chain and turned it in a manners where the blood covering this part was clearly visible. "Harleen Quinzel, she noticed this and said something about chains being overrated because you always end up pinching yourself on them. She analyzed this blood and we got a match."
"Joker."
"Joker was restraining Tetch while Williams was murdering him."
Batman sighed as once again and was feeling not only like a failure, but embarrassed that even Harleen had so far made better detective work on the case than he did.
"We need to reopen Williams' case. She's not insane, she was drugged."
"You think?" She asked skeptical.
"I know Joker have access to a very powerful mind controlling drug that can turn people in quite literal slaves. The Devil's Breath. It would explain the sudden moment of madness Claire had and the voice she kept hearing."
"There's no way we could find traces of this drug in her blood now, but I'll still add this information to the case. That would make sense."
The caped crusader did not respond, he simply headed to the window and swiftly exited the place. So it was all true, the mad man had been lying to him from the very beginning. It was about time he put an end to all this before he could do even more damage.
As he had just left the building finally ready to start taking care of the Joker-hunters, gaining information at the same time in order to find him, Alfred contacted him.
"Sir, Joker has just posted three short videos of himself online."
"Does the video contain any clues of where he might be?"
"Unfortunately, all three videos seemed to have been taken at different places, all on roofs near busy streets, at different times and from different phones."
"Send them my way."
He watched, on each videos he recognized the Champion suit, but his face was uncovered so that people would recognize him and know that this was legit.
I'm the living proof that the Reds is a lie. Malach is a fraud.
And that was the first video, him simply stating this.
This city needs a real cleansing, let us honor Claire Williams' work.
The vigilante was not surprised by all this and calmly moved on to the next video.
Leave the nonredeemable to me and the redeemable to the Bat. Then, leave me to the Bat.
"Did those videos had any impact?" Batman asked his butler.
"Yes, now the Malach rioters are practically at war with the Champion fanatics. It's a good thing you are already half way done with the Joker-hunters, because things keep getting worst."
"Already half way done? Alfred, I haven't started yet."
"But GCPD informed me of finding many groups unconscious and handcuffed, simply stuck waiting to be arrested."
"That wasn't me..." The hero said in confusion upon theorizing. "It must have been Joker. When and where was the last group arrested?"
"About ten minutes ago near the Killinger's Departement Store."
"Thanks."
Immediately after hanging up, he jumped into his Batmobile and rushed toward the location as fast as he could.
Upon arriving, all cops were already gone, such as the criminals that had been arrested, but he continued roaming the streets, eyes peeled as he knew he could not have gone this far if all he had was his suit or an ordinary vehicle at best. The streets were busier than usual, lights and action all over the place was making it harder for him to find what he was looking for. Then, he miraculously got a glimpse of a slim gray silhouette jumping from one roof to the other.
The dark knight ejected himself from his car and glided on the same roof, where the figure was now standing, facing away from him, staring at the bright city. He approached without making a sound, brightness from the city contrasting the slender one and giving to the larger man only a dark shade to stare at. As expected, the left hand was raised as in a salutation, his presence had been felt.
"Hey, Batsy!"
The high pitched voice sent shivers down Bruce's spine as he took in the realization of another big mistake.
"Oh no! No need to thank me for all the help."
The powerful kicks, the poison, the training, the testing. This was starting to make sense.
"Malach..." He said in almost a whisper.
"Nice to meet ya!"
He walked closer, curious and wanting to see her in a better lighting.
"Well, we got work to do. See ya!"
She said, ready to jump down but he grabbed her arms and turn her around.
"No, wait."
He stared at the suit, light gray, quickly recognized the material, spider silk, like his, the armor made for a more acrobatic type. Joker's job at Wayne Enterprise was not to take over the company, but rather make her a suit. She had what seemed to be smoke bombs, a tube with darts, surely poisonous, a knife, a gun, but strangely enough, no grappling hooks. She did not have the hoodie and goggle, instead the bottom and top of her face was completely covered, like a ninja and her eyes where hidden behind a visor. Two other uncanny things was the fact that her back and left ear were not covered by anything. This was a terrible design.
"You can't do this."
"Well it ain't like I can leave it to ya!" She yanked her arm away. "I arrested ten Joker-hunters groups while ya did zero! I can sure as hell do this."
"Why do you have a gun? Why is this even happening?"
"How are ya surprised? I've been telling ya about Malach all this time, inviting ya to trust me and my gang but y'always just pushed me away."
"Trusting your gang, the same way you trusted Joker? I know better than this." He answered coldly.
"Do ya?"
She asked and filled him with remorse, guilt and rage. He hoped she had just returned the question meaninglessly and was not aware of anything that had happened between him and the mad man. He took one step back and spoke up.
"This ends now. You can surrender or we can fight."
"Really?" She mockingly asked. "We have so much things to do and so little time to do so, I don't wanna fight now."
"You're wrong. I have much to do, you don't. It's over. Your gang is over. Malach is over."
"What are ya? A Champion fanatic?"
He went on attacking first, doing a roundhouse kick, aiming for her head, but swiftly, she avoided it by getting down and performing a spinning sweep kick that successfully sent the hero to the ground. By the time he got up she was already jumping down in between two building, surely in an attempt to escape. The caped crusader activated his heat vision and dived into the alley way, spotting only what seemed to be a hand and foot imprint against the cold brick wall of the building, located right in the middle. He found nothing else and moved his cape in a way he could exit the alley way and take some altitude from the dive he had just made. No possible acrobatic moves came to his mind to explain how she had escaped this way, however she could not have gone too far. He flew over the city, searching and rapidly finding her running on top of another roof. Using his grappling hook, the hero quickly reached her, shouting.
"Harleen!"
"Shh! It's Malach right now!" She responded with mild anger. "How would ya like it if I went on calling you Alex when you're wearing the Bat suit?"
"Alex?" He questioned.
"Was taking a wild guess. Was I close? No?" He ignored her question and took his fighting stance. "Are ya serious?!"
"This ends now."
"Y'wanna fight, fine! Let's fight!"
She took a stance too. The detective had already learned from the first altercation that attacking first was a wrong move, she was fast, agile, more than he was. The key was his patience and focus, waiting for the right moment to strike, to stop her.
Here she was arriving, at impressive speed, throwing a forceful unexpected left punch which he rapidly blocked in a slapping hand. A right punch heading to his stomach, he grabbed her forearm, ready to try a takedown, but was surprised as she firmly grabbed his other hand and used his own grip to throw both her feet up against him to push herself away. He took a few steps back without losing his balance while she rolled out of the fall and got back to her feet.
"Even stronger than I remember."
She said slightly panting and he would have returned the compliment if this would have been a friendly fight. Unfortunately, it was not and he had started having doubts on how long it would take to win this battle. She had gotten impressively good, which suddenly gave him an idea.
"Stop fooling around. Show me what you've got, Malach."
He successfully taunted her and was rewarded by the short woman running toward him and jumping up, trying to land a kick to his head, but the large man grabbed her by the foot and knocked her, face toward to ground, with all of his force, exposing her naked back. He swiftly grabbed a batarang an threw it in her shoulder blade, getting a short scream out of her.
To his surprised, it barely bled and as he approached to handcuff her, she rolled, lifting herself a bit to avoid getting the weapon deeper in her back and gave vicious kick the the dark knight's face which made a startling cracking noise. As he stepped back, he noticed he could not move his mouth, plus blood was dripping out of it. She had definitely broken his jaw.
In complete silence, he stood as he stared at her getting up, slightly giggling. Although he was in pain, he had not given up on this combat yet, he got back to his fighting stance, ready to continue.
"Oh! It's on, alright!"
Harley stated, sounding completely furious, but no at all hurt. The vigilante could not understand how and at first thought she might have been on drugs. Then, behind her, the batarang just hit the ground and, unable to speak, he pointed at it, hoping for answers. Her head turned, she glanced at the weapon and proceeded to turn herself, showing her completely healed body to the shocked hero.
"Who would've thought mixing the Man-bat serum with a bit of Clayface's genes would give me powers like these?" She faced the larger man once again. "Oh yeah, this and also the mix of poison resistance potion I had and the Reds that created this thing inside of me, this tumor that allows me to kind of control it all."
It was all starting to make sense, slowly, and Batman could only wonder how he had not seen this coming. The files in the laboratory, the massacre in her apartment, it must have been when she was learning to control this, that time she said she was not even human. She was not human anymore, what she was he did not knew, but it had to be stopped.
"D'ya really want to continue? 'Cause this isn't even my final form."
He kept his stance up, remembering how to take down Harley Quinn, how to take down Clayface and how to take down the Man-bat. He was seeking a way to link all of these being when a familiar sound caught back his attention and he stared at the woman. The sound, so odd, yet he knew he had heard it before and he knew when. It was over a surveillance microphone, when she was with Catwoman. The sound of moving organs, cracking bones, stretching skin. The sound of a monster being formed, as the left ear gets pointy and terrifying wings spreads from out of her back.
He asked himself, why has his ancient partner never mentioned any of this. Was he not aware?
"Tell me y'aren't surprised for real, detective?" She waited a bit upon letting out a loud sigh. "What have ya been doing during the past year!?"
He dropped a smoke bomb in hope to get a away for a moment in order to form a strategy. He had started getting away with the help of his grappling hook when he suddenly felt the powerful small hands grabs on to him. Resistance being applied to the hook, while her enormous wings where moving all over the place, pulling in the other direction with force. She ended up winning as his hand slipped from the gadget, she stopped flying, he kept trying to fight and free himself from her grip to glide away, but she kept her hands on him, diving and doing her best to give acceleration to the fall.
Finally, there was the ground.
Confuses thoughts mixing together in an amalgam of stressful new found ways of perceiving old memories, as bad information kept being added to the mix keeping the hero anxious yet not fully conscious. Champion fanatics trying to take over Gotham all the while cleansing it under Joker's orders. The pale man still impossible to find, appearing here and there in his suit and helping small groups of his new form cult destroying and killing anything and anyone that was crime related. Meanwhile, Malach would still be working on the city as if she was the Bat herself, promising a cure and stating the she was continuing researches and experimentation even while the city was ruled by chaos. She had also been destroying the surveillance system that had been set by the vigilante, stating he had shown that he was no ally to her and wishes to protect her lab, men and Ivy from him.
After what felt like an eternity, he opens his eyes and everything seemed clear. His thoughts and surroundings were lucid, but the pain he felt from his body was barely describable. He did not knew how much time it had been since the fight, but it felt as if he was still in it. Struggling to open his mouth, he successfully, slowly separated his teeth allowing a small sound to escape his mouth, forming a word with an incredible amount of efforts.
"Alfred?"
From the corner of his eye, he saw the older man almost run to him.
"Sir, are you alright?"
"I'm better now." He stated upon trying to sit up, but the butler stopped him. "I need to get up, they need me out there... In fact, what is going on out there?"
"Take it easy." He responded stepping back. "Sir, it's the 5th of January."
"What?" He said sitting up way too quickly, feeling some sort of shock of pain running through his entire body. "I've been in here for five days?"
"Harleen has gotten quite powerful, it's a good thing she's being helpful so far, except for the fight."
"Helping? Look at what she did to me."
"I know, sir, she went too far, I'm guessing she still does not know her strength very well. However, she made a public apology for the fight and said she was hoping for you to accept collaborating. She has been this city's greatest protector, without you around. I do not know what to make of this."
"Do you think that maybe the Reds truly works and Joker is just an exception? There are always people who reacts differently to drugs."
"That's what I have been thinking too."
Bruce went on getting out of the bed, the energy he needed to do so made him dizzy, this was terrible, he needed to be out there, Gotham needed him.
"How is GCPD feeling about Malach?" He asked his old friend.
"Today, they gave her similar rights to you, authorizing the project to affect cases. Claire Williams' case is being reopened and most people are saying her liberation is imminent."
"I feel like I'm going insane, none of this make sense to me, yet I feel I'd be in the wrong however I choose to think."
Alfred stood silent, unable to find the right words to address Bruce after such statement. He watched as the larger man went on gearing up, moving slowly, pain affecting his facial expressions.
"Sir, you should rest."
The older man proposed already aware that the hero would simply ignore the suggestion and get on with this night.
"What have you told Wayne Enterprise about these days I was gone?"
"Mr. Fox and I have spent some of the company's money into repairing the city from the damage caused by the Champion fanatics and also participate into this new charity that goes into helping the innocents who would have been torture and interrogated to pay their medical bill. Therefore most people from your company thinks you have been busy working around the city, seeing the damage and helping around."
"Great move."
He complimented the man upon getting into his vehicle and leaving.
The vigilante arrived at the lab that was now guarded by GCPD agents, he casually entered and joined the two women who were both in front of the computer, hopefully doing researches. The blonde turned to him and simply waved.
"Why did you insist on having me calling you Malach on the field if you make no effort whatsoever to hide your identity?"
"Because it's cooler, ain't it to same reason for ya? I mean, y'can't really have a life aside from being Batman. I know I can't do anything else ever since I started this project."
"My project." The red head corrected.
"Our project." Harleen corrected once more, a hand on her heart and a wide smile on her face.
"Have you been making progress on a cure?"
"No, but we did discovered new things about the Reds, especially how it altered Harley's body." Ivy went on responding. "We were wrong for calling it a tumor, I think I've somewhat created a new parasitic lifeforms." She turned to the hero. "I can feel its presence in each users." She stated upon getting back to the screen. "Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out why they constantly need doses of Reds in order to keep their host alive."
"Why isn't Harleen's parasite in need of the Reds?"
"The anti-venom serum I gave her long ago altered the way the fungus grew inside of her, forming another type of lifeforms. Although she's safe from dying of a need of Reds, I wouldn't recommend it to other people. This parasite seems to be taking a lot from the mycellium part of its being, but instead of connecting different plants across the ground, it seems to be connecting new coding to her own DNA, which would explain how the extreme modifications were possible."
"Does it mean that it's always seeking to grow, absorbing any coding it comes in contact with?"
"It could eventually evolve toward this..."
"Which means she would become extremely prone to sickness and unfavorable mutations." The detective concluded.
"I am not stressed at all!" Quinn stated nervously giggling. "Tonight we'll be working on cures and testing. What will ya be doing?"
"Look for Joker." The dark knight answered while approaching Harley. "I want you to know that although we fought and I don't agree with your project, you and I are at peace up until we can stop Joker."
"Partners?" She asked while presenting her hand to him.
"No, but we aren't enemies." He stated, going for a handshake.
"I'll take what I can get!" She happily responded, slapping his hand in an awkward attempt for a high five.
A few days went by with no hints to where the pale man might have been. The dark knight was slowly recovering, now being able to stop small groups of Champion fanatics without ever working directly with Malach.
Finally, on the night of the 7th of January, in the sky, he saw the Bat signal. Rushing there, he joined commissioner Gordon on the roof, but also had to deal with the unpleasant presence of Gotham's most recent vigilante. Jim went on explaining the situation.
"The Iceberg Lounge is under attack by Champion fanatics, my men are doing their best to keep them out, but it won't be enough, partly because the club is retaliating. We're stuck in a crossfire. I also got a tip that Joker has been spotted among them."
Malach simply ran, spreading her wings and left ready for action.
"Taking down the Penguin would drown this city in probably the biggest power struggle it ever had."
"I know." The detective answered. "I'll be leaving the fighting to her while I get Cobblepot out of there."
Without any time to spare, he got into the Batmobile and sped off to the Iceberg Lounge. His plan was easy enough, he had to get in there unnoticed and with Harleen fighting in the front line, it shouldn't be that hard. Then, he could go for Joker, find him, stop him, put an end to this.
He stopped his vehicle a few blocks away and went on making his way on rooftops. He glanced down and saw the newborn hero, fighting like a devil in holy water, throwing men against other men, battling both the people from the Lounge and the Champion fanatics. Hurt policemen would use the opportunity to get away, while others would help with the confrontation. This was perfect for the caped crusader who made its way into the ventilation system of the club. He activated his heat vision, spotting Oswald in a far room of the club, some aquatic animals, mostly fishes,a few penguins, a single polar bear and surprisingly enough, no henchmen.
He exited the system and casually started walking toward his destination. As he was marching through the largest room, the one where parties would be held, all snow white, surrounded by some aquariums, a familiar modified voice called to him, from a good distance.
"Baby, where have you been?" He questioned, as if everything was as it should be. "I thought you'd follow me. I thought you'd be with me by now."
"What have you done?"
He sadly asked, unable to find any better question, unable to turn his head and look directly at him. He saw the gray shadow slowly approaching him, arms moving to take off the mask and hood.
"I've continued our work, that's what. You know very well that Harley shouldn't be running this city. You know very well what the Reds does to people."
"You've been a murderer ever since the beginning. You lied to me. You used me."
"It all lead to better things. Of course I lied, I knew you would've never progressed in this case without me killing here and there. You needed me, I've always been there to do what you could never do. That's why we're perfect together."
"I should have never trusted you..."
He stated, finally turning his attention to his old partner. Burning pain started to grow in his chest as he gazed at his delicate long face. His hair had grew, he had never noticed how the green was making its way under the white hair. The surroundings of his lightly colored eyes being were so dark from tiredness and unwashed makeup. There he was with that same old facial expression, that grin, that smile.
"I revealed myself to you, I shared my life with both Jackson and the Champion, I believed in this."
The larger man spoke in his regular voice in a lost hope to maybe reach the friend he had been seeing in the maniac, only to be greeted with absolutely no reactions. The mad man went on placing his goggles back on his eyes, carelessly.
"Never have I ever gave up on you, yet you betray me. I'm the reason you're still alive to this day, Joker."
He placed his hood and mask back on, activating his voice modifier, glancing around the room.
"Joker, I lo..."
"She's coming." He stated, presenting his hand to the hero. "Together, we can take her down. Together, this ends now."
The dark knight stared at his hand without making any move. He looked around, hearing the sound of a person running in the club, she was near.
"Trust me!"
He demanded as Malach entered the room charging toward him and the caped crusader, simply watched. She jumped at him, ready the tackle him and in a flash of smoke he was gone and she fell. The detective knew where to look as this was his own trick, turning his attention to the ceiling he quickly noticed movement from a ventilation trap. He followed with no hesitation, trying to catch up to the small and agile man that had swiftly made its way closer to where Oswald Cobblepot was.
He exited and the hero followed, they got in a room full of animals and the woman did not put a lot of time upon bursting through the door. Batman had started fighting the Champion, unfortunately, he was still very sore from his battle with Harleen, making the pale man's rapidity quite a problem. As an opening presented itself, he kicked him away, taking out a batarang only to be met by his opponent taking out a gun.
He jumped out of the way, and only heard the shots being fired. Turning back, he watched as the athletic woman evaded the bullets, and in the glimpse of an eye took out her gun. The dark knight threw his batarang at her, a move that was expected and dodged as well. He charged and kicked the gun out of her hand, a bold move that made him receive a bullet in the arm, one that was likely destined to Harley. He pulled a smoke bomb and his grappling hook out to perform to same trick as the jester. Looking down, he realized their common enemy had gotten out of view too, and with a suit like his, he of course had something to hide from heat vision. The blonde had stopped moving, picking up her phone and speaking for a short moment in which the back of all cages had opened. It must have been a move by Joker, the detective theorized, heading to get past the cages and where he believed the smaller man was located.
That is when he realized where Oswald exactly was, behind the polar bear.
"My lab is under attack! I need to..." Malach shouted out to the hero who had no time for this.
"Just go!"
He ordered and she exited almost as fast as he went to get to that room.
He saw him, standing in a corner, remaining as calm as one could, unsure of what to do in such a situation while the clown simply threw a batarang of his own in hope to motivate the animal to attack. The dark knight intercepted it by throwing the same weapon, catching the attention of his opponent.
"Oh, Batsy, glad you could join us."
A statement ignored by the vigilante who was approaching the beast, wanting his focus on him. The plan was simple, since it had not been angered, he only had to make it go back to his cage or get it far enough from Cobblepot so that he could try an escape.
"You know, I've always loved how you make your gadgets to be beyond powerful. Especially that communicator of yours."
The Champion went on opening his communication device and reached the detective who suddenly started feeling sick, having difficulty to comprehend his surroundings as everything sounded distorted. He wanted to turn it off, but he was shaking uncontrollably and could barely breathe. The Champion threw a batarang once more, this time the caped crusader failed to stop it. The beast went crazy with fury and viciously attacked the Penguin while Batman took out his grappling hook shooting the animal in the back trying to pull him away. All he did was bruise and anger the polar bear even more, it turned around rapidly, but before it could do anything, Joker shot it in the head, multiple times.
The vigilante took the time to reach for his headset, completely turning off his communication device. By the time he did, the clown was gone, however he was not the priority of he situation. Laying on the floor, skull opened, disfigured and bleeding was one of the most powerful man in Gotham.
He had failed, again.
The news of Oswald's death did not take long to spread across the entire city of Gotham, with a good portion of the citizens, supporters of the Champion, seeing it as a good thing. They believed the death of powerful criminals such as Tetch and Cobblepot were a true sign of a new era, one were crime would lower. Bruce thought otherwise, disagreeing with both his ex partner and Malach's methods. However, when he heard of the way she defended the laboratory against the Champion fanatics attacking, avoiding killing any of them and trusting them to GCPD, he somewhat felt relief. Although she was quite mighty, she was not an important threat at the moment.
His encounter and short discussion with Joker lead him to theorize on a few more things, mostly that he must have known about Malach all along. The way he asked for his trust and help to defeat Harleen, he had planned all of this. Of course they could easily take her down together, but the hero knew that the easiest way was rarely the righteous one. The lunatic had planned for the dark knight to need his help and was hoping difficulty would compel him to go back to their alliance, but he was wrong. The detective knew this had been calculated all along, this was nothing but another complex trap to walk into. This time he would not be fooled.
It did not took much time for Bruce to understand what had happened to him on the battlefield, the pale man had used an infra-sound at a high level of decibels through his communicator in order to weaken him. He simply modified his communicator to no longer be able to reach both infra and ultra-sounds, disabling this new tactic his opponent had came up with. He did not wish to block the mad man from reaching him as a slightly longer calls could actually render tracking him possible and if there was anything the smaller man would often do too much, it was talking.
The hero spent the next few days keeping in close contact with Poison Ivy and Harley, even helping them, as they decided to work up some log identifying all Reds distributors and users with their quantity of pills per doses and date of the beginning of the drug uses. They successfully identified that there were in total 214 Reds users, excluding themselves but including the dead, such as Nygma and Tetch. The users were also not only in Gotham, a good portion being at Central City and some at Metropolis. The vigilante was positively surprised to learn that the only user to have died of a lack of Reds was the Riddler, meaning the ones living were quite unlikely to meet with the same fate.
Overall, what they learned is that of all the users, only two of them, including Joker, did not seem to be affected in any ways by the narcotic. The two women concluded that there were just some people with whom the medication was not working, as it was the case with most medicine. Bruce did not felt the same way, this whole plan was much more complicated, was taking more time, focus and was making way too much sense in comparison to other crazy things the clown had ever thrown at him. His nemesis had truly changed and he was blaming the Reds for it.
Both Ivy and Quinn told the dark knight that contacting and testing a bit with other Reds users lead them to discover a few new things. One of them was even willing to stay at the laboratory for as long as they needed. They were now working on another cure, one that Harley would try in a few days and were quite hopeful for the results.
The caped crusader went on continuing his investigations to find Joker, stop the fanatics all the while they were working on this project. Ever since his ally had left him, the detective had been slowly capable of accepting that maybe what was happening was entirely true, even making sense and that he had been the one in the wrong, somewhat blinded by the jester and the bizarre affair they shared.
13th of January. 23:12 PM, Batman is contacted in order to stop a violent battle between a group of Champion fanatics and Malach supporters. The city's latest vigilante could not make it to the battlefield for a few hours as she was asleep, an intravenous injection of what might finally be the cure for the Reds in arm. The red head had explained to Bruce that the solution was too strong to be simply shot in like a regular vaccine and would need time to slowly settle into her body. During those hours, the hero kept doing what had became a routine for the past weeks, fighting small gangs of uncontrollable followers.
Meanwhile, Alfred was in the cave, all eyes and ears to any information that could lead to Joker and keeping track of where the groups were hitting at the same time. Both him and his master were exhausted from the high level of crimes that had been going ever since the pale man had betrayed both them and Harleen's gang. However, tiredness was not slowing any of them down in their way of working, they were determined to finish this.
1:24 AM, a few citizen had reported seeing Joker at the docks, and the caped crusader was at this location seeking clues that could lead him to the prince of crime.
He was analyzing a footprints that oddly resembled the pattern of his own boot, therefore could have been Wayne Tech, when he suddenly heard running and a familiar voice screaming, coming from behind. He barely had time to turn around when Malach was jumping toward him, he grabbed her and they stumbled together, rolling a bit before he successfully pinned her down with the right technique.
"Bats, ya moron!" She shouted struggling ferociously to get out of his firm grip. "I trusted ya! I let ya place all those cameras in my lab and for what?! Where were ya!?"
"What's wrong?" He asked while doing his best to keep her under control.
"I woke up alone, in an empty lab! Red's gone! They're all gone!" She stated upon finally pushing him away and rolling to sit up. "Why didn't y'see that?! Are the cameras even working?!"
"What about the cure?" He coldly asked, although he truly was distressed with Pamela's disappearance as she was their greatest hope.
"Nothing was taken, except for people." She sadly responded, getting up. "We need to find her."
He was about to answer when suddenly her phone started ringing. She answered, sighed and approached the vigilante, putting the phone between them and pressing on the button to put it on speaker.
"What is it?" She asked.
"You two cannot begin to understand how gracious it looks when you fight together. Truly a marvelous performance by two of the most exquisite dancers this city has to offer. Well, most exquisite after me, of course."
He giggled and Bruce quickly started using his hacking device to get into the phone in hopes of tracking him. He was slightly troubled by the way he was speaking and all the time he was wasting, it was such a novice behavior.
"Where's Red?!"
"Ask Batsy, he's the one who took her. He always wanted to ruin your project, didn't he? And wasn't that the perfect occasion?" The lunatic stated and the blonde turned to larger man who placed one hand up as a sign for her to wait upon reacting. "I'll be sending coordinates to each of you, in both location a surprise shall be awaiting."
He said upon hanging up on them and the first thing the dark knight did was take a step back.
"I didn't take Ivy, he did. I think I even know how."
"This better make a lot of sense or I'll make ya regret it like I've never made anyone regret anything before."
"Only you, the people of the laboratory and I knew about this cure testing tonight, the only way for Joker to have known too is if he had a way to spy on you. I suspect the Reds user who stayed for the testing to have been a mole."
As he finished his sentenced, they both received coordinates, the hero was surprised to find out the location was already registered into his map; it was the bunker.
"It's a trap, let's switch."
Quinn offered and the cape crusader simply nodded upon entering new information to once again find out this was no new location, it was the laboratory. They did not exchange any more words upon being done with setting their new destinations in their gadgets. She flew away and he ran to his vehicle.
Upon entering the lab, the detective scrutinized the place, using all of his type of visions in order to not get himself caught in any traps. There was none, but Joker was inside and everything was broken.
He ran to find him locked inside what would normally be Ivy's cell, his face uncover and baffled in expression. He went on bursting into a loud laughter that was barely muffled by his prison.
"I gave you two simple instructions and none of you were able to follow them. What a terrific duo we got there!"
The clown kept mocking while Batman was trying to open the cell that seemed to have been modified. The physical lock could not be broken, it was wired to a password that even his hacking device could not decode.
"Keep trying, Batsy. We've got all the time in the world now that you've killed her."
"What are you talking about?" He harshly responded, done with the pale man's games.
"We won, you didn't follow my instructions, we did it your way and we won."
He grabbed on to one of the solution that was linked to the glove he had designed after Scarecrow's and took it off his suit. Placing on the ground and opening it, he went on opening another one and mixing them together. The larger man was not following what was happening there, but theorized that he was probably making a powerful toxin. Therefore he took a few steps back, ready for anything.
"I was going to use this to bargain with our common enemy but now that she's dead, it's useless."
That's when he understood what had just taken place in front of him, while he did nothing but walk away.
"The cure... You've ruined the cure!" He furiously shouted, jumping at the cell and hitting it with his fist. "What's in Harley's blood instead!?"
"There was never a need for a cure, you know we're fine. You've always said you were sane, I believe you now, that's why the Reds does nothing to you. We don't need a cure, we need each other. I make you stronger, you make me s..."
"What's in her blood!?"
"Rude." The jester mocked upon being interrupted. "Nothing but plant cells, deep in her system. She doesn't even know it, nor feel it. Well, didn't felt it until you sent her to her death."
The hero tried contacting Quinn through the phone he had hacked into earlier to no avail leaving him stuck to make a difficult decision. He could either leave to check on her, which would unavoidably let the mad man escape and disappear once more, or he could stay here and risk abandoning her to a terrible fate one could only imagine. He looked into the man's green eyes and he seemed to have found a glimpse of inspiration in them.
"Joker, if she really is dead, what shall we do with the Reds users?"
"Oh, don't you worry about them. I've figured out how to make Reds, they'll be fine."
"You might have destroyed a new important figure of Gotham, the people will feel hopeless."
"She's destroyed all right, but this city never needed her."
The vigilante went on heading for the door, heart racing as he was longing to hear a few words coming from the smaller man's mouth. He started giggling and then went on speaking.
"See you soon, my darling."
It took everything for the larger man to not smile. He left and got into his vehicle to rush at the bunker.
The noise of a female crying in desperation is the first thing to have reached him upon approaching the now door-less bunker near which he found both Malach's mask and visor. He slowly made his way through the L shaped passage to stare with horror into the dim lighted by small lamps room. The scene was something only the mind of this lunatic could have ever came up with, the level of cruelty that had been put into this murder was heart wrenching.
He recognized the type of helmet she had on her head, covering both eyes and ears, rendering life to be an obscure mystery. She must have felt the plant cells that were surely administered without her presence and just pulled. She pulled to get what she felt was a plant closer and closer, to help her out of this helmet and out of the chains that were holding her near the wall and floor. As it was dragged close enough, the woman was finally be able to touch it, only to discover with dread and sorrow that what was under her hand was not a plant, but the soft flesh of a familiar face she had so often caressed.
Her crying was constant as she was absolutely helpless, uncomfortable to further move the plants and along with it the body she had unknowingly wrecked. Her only reaching hand still touching the face and feeling the soft hair of her immobile girlfriend.
The dark knight approached to free her of the helmet and, as expected, was met with fear and resistance up until he successfully removed it. She looked at him for a brief instant, speechless and went on staring at the blonde while the hero was undoing her restraints. Quinn's eyes were closed, the veins on her face oddly visible, as if moving the plant cells had somewhat over loaded some areas of her blood system. After liberating Pamela, he activated his X-ray vision to analyze the murder and witnessed something incredible.
"Her heart is pounding lightly, her blood is moving. She's alive." He stated while dropping next to Harley and pointing out two areas of her body. "Ivy, I can see where the cells are concentrated, I can guide you toward equally spreading it into her body, back to how it must have been when she got here."
"Let's do it."
She stated as cooperative as she's ever been, placing her hands above her. They went on slowly moving the cells through her blood system and organs and each time they would make a move the hero was simply hoping he was right. They went on moving her entire system, going through organs without ever losing to light pulse up until finally she started breathing weakly. It was a miracle. They kept going and then.
"Wow..."
Came in a whisper while eyelashes fluttered and the eyes remained closed. The green lady grabbed the girl's face and leaned as close as she could, highly emotional.
"I have no idea of what just happened, but it hurt."
"I almost lost you." She said, placing kisses on her face. "I'm so glad you're alive."
"I'm glad you're alive too." Harley responded and surprised the two others as she casually started to move her arm to grabbed the other woman's hand and turned her head toward the dark knight. "Hello there!"
"Joker ruined the cure and made someone inject plant cells into your body instead of it. He was then hoping for Ivy to accidentally kill you as you came here. This is what just happened, she didn't know it was you, so she used her powers on you."
"He dies tonight." Pamela coldly said.
"No one is going to kill him, but I must stop him."
"You must stop him? After all he did there is no way I'm simply letting him go!" She shouted while the blonde sat up.
"Strongest fighter in the bunch here! He just tried having my own girlfriend murdering me, if anyone deserves a pancetta, it's me!" Quinn stated and the other woman nodded without a single care for her flawed language.
"Right now Joker is certain of three things, first that Harleen is dead, second that Ivy is free and surely coming for him and finally that he has got a chance to form an alliance with me now. Therefore Ivy shouldn't come as she's very expected."
"But I ain't expected at all."
"Exactly." The detective agreed with Malach. "He's probably waiting for me somewhere at the moment, waiting for my reaction and waiting for her revenge. I'll show up alone, which will lead him to believe I've arrested Ivy to protect him, surely he'll let his guard down and when he does you strike and we arrest him."
She stood up and seemed dizzy for a moment, hardly standing on her feet, but finally regained her balance. She grabbed her phone, and turned to the meta-human standing next to her, offering it to her.
"Find a place to hide. I'll call ya when I'm done."
The caped crusader could not disagree with letting the mad woman free in Gotham as there was no safe place anywhere. The Batcave would have been a death trap for her at the moment. Both vigilantes left running, stopping only for the woman to pick up her mask and visor.
"How did you lost them?"
"I took them off." She replied while gearing up. "I didn't feel like I was in danger."
He sighed to the stupidity while heading to his vehicle, hearing the familiar sound of Malach spreading her wings, behind him. Suddenly, she grunted and he glanced over his shoulder only to see her fall to her knees.
"I'm still too weak too fly..."
Quinn admitted in a somewhat defeated voice upon rising her head to see that Batman was waiting for her. She ran and climbed aboard the Batmobile.
The detective had a few ideas of some places where the pale man might been waiting for him, among them surprisingly enough was not the Batcave as Alfred would have somewhat warned him if it would have been the case. The duo went from place to place, Harleen would often climb up to the roof by herself and try her best to stealthily walk from room to room, looking around with the hero. Whenever the building would be too tall he would have to pick up the woman and use his grappling hook to get her to a hiding point, it was quite the complication.
Finally, they got to his last idea and there he was, at the window of his office at the Wayne Tower, looking down at the city. He dropped Malach on the other side of the tower and remembered how she once met Bruce Wayne right in this office. All he had to do was hope that she would remember the way there. As for him, he pulled himself up there and let his ex partner open the window to let him in.
"We did it! Gotham is ours!"
Joker enthusiastically stated upon seeing the larger man arriving alone. The happiness in his smile seemed genuine and completely lacked the madness it usually had. His eyes were glowing as he opened his slender arms in an invitation for the caped crusader to embrace him, as if they were truly partners. Well that, only the dark knight knew this was nothing but a masquerade and it made him sick. He felt absolutely disgusted with himself as he placed his hands around the small waist and pull the man closer to hold him tight.
"You've trusted me, I made us kings." He calmly said upon whispering his next hurtful words. "I'll never miss you again."
His heart burned, crumbling under remorse upon hearing this short sentence and feeling the smaller man's arms tightened around him.
The door opened and Malach entered with her gun pointing forward. He turned, keeping his hold on the mad man to protect him from her. She had the reflex to not shoot, yelling at him to get out of the way, telling him she would only wound him. For the first time in his life, the clown was utterly speechless, eyes wide and mouth slightly opened. Then came anger, and in a split second he had grabbed one of his batarang and stabbed the hero in his side. He barely felt it, as adrenaline kicked in and he turned to grab Harley's gun.
"On what side are ya!?"
She shouted as they started fighting for the firearm. Suddenly, the Champion climbed on the desk, ripped the monitor from where it was plugged and jumped down to break it on Batman's head and Quinn kicked his leg to make him hit the ground, face down. He feared he had just been betrayed by both of them, but this thought was cut short by a noise.
One gun shot.
The lunatic screamed, a scream the vigilante had come to know well, the one he made when the amount of pain was immense, yet still not enough to be unpleasant for him. He turned his head, but was still too dizzy to see well.
A second gun shot.
A weak whine, a breath and silence. The type of silence Bruce had recently started despising, the one he has had to deal with ever since his parting with Joker. Now was this one going to last forever?
All he could see was so unclear, the silhouette of Harleen kneeling next to the immobile man, her hands being placed on him. He struggled to get himself there, slowly getting his vision back.
"He's alive, I swear."
She said and the dark knight activated his X-ray vision and began understanding what had just taken place. It was not murder, but it was rather disgusting. She was pressing on his wounds to keep the blood from spilling out, she really did want him alive. However she had purposefully hit his spine and he theorized, simply by the sight of it, that Joker was unlikely to ever move any of his limbs again, he was surely paralyzed from neck to toes. She had turned him into his own very cell, forever.
Batman glanced with his X-ray vision at the first aid kit he kept in his office as he would often have to change bandages and what not on himself during to day. He went on retrieving some items and got back to the unconscious man, patching him up ready to leave for Arkham.
The route toward the asylum would have normally be silent with him being in the back and not awake, but Harleen was there. Sitting next to the driver as she started sobbing behind her mask and went on mumbling about regrets, about how this was the worst thing one could do to Joker. The hero had a different opinion on this, she actually did good, although it is terrible she had successfully ended the clown prince of crime and this was not the worst thing one could do the him.
"What you did was extreme, but I wouldn't say it was wrong. You stopped him, you saved lives by doing so." He told her.
"So, this is Justice?" She asked only to receive no answers. "Justice feels unfair."
"It often does."
"We should fix him, we can fix him."
"He's paralyzed, nothing can be done."
"They made me fly, surely someone could make him walk, right?" Her words were met with silence. "If he ever change..."
"If he ever change." He agreed, sadly aware that this was never to happen in a positive direction.
They arrived at Arkham where doctors immediately started taking care of him. The caped crusader went on speaking with the psychiatrists, making a few special requests. After a thing like the Reds, he wanted the workers to do their best to make contact with the outside world an impossibility, going as far as making the news unavailable for him. They seemed to be agreeing and had already started restricting contacts for the most dangerous inmates ever since they had seen how the Reds case was degenerating in the city.
Since the lunatic was good at recovering, it did not took much time for him to awake and be made aware of his current situation. He was placed in a room alone, on life support, for once he was not attached for he could not move, yet the room was locked on both sides. Malach asked for a word with him in private, the doctors allowed her.
Meanwhile, Batman went on giving his remaining Reds to a doctor, explaining that since it was now the 14th of January, the smaller man needed a certain dose today. He obeyed and entered the room to proceed immediately, completely disrespecting the woman's request. Anyhow, she left shortly after, walked passed the vigilante without addressing him and left. She must have been upset.
He made the same request, he was granted it and knew that unlike her, due to his reputation, this was to be respected. He hacked the surveillance system of the room and entered.
A defeated champion was lying in bed, able to only move his eye, he turned his attention to the dark knight once he was close enough. He had this blank expression on his face, truly depleted of any kind of madness, anger, of anything. He was completely destroyed, but so was the standing man.
"When you're gonna leave, you'll be leaving for a better Gotham, one that I shaped for us, a home a gave to you." If he had not been so weak, surely he would have yelled. "She did this to me and you're letting her go and enjoy this good city."
"Gotham is not better."
"Don't lie to yourself. The looneys are sane, Penguin and most heads of organized crime is gone, you're the most powerful you've ever been, how is this not better?"
They stood quiet as the detective lacked the courage to explain why he felt this way, however he knew it would not take long for the lunatic to figure out that the missing piece for a better Gotham was himself. Himself as Jackson, as the Champion he had presented himself to be, but the hero had already accepted that the mad man would never understand this unfortunately fake self was the better version of him. He was too attached to the extreme, truly believed they needed murder and dishonest ways to achieve making Gotham better.
"I don't believe you wanted to make the city better."
"What do you believe I wanted?"
"Me, with no distractions."
"Don't be so self-centered, it's not your style and it doesn't suit you." The jester answered without any seriousness. "But you're ungrateful and cruel. This also doesn't suit you." He waited and spoke up once more, emphasizing his words in hope of an impact to the stoic man. "Today, I hate you."
"Yesterday?" He asked and received silence as a response. "The Reds are still illegal."
"So what?"
"The one you took was what I had left. There was no way she would have gave any to you after what you did tonight."
"They know you're a user, right?"
A worried expression slowly took place on his face. All Batman did was lower himself to tenderly kiss him, a slow and passionate embrace that made his inside burn with intense emotions.
"I love you."
He whispered, his face closed to his, upon turning away from the clown and slowly heading for the door and as expected he understood this meant good bye.
"No! You're crazy! All this and you're just gonna let yourself die!" He shouted, but was ignored. "Batsy, come back! Bats! Bats!"
To no avail he desperately screamed his name, even as he was walking outside of the closed room, he could hear his voice, his cry for him to come back, for him to change his mind, for this to not be happening. It took the caped crusader everything to keep going forward, to head outside, to accept his own decision.
He got to his vehicle, panting slightly, the feelings themselves were draining him as much as a physical fight. A box was a top of the car, he opened it. Reds from Malach, he was expecting it and even if he would not had gotten them this way he would have simply asked. He sat in the car, and drove far away in order to get out of sight. It was odd to think the flamboyant prince of crime would never stand before him again.
He painfully reflected on all the man had just done to eliminate everything he hated, to give him a better Gotham, a better life and finally be alone with him in a world where the right thing was not for them to be separated, a world were both of them were sane since the clown already knew he could never get this city to lock Bruce with him as a mad man. Sanity was the key for them to be together and it was unfortunately unreachable, even with the Reds. Something had truly change them, but the detective had started to believe that maybe it was something else rather than drugs.
What to think of Malach, he did not knew yet, but was starting to believe that maybe he had been wrong all along when it came to her. With Joker out of the way, things could only get better, although they would forever feel worse to the sorrowful dark knight. There was still much to do, but at least he knew he shared similar goal to someone else, however the empty feeling remained.
Jackson White was more than a partner.
Today Batman had done the worst thing one could ever do to Joker; he had finally reached something sane and real inside of him only to manipulate him and fake his death to get away and leave him to be alone, forever.
"So how do you keep a secret from the World's Greatest Detective? Well, do you know? You stick it right in front of him, right under his long pointy nose, and wait."
- Joker