A/N: Thank you guys for all of your reviews, well wishes, & prayers - gosh, you guys are the best! (to misskyle - that "RISE" at the end of your review totally made my day!) The story has hit it's pinnacle, folks - the crap is officially about to hit the fan. And so for that reason, I'm going to say once again that I love you guys SO MUCH, and then shut my mouth and let the chaos begin! (and I hope that you guys trust me... you'll understand what I mean soon :p) And thank you SO MUCH to midnightwings96 - your help is utterly invaluable!
Blake dragged Bruce and Selina down the hallway when they emerged from their bedroom, both wearing slightly irritated expressions as they followed him into the living room and in front of the television.
Blake grabbed the remote and turned up the volume on the local news channel that the TV was tuned to, and he said, "This just aired about five minutes ago."
The three watched in silence as the camera cut from the grim-looking anchorman to a video that started out shaky and blurry before it focused on the face of a man named Gerald Hughes, Gotham's deputy mayor. Little else could be seen besides the short, portly man's face underneath a bald head that was damp with sweat, but then a bright light burst forth above his head and the camera zoomed out as the Joker's distinct giggling was heard. Hughes was revealed to be standing in the middle of a mostly bare room inside of some sort of large, half-open box, strapped inside and powerless to move.
"Now, Mr. Deputy Mayor Gerald Hughes, go ahead and welcome our viewers to the show, would you? Go on, don't be shy."
The man trembled and gulped loudly.
"Well, come on, we don't want to be rude, do we? You're the special guest, spit it out!"
"Wel - wel - c - co -"
"Oh for God's sake, must I do everything myself?" The camera shook a bit more and turned around, landing on the Joker's face and revealing his merry expression underneath his thick makeup. "Welcome to tonight's show, everyone, and boy, do I have a show in store for you."
The Joker grinned and continued, "We'll get to the main event in a minute, but first, I have a few... announcements."
The camera got tossed to what appeared to be a table, and the Joker sat down in front of it, with the terrified deputy mayor powerless behind him. "Now, I pride myself on being a man of honesty. It's one of the things that separates me from the supposed 'Caped Crusader', and everyone else in Gotham who pretends to be on your side. And I think it's time Gotham knows the truth about the Batman."
"The truth is... the guy who's been running around calling himself the Batman is not the real Batman. And it's not because the real one got blown up earlier this year. He's alive, and he's in Gotham right now. Now, I don't know who the impostor is - yet - but I know who the real Batman is. And I'm going to tell you."
Selina glanced at Bruce out of the corner of her eye and saw that his jaw was as tense as she'd ever seen it.
The Joker then added after a brief silence, "... In a few days."
Then he laughed and stood up, walking towards his victim and saying, "Always leave 'em wanting more, am I right, Gerry?"
When the man merely trembled, the Joker slapped him a couple of times with a purple-gloved palm and then began checking the leather straps restraining him to the box. "You need to lighten up. Laugh a little. Say, how about a magic trick? That usually gets the job done."
A moment later, the Joker produced a large, weathered-looking saw from behind the box, and he brandished it in front of the camera. "This one always gets the crowd going - I'm going to saw a man not in half, but in thirds! And look, I already have a volunteer!"
The deputy mayor whimpered as his eyes widened at the sight of the sword, and as his lip quivered, the Joker smiled and said, "Now, now, no reason to be so scared - I've done this a million times. I know... exactly... what I'm doing."
The Joker then glanced at the camera and said, "Consider this my first act in an ongoing series."
He then slammed the door shut on the box, and the man screamed for a brief moment before dissolving into tears. The Joker, unfazed as ever, locked the box and then tossed the saw up in the air, catching it by its handle when it came back down. "Now as you can see - just an ordinary saw, and an ordinary box. I think I'll work my way up from the bottom... yeah, that'll work nicely."
He turned the saw to the box and whacked it at where Hughes' legs began underneath the box's door, and then he began sawing. Hughes began truly losing it then, crying and pleading hysterically as the saw made its way through the box, but when the blade hit the tops of his legs, that was when the blood-curdling screams began.
"Oh my," the Joker giggled, "must be stuck on something. It's an old prop - what else do you expect?"
Undeterred, once the bottom section was done, the Joker then placed the red-dripping saw near the top of the box and began sawing once more as the man continued to scream horrible, agonized, gut-wrenching cries of unspeakable pain. But once the saw made contact through the box with the flesh of his neck, the screaming turned into equally horrifying gurgles, and after that, there was only silence.
The Joker then yanked the bloodied saw from the box and tossed it to the floor, smoothing back his green hair after the physically exerting task he'd just completed, and with a glance to the camera he said, "Phew - all right, let's see what we got here. Ta-da!"
He unlocked the box's door and swung it open to reveal three separate compartments that were now saturated in the deputy mayor's blood - the bottom one contained his severed legs, the second contained his midsection and some guts that were spilling out and unravelling, and the top one contained his head and part of his neck, at least until the head came tumbling down and out of the box, spraying blood as it went.
The head landed at the Joker's feet, and he found this to be absolutely hysterical. "Oh, well... - oops!" He bent down and picked up the head by the ends of what little hair was on it, and he giggled as he held it up for the camera to see, "I guess I shouldn't quit my day job!"
He then tossed the head back inside the box and leaned close into the camera as he said, "That's it for tonight's show, but I assure you, there's lots more to come - and everyone knows by now that I'm a man of my word. And I know you're out there watching, Batman... not the impostor, but the real one... and just remember... the more you try to hide behind this Bat-wannabe friend of yours, the more things like this -" he waved behind him towards the box - "will happen."
Then there was a flash of yellow teeth and stretched red lips as the Joker laughed, and the the video was over.
Blake turned off the television and glanced past Bruce to Selina, who shared his uneasy expression, and then they both looked up at Bruce.
His fists were clenched tightly at his sides and Selina knew what he was going to say before he said it. "I'm only going to say this once. I'm not going to argue about it or debate with either of you. I'm done staying behind. I'm done sitting on the sidelines. I'm finishing this on Friday. This is it. It's over."
He looked, or rather, glared at Blake, who said nothing. He then looked at Selina, who opened her mouth to protest before he immediately shushed her.
"No - no. You heard me, Selina."
With that, Bruce stormed from the room. Selina sighed and closed her eyes, and Blake glanced at her and said, "He'll be fine. You know neither of us can stop him."
She did know that, and now there was the dull ache of a fresh knot twisting inside the pit of her stomach.
The next five days went by in a haze of training, planning, and more training that eliminated nearly all of their sleeping time but they weren't suffering terribly - they most likely wouldn't have been able to sleep even if they'd had the time, anyway.
As to the plan, Selina and Blake had unhappily accepted Bruce's proposal of being present at the press conference in plainclothes, not intending to throw himself directly into battle but intending to watch over them and help if needed - that's what he said, anyway, but Selina suspected he had other plans that he was keeping to himself.
Alfred had agreed to assist them from the Batcave during the press conference, and Leslie would be nearby in case something happened to one of them. Commissioner Gordon and Blake were in contact, though he was only able to do do much now that the National Guard and FBI were going to be involved in security for the conference.
Wayne Enterprises had been secured as well as a ten-block radius around it, and whatever the Joker had planned, he wouldn't be able to do it from within WE or anywhere near it - hopefully, anyway. Bruce placed little faith in the "security", knowing the Joker could get in anywhere he wanted, but in the end, he wanted the Joker to breach security. He wanted the fight to happen, because he was determined for it to be the last fight he was ever a part of.
When Selina woke up from her paltry three hours of sleep Friday morning, the day of the press conference, she was unsurprised to find Bruce's side of the bed empty. After she got out of bed and dressed, she found him and Blake deep in conversation in the living room, neither of them having slept at all seemingly, and when she caught Bruce's eye and then walked back down the hall, she heard him mutter something to Blake before going after her.
She walked into their bedroom and he followed only seconds later, closing the door behind him. She turned to him and said quietly, "You didn't sleep, did you?"
"A little," he shrugged.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine," he replied.
She crossed her arms as she said, "I suppose there's no point in trying to change your mind again."
He shook his head. "No."
"Then I guess I'll just have to make sure I take out the clown before you get a chance to do something stupid."
She then began to turn away, but Bruce's hand on hers turned her back around. "There's something I want to tell you before we go."
"Okay," she replied, stepping just a bit closer to him.
"I've been thinking... about what happens when this is over. Where we'll go, what we'll do."
She couldn't deny that she loved the sound of the word "we" coming from his lips.
"I thought about your idea of a secluded island, and I got an idea. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I think you'll love it. I hope you'll love it."
She raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Don't keep me waiting - tell me."
He smiled a little bit and said after a brief pause, "I bought an island in the Bahamas."
She blinked. He watched carefully for her reaction, and at first she looked entirely dumbfounded. "You bought an island."
"Yeah."
"You... bought an island. Without talking to me first. Without even mentioning it. You just... bought an island."
She saw the first signs of worry and slight panic cross his face. "I... yeah. I thought -"
"- That I'd drop everything and follow you without a second thought?"
He opened his mouth but nothing came out for a moment. Finally he glanced down at the floor and muttered, "It's too much, isn't it."
"Yeah," she she answered, "it is. And it's perfect, so stop panicking."
His eyes snapped up to hers and relief quickly flooded his face. She smiled and took his face in her hands. "I had you going there, didn't I."
He laughed breathlessly and said, "Yeah, don't do that again."
She grinned and said, "One question, though - I know islands aren't cheap, and I've never asked how much your 'emergency fund' is, but... I'd sort of like to know now."
"It's about fifteen percent of what I was worth before," he replied with a small smile as she did the math in her head.
"So... I'm only guessing because I don't know what exactly your net worth was, but... two hundred-million? Somewhere around there?"
"Somewhere around there," he nodded.
She shook her head and grinned. "That's kind of disgusting."
"I have plans for it," he said.
"Of course you do," she replied, wrapping her arms around his neck. "So... an island in the Bahamas."
He nodded and wound his arms around her waist. "Yeah... it's very private. We can stay on a neighboring island while our house is being built."
"Our house," she repeated. "You do realize that this smacks of a pretty big commitment, right?"
"I'm in if you're in," he smiled, his fingers caressing her cheek.
She replied by kissing him softly, and though he responded warmly, when she pulled away he gently said, "I really look forward to the day you let yourself say what you're feeling, Selina."
She opened her mouth, taken aback a bit, but he placed a finger over her lips and added, "I'm not trying to push you. I don't want to do that. I know I've pushed you enough in the last few months and this... island, and house, is a big step for you. It is for me too. And I'm not the best at... expressing what I feel, either. But I know we'll get there."
He then kissed her gently, and afterwards he leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes soft as he murmured, "I love you."
Then he was gone, headed back down the hallway, and Selina stared at the empty space where he'd stood, replaying his words over in her head. The words blended with the images in her head of islands, houses, and everything that this commitment meant, and for just one split second, she felt her mostly tamed flight response kick in. However, it faded almost as soon as she recognized it, because after all this time and all they'd overcome, she knew there was no going back. She didn't want to go back, especially not when going forward now involved as much sandy beach and sun and Bruce as she could handle.
And yet, this idyllic, beautiful existence that lay in front of her hung in the balance of today's events, and she knew it. Her gut clenched and turned with anxiety and unabashed fear, but then she imagined putting a bullet through the Joker's head, and it did wonders for her mood.
She squared her shoulders and left the bedroom. Five minutes later, she'd joined Bruce and Blake on their way to the Batcave.
Suiting up and preparing for the fight was surreal, almost like she was watching herself from some other, outward perspective like a spectator rather than herself. Selina armed herself with her usual two guns and the whip she'd grown fond of, and every time fear would begin to seep into her mind, she'd imagine the Joker's death and then replace the grisly image with one of herself lying on a beach with Bruce, and though it might have been considered an odd combination, the two images boosted her morale considerably.
Bruce was in full business mode with Alfred, talking with the older man in front of the computers and shrugging into his "costume" - a dark hoodie and his annoying Gotham Knights baseball cap, as well as some jeans that only Selina noticed were designer and not at all what the average citizen would be wearing, but she didn't mention it.
When the time came to leave and Blake went to jump inside the Tumbler, Selina looked Bruce's way across the cave and found him giving her a look that both worried and warmed her. Fear wasn't something she saw on his face often, and he was trying to hide it now, but she could see it behind his eyes and hiding in the tense way he held his jaw.
She began walking to him, and he met her halfway. She wrapped her arms around him and he held her tightly in return, and while Alfred politely ignored them and Blake did the same from the Tumbler, she listened as Bruce whispered into her ear.
"Be careful," he said, "don't do anything reckless. Don't turn off your comm. Stay in my sight. Don't -"
"Bruce," she smiled, pulling away and looking into his eyes, "I'm going to be fine. Really."
"I just -"
"I know," she nodded, kissing him gently. It lasted longer than it should have, but he didn't want to let go, and neither did she, so she let it go as long as it pleased.
When he did finally pull away, reluctantly, she said, "You're the one I'm worried about. I wish you'd stay here with Alfred."
"You know I need to do this," he said quietly, and she did know that. Bruce needed to be there when this ended, he needed the closure. She desperately hoped that he'd get it today.
"I know," she murmured before kissing him one last time. This time, however, she knew she had to let go, and after steeling herself once more, she gave Bruce a tight smile as she backed away from him.
He watched as she jumped into the passenger side of the Tumbler, and he only looked away when the hatch lowered and the engine hummed to life. He sighed and looked towards the still-politely turned away Alfred, who said as the Tumbler sped away, "I think, sir, that you can rest assured that Miss Kyle is very good at taking care of herself. The worry is only natural, but she's not..."
"Not Rachel," Bruce finished for Alfred.
Alfred turned and glanced at Bruce before nodding lightly. "Yes, sir."
"I know," Bruce said, pulling his hood over his hat. "But you know the Joker. He probably wants her dead more than anyone."
"Well, I'm sure she's still got a few of her nine lives left," Alfred replied as Bruce started heading towards the cave's exist.
"Sir?"
Bruce turned and looked upon his former butler. "Yeah?"
"Good luck."
Bruce nodded. He then turned once more and, in a few moments, was behind the wheel of Blake's car, headed to downtown Gotham.
It was a clear, warm afternoon in Gotham, and the interest surrounding the press conference at Wayne Enterprises was modest at best. Local news crews were there, of course, as well as a few national business news networks, but public turnout was small. This was a relief for the city's masked guardians who took their places in the shadows and waited for the event to begin, determined for this to be the end of the Joker's latest reign of chaos.
Blake, as Batman, had stashed the Tumbler out of sight and was with Selina in a neighboring building, watching over the scene on the ground. They'd had to take out a cop and one FBI agent to get to where they were, a result of the insane security surrounding the conference following Harley's tip off, but they'd anticipated worse.
Bruce was keeping his distance on the ground, communicating with them as to what he was seeing, which was a lot of nothing besides a cop car that contained a familiar head of blonde hair in the backseat that he assumed was Harley. Her presence was expected after the deal she'd cut, and he hoped that the cops were diligent in keeping her confined to the car in case she had a change of heart when it came to seeing the Joker get taken down.
When three o'clock arrived and the cameras and microphones were set up before a podium that sat on the edge of Wayne Enterprises' steps, Bruce joined the crowd that had increased somewhat in the last fifteen minutes and watched through the lenses of his sunglasses as things got underway.
"Any sign, Alfred?" he asked quietly as Lucius walked through the front door of the building.
"No, sir, all clear," Alfred replied.
"You know he's nearby somewhere," Selina said. "He has to be."
Lucius stepped up to the podium, Mayor Stephen Black behind him, and for a brief moment his eyes fell upon Bruce's disguised figure in the crowd, and though nobody else would have noticed, Lucius' expression grew sad for a moment before he spoke.
"Thank you all for coming out on this fine afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the press, citizens," Lucius nodded to the crowd. "Today, Mayor Black and I are pleased to unveil a new project that we have collaborated on for some time now..."
"Still clear, Alfred?" Bruce whispered.
"Still no sign of any clowns in the vicinity, sir," Alfred replied. "Or clowns disguised as somebody else."
Alfred was watching a combination of traffic cameras and satellite images as they watched with bated breath. The Mayor took the podium and spoke a bit, and after about ten uneventful moments in total had passed, attentions were turned to a display to the left of the speakers that was covered by a white sheet.
"Now here is the model of what will soon be Gotham's new and improved, state of the art railway," Lucius said, "and Mayor Black has the honor of getting to pull off the sheet."
The Mayor, an older but energetic gentlemen, grinned and walked the few steps to the display, and cameras flashed as he removed the sheet. Bruce's eyes narrowed, and several things then happened at once.
Instantly, everyone realized that what was supposed to be a model was anything but that - instead of a diagram of a city's transportation system, the sheet fell away to reveal wires and flashing lights surrounding what was undoubtedly a bomb. There were screams and the Mayor's security detail quickly converged on him as well as Lucius, Blake and Selina jumped from the window of the room they'd been watching from, and as Bruce's adrenaline began pumping, the bomb exploded.
Instead of fire and smoke, however, the air became full of little pieces of multicolored confetti. The crowd's panic briefly abated as they stared at the strange sight, but Bruce immediately knew what the point of the confetti bomb was - the Mayor and Lucius were completely hidden from view now, and when gunshots from behind the podium rang out moments later and panic was reborn, Bruce wasn't a bit surprised.
Quickly, however, the confetti floated to the ground, and as the podium became visible again, so did the Mayor and Lucius. This time, the Mayor was being held at gunpoint by the Joker, and Lucius was being held in the same way by one of many henchmen.
Selina and Blake hit the ground as the Joker leaned into the microphone and said, "Nobody move, or the Mayor gets a bullet in the head!"
Most of the crowd stopped, and the Joker's eyes fell upon the Batman. He grinned and said, "Well, hello there - did I get the real Batman today or the fake one?"
"Let him go," Blake said, the device he wore over his throat causing his voice to sound nearly identical to Bruce's.
"And give up all my fun?" the Joker retorted. "I'll pass."
"There's nowhere for you to go," Blake said. "Snipers are on every roof ready to take you out the minute they get a clear shot."
"Oh, are they?" the Joker said, feigning surprise. "Well then, I guess it's a good thing I planned ahead. See, Mayor Brown - Green? oh, right, Black, Mayor Black - recently had a pacemaker put in. Didn't you, Mayor?" the Joker said, giving the Mayor a shake. "And it's not just any old pacemaker. It's the kind where if it stops, there's real fireworks."
Bruce immediately had flashbacks of how the Joker had blown up the MCU nine years ago, with a cell phone-bomb inside of a man's chest, and he glanced behind him to see Commissioner Gordon, his gun fixed on the Joker like the cops and agents all around him, bearing the same look of old horror that was hidden on Bruce's face.
"That's right, folks," the Joker grinned. "One shot to his head and Wayne Enterprises goes ka-boom. So - you might want to point those guns away now."
Then a very long-feeling moment passed where nothing happened, and Selina turned her eyes towards Bruce. Their eyes locked for the briefest of movements, but it was long enough for the Joker to notice.
Then a shot rang out from a nearby rooftop, and a bullet whizzed past the Joker's head. He didn't have time to react before another one grazed his ear, and as Gordon and the FBI's agent in charge yelled out opposing orders of holding fire and continuing the assault, the crowd started screaming again, and the Joker announced, "Well, have it your way then!"
He squeezed the trigger of his gun and emptied a single bullet into Mayor Black's temple. But as the fallen public official crumpled to the ground, nothing happened. Not a single explosion.
The Joker rolled his eyes and then produced a detonator from the inside of his coat pocket. "Can't trust technology these days, can we? Good thing I've always got a plan B."
Plan B, however, got knocked out of his hands and hit the ground by a finely thrown Batarang, and then battle commenced. Blake took on the Joker while Bruce urged Selina over comm to grab the detonator, and the authorities engaged in a firefight with the Joker's men. There were gunshots and screams and running bodies everywhere, and though he was in the middle of the action, Bruce suddenly felt every bit as useless as he did when he was stuck behind in the Batcave.
He moved to be closer to Blake and Selina, and his eyes took in the rapidly progressing fight as his instincts took over and he began guiding them, warning them of where the thugs were and where to throw the next punch when their blind spots were compromised. Then one of the Joker's men fired on Bruce, and he found himself in a fight of his own.
Bruce could hear Alfred's voice in his ear but registered none of his words as he easily fought the man off, incapacitating him with a kick to the gut and one good blow to the head, but when he turned back around, his eyes widened and time slowed down.
Selina was fighting two men, and Blake was still struggling against the Joker. Somehow, in the confusion of the fight, Selina and the Joker had ended up back-to-back, and though Bruce was now nearly screaming at her to move away from him, she didn't hear him.
One of the Joker's men came up from behind Blake and dragged him back with a rifle digging into the front of his neck. As the Joker enjoyed his brief reprieve, he glanced around him and saw Selina only inches behind him, breaking the arm of one of his men, and he raised an eyebrow as he glanced directly at Bruce through the crowd.
Bruce never knew if he screamed, yelled, or did anything at all in that horrifying moment. All he knew was that he was forced to watch and run in what felt like slow motion as the Joker whipped out a knife and grinned as he stuck it deep into Selina's back.
She froze, and her face became confused for a moment before her mouth dropped open and shock set in. Her wide eyes met Bruce's as he ran to her, and she stumbled to the ground just as he reached her, while Blake disposed of the other men and tackled the Joker. Bruce took her in his arms and cradled her gently, his face distorted in horror and eyes full of terror as he removed the knife from her body and dropped it.
"Selina," he said in a voice so strained and broken that it sounded foreign to his own ears, removing her mask due to her strained breathing and cradling her head in his hands. "Selina..."
"I'm - I'm fine," she said, though her body was shaking violently and Bruce's arms were quickly being covered in her blood. "I'm fine."
Her eyes met his but they were unfocused, and Bruce could see how scared she really was, and yet his fear in this moment was more paralyzing than hers could have ever been. He barely felt the tears that were streaming down his cheeks but she took note of them, and one of her shaky hands reached up to wipe them away.
"You're going to be okay," Bruce said, trying to believe his own words but unsure if he could. Her wound could either be terrible or she could hang on long enough for Leslie to fix her - he simply didn't know.
"Bruce," she said softly as her hand lingered on his cheek, "I -"
"Shh," he said gently, "save your strength -"
She shook her head surprisingly fiercely, then sucked in a deep breath before saying, "I love you."
His heart thudded and nearly came to a standstill, and a fresh wave of tears spilled from his eyes just before hers closed and she went limp in his arms.
His heart had been ripped out and torn to shreds twice before in his life, and now he felt it happening for a third time. He didn't notice that Selina's chest was still rising and falling just barely, because as his world crashed down around him in spectacularly horrific flames, a taunting voice that belonged to the man who'd spilled the blood of the only two women Bruce had ever loved cut through the haze and the agony and straight into Bruce's ears.
"Well, isn't this touching..."
Bruce continued to stare down at the woman in his arms, still crying and gasping for air that wouldn't come to his pained lungs, but the Joker's voice awakened something deep and terrible from within Bruce. Something that Bruce knew he couldn't, and didn't want to, control anymore.
"But look on the bright side, Brucie... now it's just you and me. It's our destiny, remember?"
Then he laughed.
Rage bubbled up in Bruce's veins, fueled by his nearly incapacitating pain and grief, and he clenched his jaw tightly. The hand that was underneath Selina's bleeding back brushed against something hard, and he knew what it was as soon as he touched it.
He placed his hand over Selina's gun and let his fingers enclose around it, letting the rage do his thinking and ignoring the instinct to throw the gun as far away from him as possible. The detonator was next to the gun, but Bruce didn't give it much thought in that moment.
Then the Joker's voice was amplified. He was speaking into the microphone again. "I almost forgot - I have some information about the Batman that I promised I'd tell everyone today. Yeah, so, it turns out... that this Batman, the one getting the crap beat out of him by my men right now, is - big shocker - not the real Batman! And the real one is alive... and I think it's time everyone knows what his name is."
Bruce gently laid Selina down and didn't think twice, nor even once, about his next course of action.
He'd finally broke. After everything he'd survived, everything that had been taken from him, and the deaths that he'd suffered the pain and trauma of, someone had finally succeeded in pushing him off the edge.
He saw Rachel's face. The faces of the several hundred orphans that had been murdered only weeks ago. All of the souls this single man had taken for no reason. Everything he'd ruined. Everything, and everyone, he'd destroyed.
Selina.
Alfred was now shouting in Bruce's ear. Bruce reached up and plucked out his earpiece and tossed it away.
He then whipped around, Selina's gun firmly in his hand and his finger on the trigger. Despite the chaos of the world around him, the sound of deafening silence hung in the air for one split second just before it was shattered by the bang of a gunshot through the air.