Batman stood on a rooftop, watching over the city. He'd received a tipoff from some of his underworld connections, claiming that a small group was planning a heist at a playing card factory in southern Gotham. He didn't expect any trouble; according to his sources, the heist would be a small one, with six men at the most. Soon enough, he saw a small group of men forcing their way into the neighboring building. The man at the front of the group caught his attention; he appeared to be wearing some sort of red, dome-shaped helmet to cover his face, as well as a cape and tuxedo. Batman jumped down from the rooftop, but before he could follow the men into the building, he heard gunshots. He quietly slipped through the door, to find the bodies of most of the group on the floor, riddled by bullets fired by the security guards. He immediately noticed a heavy stench in the air; he looked around to see large tanks. He deduced that the building was some sort of chemical manufacturing plant. He took another quick look at the room, and found the last member of the group, the man in the red mask, running along the rafters near the ceiling. Batman pulled out his grapple gun and aimed it at the ceiling. He fired, and pulled himself to the ceiling, then dropped landing neatly on the rafters in front of the mysterious man. The man screamed in surprise; before Batman could do anything, the man had tripped and fallen over the edge of the beam, and hurdled toward one of the large vats of chemicals. Batman pulled out his Bat-lasso, and tried to throw it after the man, but he was too late. The lasso simply fell into the vat after him. When he pulled it back, the tip had come off, and the end of the cable was frazzled. He realized that there was nothing that he could do, and that he had failed. Suddenly, a horrible, twisted laughter began to echo around the plant. A voice accompanied it; "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" it shouted over and over again, with something of a gleeful edge. Batman fell to his knees, and covered his ears, but he couldn't make the voice go away. He then heard another voice, which started very faintly, but grew louder until he could hear it over the insane laughter.

"BRUCE!"

Bruce's eyes snapped open. He was shaking, and drenched in cold sweat. He looked next to him, and was relieved to see Diana's huge blue eyes staring back at him.

"Are you feeling alright, Bruce? You look awful..."

"I'm fine." Bruce lied.

Diana could clearly see that he was lying. His usual cool composure was gone. As she looked into his eyes, she saw something that she'd never imagined that she'd see there: fear. She rested her head on his chest, and began to stroke his cheek comfortingly. "How about you tell me what you were dreaming about?"

He shook his head firmly. "No. It's not important. Just a bad dream."

Diana sighed. "Bruce, I've known you for years. I know when you're lying. Just tell me about it. Talking will help. Trust me."

Bruce gave in and told her about his dream. He told her about the guilt that he'd felt after the man fell, and how the memory had haunted him for years. He told her about how the man had been driven mad by the damage his body suffered in the vat, and how he'd eventually become the Joker.

When he'd finished, she simply stared at him for a moment. She then placed her head on his chest one again, noticing that his heart was still racing. She hugged him tightly, and tried to console him. "It's okay, Bruce. There's nothing you could have done. It was just an accident."

"I can't afford to make mistakes."

"Nobody can be perfect, Bruce. You just have to accept yourself for what you are. Sometimes, you just have to accept that there are people that you can't save, no matter how hard you try."

Bruce had no answer. On one hand, he knew she was right, but then again, he knew that he couldn't afford to relax, or he would start to get sloppy again. And he couldn't allow the past to repeat itself.

Diana kissed him, and wrapped her arms around him. "Try to relax and go to sleep, Bruce. You'll feel better in the morning."

He nodded slowly, and began to drift off again, knowing that he could sleep peacefully with Diana beside him.

The two slept until noon the next day. Bruce awakened, and yawned silently.

"Good morning."

He sat up, to see Diana, who was already fully dressed. He groaned a little. "Don't tell me you want to go out again..."

She giggled a little. "No, you deserve a break. But I did promise to keep an eye on you. So I figured we could just stay in for the day."

Bruce let out a deep sigh of relief. As much as he loved a good party, and to see Diana happy, he could only take so much before it started to take a toll on him. He began to get dressed, and then sat down on the bed again. As soon as he touched the bed, he heard a knock at the door.

"Come in, Alfred."

Alfred opened the door, and looked in. "Master Wayne, you have a guest."

"Who is it?"

"Ms. Gordon, sir."

"Right, I'll be down in a minute."

"Very well, sir." Alfred said, before leaving.

Bruce and Diana walked down to the main room of the manor. Waiting for them was a young woman of about twenty-five; she had stunning red hair. Diana couldn't help but notice that she was in a wheelchair.

Bruce approached her and leaned down to give her a friendly hug.

"Barbara, it's been a while."

"Too long." Barbara agreed. She noticed Diana, who was standing behind him. "I'm sorry if it's a bad time, Bruce... I can come back later, but I need to talk to you in private..."

"It's okay Barbara. You can trust Diana."

"If you say so. Anyway... It seems that I've been replaced?"

Bruce laughed heartily. "It's something of a funny story. I really didn't have any more say in the matter of her putting on the costume than I did with you."

Barbara looked at Diana for a moment, taking in her features. "You... You're Wonder Woman, aren't you?"

Diana stepped back in shock. "How did you..."

Barbara laughed. "I'm sorry, we haven't met. I'm Barbara Gordon. I was the first Batgirl. You don't have to worry about your disguise, it's really very good. It almost fooled me, and I was trained by the best. Not to mention, I have some inside information." She turned to Bruce. "Congratulations, by the way. I was worried that you wouldn't let anybody get close after what happened to me and Jason."

"Trust me, it wasn't easy." Diana said. "He really didn't want to... So I decided not to give him a choice in the matter." She winked at Barbara, who laughed again.

"That really does sound just like Bruce."

Bruce decided it was time to intervene. "So, not that it isn't nice to catch up, but I'm assuming that you didn't come just to chat."

Barbara's expression suddenly became serious. "No. I heard that the Joker got loose."

Bruce looked at her grimly. "How did you find out?"

"It wasn't easy... My dad tried to make sure that I didn't... But fortunately, I have some connections in the Justice League. But that isn't important. I'm here to tell him that you can't kill him. It's exactly what he wants. Don't play his games, Bruce. You can't let him win. No matter what the cost is."

Bruce nodded. "I don't want to play his games, but you know very well that the Joker doesn't give you a choice. And if he does give you a choice, then it's still part of his game."

"Don't deflect, Bruce. I'm serious. I want you to promise that you won't kill him."

Bruce remained silent for a moment. "I'll do what I have to in order to stop him."

"Fine... But do it because you have to. Not to avenge Jason... Or me."

"I promise, Barbara."

"Good. And please be careful..."

"I will. So... How have you been?"

"I'm doing better. I've been seeing some therapists, and a few doctors. There are some new procedures for regenerating spinal tissues. I've volunteered to be involved in some testing, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high."

"That's great, Barbara."

"I talked to Dick." She gave him a meaningful look. "He won't admit it, but he misses you. Did you hear he split with the Titans?"

"No... That's quite a shame. They were a good team."

"Yeah. He met a nice alien girl. Rally strong... But apparently, he's really taken a leaf out of your book. He's calling himself Nightwing- he's been terrorizing the criminals of Blüdhaven every night. I'm starting to think that the two of you are more similar than either of you would like to believe."

"I knew I did well with him."

Barbara rolled her eyes. "You could say that.

Author's Note: Once again, a lot of setup for future chapters/sequel. I actually like this one though. The only problem is that you need a bit of background to get it. Most of this can be found in The Killing Joke. If you have internet access (Hint- you do), and aren't familiar with the story, than I would recommend checking out the story on the Wikipedia page. If you don't want to, here's my crash course: The Joker's origins are very cloudy; Even he doesn't really remember who he was before he became the Joker. What is clear, though, is that he became the Joker after falling in a vat of acid while working for a gang under the guise of 'the Red Hood.' Later, he plans to cause havoc by driving Commissioner Gordon insane. As part of accomplish this, he breaks into the Commissioner's home, and shoots Gordon's daughter, Barbara, through the spine, paralyzing her. The other character that I've referenced but haven't really discussed is Jason Todd; the second Robin. He was brutally murdered by the Joker in the story line entitled A Death in the Family. I think that just about covers everything. There'll be another update soon, but not tonight. I've decided to slow down my pace substantially; I'm going to be handling to the plot very carefully as we approach the end of the story. And, while it saddens me to say it, we're getting to that point. I know I've been saying it for a while, but we're really coming close. The next chapter is where the action is going to start up again, so get ready. It's really hard to believe that it's already been 25 chapters; thank you all for the encouragement; this is really a great community, and your encouragement has kept me going.