Notes: Welcome, foolish mortals, to Battle Chapter number six! I don't need to say who...at least I don't think so. IT'S...
Chapter XXXV: Showtime
The throne room was dark.
That was all that could describe it at the moment.
Dark.
A black crepe curtain, like a giant, black, bridal veil obscured much of the room from sight. Behind it, dimmed by the curtain's shadow, could be seen five stained glass windows. Four of them were like all the rest, made of red glass, shaped like the four Suits.
The fifth, located midway between these four, was a red circle, with an image of a full moon, a clammy, cool gray in color, in the center...covered in metal spikes.
But what caught his attention were the glowing, red, bloodshot eyes that glared out from behind the curtains.
The eyes of the Queen of Hearts.
"Hello, Batman."
"Your Majesty," was the guttural, snarled response. "Are you prepared to die?"
A dark chuckle echoed throughout the room.
"Foolish little night-flyer. You think holding that silly toy and wearing that ridiculous costume makes you strong? You are weak. Pathetic. You fear your own shadow, thus you wear it on your skin. A coward!"
Batman sneered.
"I'm the coward? Your minions have all faced me. The Voracious Centipede met defeat. The Red King was placed into checkmate. The Mad Hatter's twisted innovations to your rule have been stopped. At least your pet, the Jabberwock, had the guts – if he had any real guts at all – to face me."
"None of them would have faced you were it not for ME."
"True. And where were you, Your Majesty? Here. Working from the sidelines."
A beastial growl resounded in the throne room.
"You can't play mind games with me, Wayne. But perhaps you are right: it is high time you saw the face of your own personal Reaper..."
At this, the crepe curtains parted...to reveal the hideous form of the Queen of Hearts, seated upon a golden throne, covered in blood-red rubies and black diamonds.
Batman nearly vomited.
Nothing he had seen before could rival the Queen's nightmarish appearance. On the Queen's face was a white porcelain mask, like those in Japanese theater, with only one feature painted on its face: a crooked, gaudy, red-lipped smile, far too innocent and childish looking to be a real representation of the Queen herself and her attitudes. She wore a black, wooden helmet, like that of a Viking, with the horns of both a ram and a longhorn steer attached, with a silver frame and a pink diamond in the shape of a heart on it upon her head. She also wore a starched collar, a silver necklace with a heart-shaped pendant, and a Tudor-like shirt, striped in purple and red with a black lace fringe.
The arms that stuck out of the sleeves were not arms at all, but bloodstained branches, covered in thorns, like the branches of rosebushes, devoid of roses. Where legs and, possibly, a dress should have been were ten, pink and red, squid-like tentacles, very much like those that filled the whole of Queensland, and each one of them wriggled and writhed as if it had a mind of its own.
All topped off with a pair of burning, hate-filled, bloodshot red eyes.
The Queen let out a deranged cackle at Batman's repulsed expression.
"Don't I look just good enough to eat?" she hissed.
"Disgusting."
"Flattery will get you nowhere! Now, enough chatter! I've wanted to do this for a long, long time..."
At this, the Queen rose slowly into the air, suspended by a giant pink tentacle that came out of her back through a hole in her throne. She raised her arms/branches into the air, her tentacles whipping about and spreading out as she ascended.
"OFF. WITH. YOUR. HEAD!"
Having said her favorite sentence, the Queen of Hearts let out another sick cackle of twisted glee and pointed her branches in Batman's direction. Two decks razor-edged playing cards materialized in the air at her shoulders, and shot out like shuriken, flipping into the air and then spinning towards Batman.
Batman moved left and right, dodging the cards as they flew at him. He aimed the Eyestaff...
In a move quicker than a lightning bolt, the Queen moved the other side of the room.
He tried again...same reaction.
The Queen laughed pompously, launching more cards.
"OffoffoffoffoffoffoffoffOFF! OFF!"
Can't get a clear shot...
Until I can, nothing to do but go on the defensive.
Time to go back to my own tricks.
Compacting the Eyestaff and placing it in a loop on his belt, Batman pulled out a pair of flash-bang capsules and tossed them at the Queen. The tentacle tyrant tried to bat them away, but this only caused them to explode in her face. The Queen let out a cry of anger, launching the remainder of the razor-cards in a batch. Batman easily sidestepped the cards, and made a run for the Queen...
Suddenly, her tentacles turned purple, and Batman found himself flying into the wall.
Alternately growling and giggling, the Queen continued to sway and almost seemed to dance, her purple appendages moving one way and then another, slamming Batman into the walls each time.
After six slams, the tentacles turned red and pink once more, and Batman fell roughly to the floor. He stood back up shakily, wiping some blood from his nose and lip. His cape was more ragged than usual, his uniform scratched in eight places.
"You poor, stupid Bat!" crowed the Queen. "You were destined to be defeated! Only the truly demented can survive in Wonderland. Do you want to know what REALLY caused this place to be what it is?"
"The Caterpillar said it was the subconscious of Jervis Tetch," Batman said, and flung a bat-o-rang at the Queen. She spun in a half circle, grabbing it in one muscular tentacle before throwing it onto the floor.
"Only half-right!" the Queen screeched. "Tetch's insanity twisted our world...but do you know how much blame lies on your shoulders?"
Batman stopped, hand right over a smoke pellet.
"What...?"
"So you don't know," the Queen almost seemed to purr, settling down somewhat, still suspended in the air. "Well, let's put it this way: Tetch's mind isn't the only mind here, now, is it?"
Batman stared.
Caterpillar's words flooded back.
"When you answered Rabbit's call, you began to rebuild...your task, and your pain, are not over." He said that...
My task and my pain are not over...
This isn't all Tetch's doing...it's MY subconscious as well...
"From that pitifully blank expression on your face, I'd guess you're beginning to get the joke, hm?" the Queen laughed cruelly. "Get it, Batman? You and Tetch are BOTH the source of my corruption, and with my corruption came the corruption of MY realm! Your guilt, your fear, your misery, your own form of madness...I am all these things! I come alive whenever you go out on your little night flights!"
Batman shook his head slightly, the words beginning to sink in.
That's why I'm the one who has to stop the Queen.
Because Tetch couldn't...not properly anyways: the Hatter here was a representation of the Hatter in my world.
And that's why, when he put whatever he put on me, I ended up here.
That's why I can have dreams in this dreamland.
It all makes sense...
I guess...
The Queen suddenly shrieked, diving forward, branches now wrapped around a double-bladed axe.
Batman quickly dodged as the Queen swung the axe.
The blade was stuck in the floor. Grunting and snarling, the Queen of Hearts tried to remove the axe.
Mind still reeling, the Dark Knight barley processed the exposed tentacle that she was attached to. As quickly as he could, fingers fumbling only slightly, he grabbed the Eyestaff, extending it.
The Queen pulled the axe-up and with a short, fearsome groan, rose up, the blade held above her head...
Batman fired at the tentacle that held her up.
A hole burned right through the sticky, slimy skin and muscle. The Queen let out a cry of pure anguish, dropping the axe to the ground and flying into the air, the tentacle whipping her about fiercely, almost like a dog with a bird in its mouth. Her tentacles briefly sputtered purple, knocking Batman down into the floor, head first. He let out a short yelp as the pain registered.
His vision fuzzy, he watched as the Queen was brought higher and higher into the air, snapping about, her screams growing fainter and fainter...
Then she slammed into the floor.
Her mask shattered, revealing...
Nothing but a pair of glowing red eyes, which rolled onto the ground.
Slowly, the Queen's limp form was pulled into the hole in the throne, into a dark pit...
And all was still.
Batman stared blankly, as if waiting...
The Nightmare is over...
That was easy...
Much, much too easy...
If the Queen has been destroyed, then why am I not...
His thoughts were interrupted as the throne suddenly blew apart. He ducked to avoid being sliced into slithers by the cut diamonds and rubies and gold shrapnel.
When he looked up, he saw something even more frightening as the Queen's tentacled form.
It was a chalk white face, with a mad, red-lipped grin that reached almost from ear-to-ear and had filed yellow teeth. Its dreadlocked green hair hung down like great coils of wet straw, and its turquoise eyes were filled with lunacy and madness.
It was twice as deformed as the one where he came from, but the figure's identity was clear.
"...Joker?"
The Pseudo-Joker smirked, let out a brief, dark giggle, and opened its mouth...
Batman did a disturbed double-take. Out of the Joker's mouth popped the head of a hatless Jervis Tetch. The Mad Hatter's eyes glittered fiercely, and he opened his own mouth...
Another face, this one shrouded in a mask of burlap. Behind the burlap sack was visible a beaky nose and a small, flat-topped head. Its mouth area was stitched up, and glassy green eyes shone behind the mask, half hidden by shredded burlap.
Scarecrow.
And the worst was yet to come: Scarecrow actually winked one eye, and slowly, the mask began to split at the stitches over his mask's mouth-area, the fear-mongering villain's mouth opening wider and wider...
The head that came out next was the most dreadful one of all. Batman's eyes went wide behind his cowl. He almost gasped.
It's...me.
Handsome, fair, gentle...everything the papers said he looked like. And completely dead in appearance, somewhat bloated, its dark eyes blank and glazed. A soft, eerie smile crept over the dead face, revealing decaying teeth and gums.
Then, from the Dead-Bruce's mouth, came the voice of the first and largest presence: Joker. But the Joker's voice was rocky, gravelly, and somewhat modulated, much like the Queen's voice had been.
"I AM THE KNAVE OF HEARTS. WELCOME TO DREAMLAND, BATSY."