A/N: I have nothing, read and let me know your thoughts :)
~On the street of villains taken for a ride
You can have the devil as a guide
Crippled by the boundaries, programmed into guilt
'Til your nervous system starts to tilt.
And in the room of mirrors you can see for miles
But everything that's there is in disguise
Every word you've uttered and every thought you've had
Is all inside your file, the good and the bad.~
~George Harrison~
Bruce could slap himself, he was so blind and stupid. He had woken up after a few hours and had an epiphany. When he had ran into his neighbor, he had known. But his sleep deprived brain was slow to put the pieces together. He knew.
He had the same dream again. He had once again relived the murder of his parents by the same painted face of Joker's wife, pulling the trigger as she laughed. Her eyes were bright and crazy. The makeup causing her to look deranged. He couldn't look away, then he noticed they were two different colors.
He had woken up in a cold sweat, the pieces snapping into place. The woman in the elevator, she was the same one from before the massacre on New Year's Eve. But she had brown eyes then, he was sure of it. They had talked after he knocked her down and spilled her coffee, he remembered her. When he saw her today, her eyes had been the same two toned ones he had stared into as she shot his parents almost every night.
Her face was slightly fuller and her hair was down, but the eyes were a dead giveaway. There was no way he was wrong about this. That woman was married to the Joker. It all was too much to just be a coincidence. He got into his car and sped to the cave. He needed to look something up.
Once at his computer, he first re-watched the footage from amusement mile, once he saw her face he froze the recording. There on the screen were two very different colored eyes. He ended the video and started to look up the names of everyone who had an apartment on the top few floors of his building. The elevator she came out of only went to the top three floors. He could feel adrenaline pumping through his veins as he pulled up the records.
He, himself had the penthouse, he had owned it for a while. When he saw the name of the floor below him he burst out into uncontrollable laughter. They quickly turned to tears. Jack Napier, the name Joker had used all those months ago, maybe his real name, had lived so close to him.
He hated the fact that he had been so close and Bruce had never gotten a glimpse of him there. Then his thoughts turned to the woman, was she his wife. There was no way it was a coincidence. Bruce needed to help her, once he had taken care of Joker, the girl could heal. There was no telling what that madman had done to brainwash her into marrying him.
Bruce got out of his chair and hurried back to his car. He would just grab the girl, she had to come back to the building at some point. He could grab her, bring her here to the cave, and keep her safe until he took care of Joker. Then he would get her help at Arkham. She would be safer, for now, with him. She would be out of the way so He could finish with Joker, once and for all.
He had made it back to the garage and waited. Her car wasn't there, he had time. He got out and moved to the trunk of his car he reached in and pulled out the small container that had his knockout gas vials, he tucked the remainder back into the trunk and moved back against the far wall, the dark shadows hiding him easily.
Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long. He watched as her car pulled into the space a few down from his car. He waited as she moved things around inside, the tinting on the windows extremely dark. Her shadowed form swayed in seat and then finally the door opened. He watched her step out of the car and made his move while she was distracted.
He grabbed her, snapping the small vial near her face. He felt her body tense, trying to struggle against him, eventually falling limp in his arms. He held her small form, trying to decide where to put her. She would probably be out for a while, so he slid her into the backseat, fairly sure he would be safe. He did bind her wrists and ankles, just in case.
He got into his car and sped from the garage, back to the cave. He had just the place to keep her, but he had to work on a few things first. It hadn't taken long to get back to his safe place. He pulled into the cave, getting the girl and putting her in one of the empty display cases his bat suits used to go in.
It wasn't the most comfortable place, but it would hold her safely until he finished the room he had in mind.
Joker pulled into the garage, happy to see his wife's car parked. He waited a few seconds before getting out to go to the elevator. He was almost there when he noticed the driver's door on her car wasn't completely closed, and the overhead light was still on. He felt panic, he moved to the car as he reached for his gun.
The door hadn't been able to close fully because the strap to Peach's bag was caught in the gap. Joker felt his stomach drop. He pulled her bag from the car and inside was her phone, the burner phone, her keys, wallet and small snacks.
He moved to the elevator, hitting the button as many times at it took to get the damned thing down to him. He rode the elevator up, rushing into the room as soon as the shiny doors opened.
"Peach?" He called out, his voice sounding so loud in the empty apartment.
His mind was all over the place. Maybe this was not really happening, maybe he had just gone too long without sleep again. The hallucinations could seem very, very real sometimes. Until he saw her, he would assume it was happening.
"Lyra?" he called out louder. Still nothing but the sound of his voice filling the apartment.
He moved to the table and dumped out her bag, he knew it was bad when her .22 fell from the bottom. She might leave her other stuff behind for whatever reason, but she never went anywhere willingly without the gun.
This was not a hallucination he could feel the weight of her gun in his hand, he was lucid. Someone had taken his wife. He was right behind her, barely 10 minutes from the time she left to the time he left. He wasn't sure what could have happened in that minuscule amount of time. He grabbed his phone and typed out a quick message to Ace.
~MY PLACE NOW~
He set the phone down before he could smash it into pieces in the rage he felt bubbling in his gut. If someone had grabbed her, they might contact him for whatever reason.
He would hunt down whoever had her and start cutting body parts off. He would feed the pieces to them. Being sure to keep them alive as long as he could. Then he would feed whatever was left of them to the hyenas at the zoo while he joined in with their laughter as they feasted on the corpse.
He pulled himself back from that fantasy. He was getting ahead of himself. He had to find her, or whoever took her, first.
Ace had used the visitor code and was shocked to see Joker in the state he was currently in.
"What happened Boss?"
Joker's eyes flashed over to Ace and the man was genuinely terrified the moment he saw them.
Peach woke up with a terrible headache. The chemical taste in her mouth made a wave of nausea overtake her. Once the feeling passed she looked around. What the fuck had happened? The last thing she remembered was getting out of the car. She was reaching for her bag, then nothing.
She pushed herself up from the floor and regretted it instantly. Her head swam, she closed her eyes until it all passed. When she opened them again she groaned. She was in a plastic box. She looked around and was surprised to see a sandwich wrapped in cellophane and a bottle of water.
She reached down and lightly rubbed her stomach. Thankfully she felt the movement of her baby. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, holding back the urge to cry. She had to be strong, she had no idea who had taken her.
She looked around and sighed, the room this box was in was dark. The smell was almost musty. The air seemed damp, humid. The small bit of lighting was too dim and too far to help her. She nearly let out a scream when the lights turned on, blinding her.
She squinted as she pulled her hands back from her eyes and looked at the shadowy figure walking towards her. She was ready to scream in anger as his face came into focus, she was going to kill this man. Bruce Wayne was moving towards her an odd look on his face. She wished she had her gun as he stopped in front of the box.
She looked around now that the lights let her see their surroundings, they were in some kind of cavern. She looked at Bruce, the look of concern on his face was comical. She was sitting here in a plastic box she had been put in by Bruce Wayne, a billionaire by day, retired vigilante and apparently kidnapper in his spare time. If she wasn't so pissed, she would laugh at the absurdity, he actually had a fucking bat cave.
She stood on shaky legs and stared at him. He looked like he wanted to say something. She hated his face, and hoped he could see it. She was about ready to scream when he finally spoke.
"You should eat." He nodded towards the sandwich and water.
"Fuck you."
He released a sigh of defeat, "I'm trying to help you. Joker, he's, well he has you brainwashed. You think you love him but you can't. He's insane."
Peach was speechless. This moron really believed that she had been tricked into being with her husband. Like some weak willed victim. She had loved him from the moment he saved her. When he had come back, she pursued him, worked hard to make him notice her. Did he think that Joker wasn't lovable? She held in a laugh, her husband was a big homicidal teddy bear. She looked at Bruce, maybe she could use his delusion to her advantage. She would do that as a last resort. She'd rather kick his ass.
"You don't know anything about me." She spat at him.
"I can help you Lyra."
Her name coming from his mouth made her furious. She would kill him for this. No one called her that. Lyra was a scared little girl huddled with her brother in an alley when they had nowhere to go. Lyra died when her brother died. Peach had been reborn when Joker saved her.
The only thing helping her keep calm was the fact that if she got out of here, this might be the thing to push Joker to finally kill this asshole. Until then, she needed him to let his guard down. She had to make him think she was docile. No physical threat.
She felt the tear slide down her cheek. She hated when people thought she was weak. Her fists flexed open and closed. When she opened her eyes again Bruce was staring at her. She turned from him and moved to the side of the box and sat down, her back facing him. She picked up the food and ate slowly. She opened the water and drank it all. After she finished it, she tossed the empty bottle behind her. She heard him let out a sigh, his steps echoing off of the stone floor.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she started to feel extremely tired. She could barely keep her head up. She felt herself start to panic before she was passed out, her head resting on the clear wall of the box she was trapped in.
Bruce hadn't wanted to drug her, again. But he needed to get her to the other room. The safer more comfortable room. He waited a few minutes to make sure she was actually out. He moved to the door of the box and opened it. She didn't move.
He reached down and picked her up. He turned and moved out of the mall plastic prison and walked her to the safe room he had converted into her new room. He moved inside and placed her on the bed, laying her on her side. He pulled the covers up and over her small body. He would save her, he had no choice.
A/N: so, I really wanted to give Joker and Peach some quality time, but it just didn't want to work out right for the flow of the story... Sorry, not sorry...
