"Downsides?" Bruce asked Lucius while trying on his new mask, which now served as a bulletproof helmet.
"I'm sure you can tell, it feels much more insulated," Lucius said.
"It's warm," Bruce said. "But not unbearably so."
"That was the goal," Lucius informed him.
"Well done," Bruce said as he pulled the mask off.
"Your wife's entire suit is made from a similar material, but I would say hers is a bit more advanced and breathable."
"If only the material wasn't so..." Bruce said, thinking of the word to describe the deep reflective colors in Shade's suit. "Visually decorative? Feminine? I would use it."
"Completely understandable," Lucius said as Bruce packed the mask away after pulling it off.
"I'm relieved that her suit is so effective at protecting her from impact," Bruce said. "Soon she will be without her gift...I'm glad she is at the very least, more protected than I am."
"Without her gift," Lucius repeated.
"Saturday," Bruce said. "It will be gone forever. Saturday evening. She needs to have it...well..eradicated."
"Is everything alright?"
"Not quite. She's having nightmares, fevers, all apparently from her gift. Her abilities are hurting her and are becoming deadly at this point. She's been able to use her gift for months now and hasn't told me about it. I thought all this time it was dormant since her pregnancy but that wasn't the case."
"Well," Lucius said, knowing full well how long her gift had been back. He had also been keeping the secret from Bruce. "She told you when she felt ready to, I am guessing."
"No," Bruce laughed. "She didn't tell me anything. Her friend Sidi had to. Adriana was planning to keep this from me for...only God knows for how long. I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. She was...she slept for a bit, and whatever is going on with her is bad. She had a horrible fever and her body was drenched in sweat. Sounded like she could barely breathe."
Lucius was quiet.
"Anyway," Bruce said. "Not to worry, it will be taken care of soon. She understands what needs to be done. Speaking of which..."
"How can I be of service?" Lucius knew Bruce had a task for him.
"The Joker," Bruce said. "Needs to be dealt with. He isn't dead."
Lucius couldn't force himself to fake surprise, but the surprise showed up anyway.
"What do you mean, dealt with?" Lucius asked.
"We need to locate or build a facility for detention purposes. Hire a team to secure him and relocate him. A team for around the clock surveillance.." Bruce said. "People we can trust with the information that he is still alive. Men capable of a long term commitment to the job. Men with exceptionally strong minds. The Joker is a master manipulator. We can't have any vulnerabilities. He's located in my former batcave. They will have to remove him discreetly."
"It may take a few months," Lucius said. " To assemble a team and location."
"Of course," Bruce said. "Do you have any questions?"
Lucius looked at Bruce, who was expecting him to ask what on earth the Joker was doing in his batcave. Who was there with him now to monitor him? Bruce was fully prepared to explain that he had left him there alone, chained to the floor for over a year.
"No," Lucius asked. "No questions other than...You don't want to be involved? That is what I am gathering."
"I don't want to be involved in this at all," Bruce said. "I don't want to see him. I don't want to hear about what happens to him. He won't escape. We will have an excellent force hired. Perhaps in the future they can contact me when he's finally deceased and we can shut down the op."
"Well then," Lucius said. "I will get started on the project."
"Thank you."
.
.
.
"He called me a freak," The Joker said to Dr. Kappor while in a his therapy session.
"And how did that make you feel?" the doctor asked.
"Feel?" the Joker asked. "I didn't feel anything."
"Let's just go back to that moment," Dr. Kapoor said. "Tell me what you see."
"I'm sitting at a table, making my proposition," the Joker said. "And in the middle of it...he interrupts to call me a freak."
"And you didn't feel anything," the doctor said, trying to get the Joker to express more. "No...resentment, anger...offense?"
"Hm..." the Joker said trying to remember. "I remember talking and losing my train of thought when he said that. But I let it go."
"That is good," the doctor said.
"Ah wait..I think I may have said something about his grandma," the Joker said. "Juvenile I know. He got very angry."
"I see," the doctor said. "What happened then."
"Oh... He put a bounty on my head," the Joker said. "He wanted to torture me, of course. Or he would have been happy with someone killing me."
"Oh...a threat," the doctor said. "Very complicated situation."
"Not too complicated," the Joker said. "I just faked my own death for the bounty and killed him first."
The doctor looked at the Joker nervously. The Joker had told him many stories of murder, but the doctor still hadn't gotten used to it.
"It was self defense if you really think about it," the Joker said.
" Well...perhaps...in this case.." the doctor said, writing a few notes.
" You know," the Joker said. "Perhaps I could have fled the city. I doubt he would have come looking for me. Maybe I took it too far. Maybe I antagonized him a bit to see what he would do."
"That's very good reflection on the situation," the doctor said.
"I wanted them to pay me to kill the Batman," the Joker went on.
"You wanted to kill the Batman for them," the doctor said.
"Sure," the Joker said. "In theory. I wouldn't kill him realistically though, because he was my main source of inspiration at the time. My only true competition. I was always so sure he would never kill me. He was too decent. He wasn't a killer in that way. I mean, sure he's killed...but he's killed in direct self defense...nameless criminals that no one would miss. But me...He could have let me die when he threw me from that building but he didn't. He was too decent to do such a thing."
"And now?" the doctor asked.
"Now I know," the Joker said. "I would have died in that hole if Adriana had not found me. The Batman would kill me easily. I was wrong. He left me there to die."
"And does that mean..." the doctor was asking. "That you would kill him now if given the chance? Now that you realize...he would in fact kill you?"
"Ahhh...no," the Joker sighed. "I wouldn't."
"Why not?"
"I can't kill him," the Joker said casually. "Perhaps I respect him more now, seeing that he would actually intentionally and strategically kill. Maybe I finally I broke him."
"Okay," the doctor said. "But surely you must feel some...some type of way about everything you went through down there. It would be understandable if you hated him-"
"No," the Joker interrupted. "I don't hate him. He is more powerful and capable than I realized."
"How so?" the doctor asked.
"He saved... The woman I told you about," the Joker said. "Even though it was impossible."
The doctor waited for the Joker to say more.
"I created...an exceptional poison, my best work," the Joker said. "Intended to make one laugh themselves to death."
"Yes... I've seen it in the news," the doctor said.
"Yes, well," the Joker said. "The Batman stole it from me. Turned it into an injectable. Even more potent."
"What does this have to do with the woman you were involved with?" the doctor asked, failing to see the connection.
"She..." the Joker said, as if remembering something shameful. "She took the dart that was meant for me."
"The...Batman shot the woman you-" the doctor said, slightly shocked at this information.
"She survived," the Joker said. "Somehow, he saved her. The shot should have killed her. He didn't have to do anything for her...one of the Joker's henchmen getting in the way of a poisonous dart. Perhaps he's more decent than I give him credit for."
The doctor was quiet, thinking. Remembering.
"Let's change topics," the Joker said, his voice suddenly darkening and his speech quickening.
"One..one more question..please..." the doctor said.
"Mhm," the Joker said.
"When did this happen?"
.
.
.
"And there he is, a little older than you," Alfred said to Arsenio. "Learning to swim."
Arsenio was sitting on his lap and Alfred was flipping through a photo album with photos of Bruce when he was baby. Arsenio looked at the photos attentively, grabbing onto the bottom corner of each page as Alfred turned.
"So cute. Oh...It's almost five," Adriana said from beside Alfred. "I'll be right back..do you mind watching him for about an hour?"
"Not at all," Alfred said.
Adriana left the penthouse and went down to the medical facility through the private elevator. As the elevator went down she gave thanks that throughout the entire duration of the Joker's stay so far, Bruce had not needed medical attention. Things were going smoothly. She went straight into the food prep area and took thawing salmon out of the refrigerator and cooked it, along with broccoli and instant mashed potatoes before taking them to the Joker's room.
"Dinner," she said as she came in a found him sitting at the table drawing. "Some fish and vegetables. I can't stay, but enjoy."
"Thank you," he said and continued to draw.
"That's nice," the said, looking over his shoulder.
He flipped the paper over immediately so that she could not look at the drawing.
"Okay then..." she said.
"It's not done," he offered as an excuse.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have looked," she said unsure about why he was so guarded about a sketch of a ray of sunshine over a pile of bricks.
He redirected his attention over to the tray of food.
She couldn't help prying into his mind. And she saw it...the day she rescued Pavla. The only way she could find out the building away from the police. The stack of bricks she was trying to move when he showed up behind her. He saw her as a traitor...she was the enemy in that moment. The one who had ruined the entire operation.
He felt guilt...he saw those bricks over and over again. He wanted to revisit the moment, move the bricks with her, flee with her. Instead of pointing a gun at her and telling her that she was dead, and sending her away..back through the building to be shot by the poisonous dart by the Batman. He had talked to Dr. Kapoor about that day and she saw it in his memories.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning," she said shakily. He nodded and she left.
Hesitantly, she made her way to Dr. Kappor's office and she could see his thoughts on the way there. Her hand shook as she knocked on the door before opening it.
"Adriana," he said, looking up from medical records on his desk.
"Dr. Kappor," she said, closing the door behind her. "Are those my records?"
The doctor closed the folder in front of him. "Yes."
"Please," Adriana said, her desperation building and overflowing instantly. "You can't tell Bruce..please-"
"So...my assumptions are true?" he asked. "You have read my mind just now.."
"Yes," she said.
"The first time I met you...you were near death and this is why...because of the poison..the Joker-"
"Yes," she said, not wanting him to say more but he did.
"He said...he was involved with a woman," the doctor went on, and Adriana nodded. "And..."
"Please...Bruce can never know," she pleaded.
"I...know this," the doctor said, the gravity of the situation hitting him. "I will not say anything. It is just...a lot to realize."
"I know," she said.
"And the two of you...are okay with this?" the doctor said. "Pretending nothing happened?"
"Yes," Adriana said. "We are. It's over and...We both just want to move on."
"I can see that..." the doctor said. "He is..progressing very well. Perhaps..you being here is helping him in some way. He is comfortable..he is growing."
Adriana nodded. "It will be over soon when he's well enough to leave..and he can go forward with his life."
"Yes," Dr. Kapoor agreed. "That...is our goal here."
Adriana looked at him nervously.
"Do not worry," Dr. Kapoor said. " I will not say a word to Mr. Wayne."
"Thank you," she said.
"Somehow..more than my worries about the Joker learning that it is the Batman who owns this facility..." the doctor said. "I am more worried about Mr. Wayne learning that we are hiding him here..and everything else...this changes things."
"I know..but we've been lucky..he hasn't had to come here at all," Adriana said. "Just a few more weeks maybe and we can relocate him, if needed."
"Yes," Dr. Kapoor said. "Hopefully our luck will continue."
"Yes," she agreed.
"Well," the doctor sighed. "Have a good evening, Mrs. Wayne."
"Okay," Adriana said, wearily. She wasn't sure she was completely relieved. She turned to the door but before she could put her hand on the knob the doctor spoke again.
"He looks like him..." the doctor said, and she half turned towards him, looking him in the eyes. " Arsenio."
