Martha helped Bruce and his IV drip stand down a stone staircase and deeper into the Cave. At the bottom was an operating room, basic and filthy, and at the centre, his father, he barely registered either one of them, too consumed by the medical grade microscope in front of him.
"Bizarre" he concluded after a few moments and then finally spared a glance to his wife and son
"Oh you're up" he said with a smile that made Bruce want to smash his face in "Bruce, was it?"
"He IS Bruce, Thomas"
"And you're clearly still mentally circling Mars, Bruce was eight when he died, Martha... Fifteen years ago, if he were alive today, he'd be in his early twenties not his fifties"
Martha tightened her grip on Bruce's hand, she might not have understood how Bruce was her son but Bruce could tell she wasn't about to let go.
"I come from another Earth" Bruce explained to her "A world where things happened differently that night in the alley... The night you died instead of me"
Martha's eyes twinkled at the possibility of such a place. Thomas's face was much harder to read as he looked down upon Bruce, eventually he sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard... but it does seem that you share DNA with me and that Coco the Clown beside you"
Martha scowled at Thomas, baring her teeth, he replied by blowing her a kiss. If Bruce wasn't holding onto Martha's hand, he was certain that she would rip Thomas's throat open.
Thomas laughed at Martha's lack of retaliation before getting back to Bruce.
"So assuming that the impossible is now somehow possible, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I was thrown here" Bruce simplified
"So why interfere with tonight's targets"
"They were people, they needed help"
Thomas chuckled to himself before ruffling Bruce's hair like a normal father would to his child. Bruce felt sick. He felt anger burst through his veins.
"I think your mother will take my side on this, right Martha?"
Martha dropped Bruce's hand. He felt emptiness again.
"You see" His father continued "The night her son was taken from us, his killer blew her face apart, good lord. It was an awful looking thing but months of plastic surgery did wonders and well... I knew a guy"
"What's your point?"
Bruce retook Martha's hand, he didn't want her to be alone with this, and God she was shaking.
"We tried so hard to get over it all, put our lives back together, we even made the Wayne Foundation to give a little to the lessers of society... We became the White Knights of Gotham, everyone loved us... then those same lessers broke into our house, stole our shit and left us for dead, but not without leaving your mother a little present"
Thomas stroked one of the scars on Martha's face, she recoiled at his touch. Bruce lost it and struck his father in the face, hard.
Thomas fell backward to the stone ground and wiped the blood from his own reopened wounds.
"They left her... with a switchblade... and she made fast work with it, she had enough of being kind, she knew there was only one way to help the people of Gotham"
"By killing them!" Bruce spat
"By killing the lessers, only the lessers"
"They're not lessers!" Bruce yelled, the agony of his shredded vocal chords making him feel faint "They're human beings and they deserve better than you"
"Hah, doesn't matter much, dumb bitch couldn't take the hint, went fucking crazy, started calling herself 'the Joker' then she burned down a bunch of loan companies and gun stores"
Bruce looked at his mother, she had turned away, wiping the tears from her eyes. Something clicked in Bruce's head, he loomed over his father.
"What do you mean she couldn't take the hint?"
Thomas shrank away into the corner.
"I-I mean that when I told her about taking justice into our own hands, she targeted buh- businesses, cuh- companies we had shares in... shit, if she had've went on we wouldn't have even been able to afford a butler any more"
"Where was Alfred when the house was invaded?"
"He had the night off" Thomas dismissed, confused
"What about the security system that Wayne Tech developed when I was born"
Thomas's facade broke and he smirked at Bruce.
"I guess someone must've turned it off"
Martha screamed and began kicking the hell out of Thomas. The downed man grabbed for her leg and pulled her to the ground beside him. A glimmer of light revealed a scalpel in his hand. Thomas swiped at Martha, cutting open her neck, Martha tried to halt the already flowing blood with her hand, but there was just too much. Bruce's heart sank but he had no time to waste, Achingly he lifted his IV stand and struck Thomas in the head with it.
Focusing on the scalpel, Martha wrestled it out of Thomas's grip and plunged it into his eye. Thomas hollered in pain, and Bruce pulled Martha free from him.
Martha threw her arms around Bruce, seemingly forgetting her own fatal wound, she was bleeding all over him. Bruce held his hand firmly over the incision, trying his best to stem the flow of blood.
Bruce's utility belt was practically empty, he had no medical supplies but maybe Martha would. Bruce riffled through the pockets and pouches on her costume, praying for something that could save her. She clung desperately to him.
"Bruce..." she breathed
Bruce comforted her with a few kind words, he needed to be faster, he couldn't let her die again.
"I... think I'm going to see my grandson now..."
Martha trembled in Bruce's arms. Tears welled up in his eyes, clouding his vision. He was too late. He was as useless as he was when he was eight.
Martha gazed up at him, she looked so weak, so pale. She touched Bruce's cheek and wiped away the tears.
"I need you to do something for me, Bruce"
"Anything" Bruce whimpered
"Show Gotham a kindness that I couldn't"
Martha opened up one of her pouches and retrieved a playing card from it, a swipe of the top revealed it to be a USB drive. Martha pressed it into Bruce's hands.
"I made it in my Joker days... but I could never pull the trigger... The password is 10:48 PM... The time you...
Martha's face twisted in pain, Bruce didn't think it was the physical kind as he knew that time all too well. It was the same in his universe too.
With one last burst of strength, Martha pulled Bruce close to her.
"Goodbye my beautiful boy... we'll meet again some day"
Martha let go of her final breath and went limp in Bruce's arms. She was gone.
Bruce guided her head back to the cave floor, he closed Martha's eyes and then shut his own. He had her back. For the briefest of moments he had his mother back, alive and well. Did it always have to end this way? Was this an unavoidable part of his existence? Was he cursed?
Motion nearby stirred Bruce. He opened his eyes and saw something that turned his stomach. Thomas had buried his face in Martha's neck.
"I loved you so much, my little Arkham rose... it's just sometimes... love is cruel"
Thomas peered up at Bruce, a big scarlet smile painted messily on his face. Why was it always a smile that ripped away the people he loved?
"Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to kill her for?" Thomas sighed dramatically "She was such a fucking pain in my ass, always reminding me of that little bastard of hers... I thought of so many ways to deliver her coup de grace but all of them felt so... wrong... they lacked a certain essential punchline, you know? But then I saw those eyes of yours and damn it all I realized that you could be the greatest punchline of them all... Thanks for asking the right questions, sport"
Bruce dove at his father but Thomas was quicker, he grabbed one of Martha's guns and aimed
"You survived two bullets tonight, I don't think you're gonna survive the third"
Thomas pulled the trigger.
Bruce thought of Martha.
The gun clicked. Empty.
Amusement crossed Thomas's face, right before Bruce's fist collided with it. Thomas chuckled as Bruce closed his hands around his throat.
Bruce squeezed, his father writhed, trying and failing to fight back. Bruce could rid this world of his cruelty, he tightened his grip. Memories of childhood danced in Bruce's head, encouraging him to go all the way. Everytime Thomas bullied Martha, hurt her, yelled at her, humiliated her. He deserved to die. His father's eyes bulged in their sockets, the scalpel fell out.
As it hit the ground, Bruce remembered something unexpected.
Bruce's mind went reeling back to the day his mother gave him the T-Rex plush.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
They were leaving the museum, Mr. Tiny Arms in Bruce's hands. Wilfred Pennyworth opened the car door for them.
"Where's Mister Wayne gotten to?" he asked
"Oh you know Tom, Wilf, someone always wants a piece of him"
The sound of rapidly approaching steps behind them made the three pause, as Thomas finally caught up to them. His shirt was buttoned up wrong and his zipper was half down.
"Not leaving without me, I hope" he said in a sing song voice
Martha shook her head.
Thomas ordered Wilfred into the car, when the old man complied, Tom pulled Martha into his arms and produced a sharp, shiny little scalpel. Thomas ran it along Martha's neck, just stopping when he drew blood. Martha looked terrified.
Thomas either didn't know Bruce was still watching or didn't care, because he let the scalpel drop to the ground and started licking at the wound.
"Never leave without my permission, bitch" Thomas mumbled as he tasted Martha's blood.
Bruce didn't even think about it, he just grabbed the scalpel. He was going to end this.
Bruce positioned himself behind his father. He wasn't tall but he knew he could stab Thomas as many times as it would take. His father had to die.
Martha saw Bruce immediately, her eyes growing wide at the scalpel, she began mouthing pleas not to do anything. That she didn't want blood on his hands. That it would only make things worse. A part of Bruce wanted to laugh, how could things possibly get worse?
He raised the scalpel, his tiny little hands shaking, he took a deep breath, steadying himself and... suddenly someone yanked the surgical tool from him. Turning, Bruce saw a construction worker give him a half hearted smirk before throwing the scalpel in the trash and ripping Thomas off of Martha.
"You think you can just come into our neighbourhoods, assault your wife and kid, and no one will give a rat's ass, you scumbag!"
Thomas tumbled onto the sidewalk with the man, he got in a few cheap shots but the construction worker was too strong for him and dominated the fight.
"You poison people, Wayne! We don't want you here any more!"
Bruce wondered who the 'we' the man was talking about were, but quickly found himself being reassured and comforted by a teenager while someone who might be her sister, comforted Bruce's mother, and some old hippies blocked Wilfred from getting out of the car to help Thomas.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Bruce smiled. How could he be so selfish, his mother was right, someone always wanted a piece of Thomas Wayne, especially in this version of Gotham.
Bruce released his father and quickly made his way around to an old PC in the corner. A message on a social media network should suffice: 'Thomas Wayne is Batman' maybe a photo or a video too, leave the location settings on and hope no one thinks it's a prank. No, Bruce decided, that wasn't far enough, then he remembered his mother's USB drive.
Plugging in the drive and entering the password, Bruce discovered files dating back a decade, from spycam footage of Thomas without his cowl on, photos of the various entrances to the cave, and most damning of all a full confession from Martha herself, admitting to being the Joker and knowing Thomas's identity, detailing the entire story of this world's Batman and Joker, along with an emotional apology near the end for not coming forward sooner.
Bruce wanted to cry but found he had no more tears left to give. Instead he resigned himself to completing his mother's final wish and sharing the contents of the folder.
The PC modem groaned into life with outdated whirring and clicking sounds.
'Overriding Wayne Tech media blackout protocols' The computer screen informed Bruce 'Sending files to Vicki Vale, Emmanuel Murray-Fitzsimmons, Lois Lane, Tawny Young, Vesper Fairchild, and William Batson'
When the PC notified Bruce that the contents of the USB had been sent, he allowed himself a little gloating. Turning back to his father, Bruce grinned.
"When they see that, they'll come for you"
"They'll kill me" his father coughed
"I hope so"
"Is that how it is? You won't get my blood on your hands, you'd rather have an entire city do it for you?"
"It's what mom would've wanted"
"You're a spineless coward, just like our father"
Bruce froze. Did Thomas just say... No he couldn't have. The smirk on the imposter Bat's face returned.
"You didn't know, did you?" Thomas observed "Come on, it must've made some sense to you, little bro... Did you actually spend fifty years thinking that I was your real daddy, awww that's so sweet"
Bruce's head was spinning, he scrambled back for the memories that haunted him, the memories of his childhood, hoping that they'd cast a light on the situation, help him understand. Thomas had to be lying, there was no one else... Was there?
At last the words 'little bro' and 'our father' finally caught up to Bruce and the path in his mind cleared. Patrick Wayne, Thomas's father,
"Now you know why your mother deserved everything I flung at her" Thomas laughed "Cheating cow lured him into bed and then actually had the cojones to tell me she loved him"
Bruce couldn't believe what he was hearing, he had always refused to dig too deeply into his own past, too afraid of what he would discover about Thomas's savagery and inhumanity. Bruce had always hidden behind his delusions, his perfect things, his diamond absolutes, his dreams of a father who could've changed that night, the night he and his mother fell. He didn't dare look any further in case the entire house of lies would fall apart at its seams. He focused so hard on creating his beautiful lies that he ended up hiding a secret from himself, a big one. One that could've banished the pain of being Thomas Wayne's son.
Bruce glanced over at the lifeless form of Martha Wayne. Had she really found love with Patrick? Did he love her? Did he know Bruce was his? Why didn't Patrick help her to leave Thomas?
"I told her that if she left me, I'd beat him to death with my bare hands and then drown you in the lake" Thomas answered the question that wasn't verbally asked "Your mom always was an idiot, thought too much with her heart, Dad was one of the richest men in the world, how the hell would I get my hands on him?"
A giggle escaped Thomas's lips, followed by another and another until the monster was cackling like a mad man, one very specific mad man from another universe, Bruce just couldn't escape that laugh. With a boot to the face, Bruce silenced Thomas.
Fighting down the urge to end the unconscious Thomas, Bruce instead took a pair of handcuffs from his utility belt and chained his... brother to his workstation.
Squeezing his mother's hand, gently, one last time, Bruce left back up the stone steps that he and Martha had wandered down not thirty minutes before.
Leaving the Cave via the false clock passage, Bruce used an old bronze bust of William Shakespeare to wedge the door open for the vengeful citizens of Gotham that would soon be upon them. Bruce tore the Bat symbol off his chest and slumped into an old dusty recliner.
It was over... it was all over. Never again would he wear the Bat, not after this.