A/N: Hello to all my dear and wonderful readers! Before we begin, I would like to say thank you. We did it! My YouTube channel is now up to 300 subscribers! And so, as per my promise, once I finish this story, I will immediately start writing Arkham Knight! Once again, thank you all so much. But it would still be great if you would subscribe to my channel if you aren't already and maybe follow me on Twitter or Facebook if you don't mind, links to my social media are in just about any one of my videos.
But now, it's time for our favorite brooding bat and blonde brawler to bust up Joker's party!
Yang quickly made her way towards Batman's signal, before one of the jumbotrons. "Hellooooo? Is anyone there?" He asked as his face came into view. "Hello, Batman. And it's always great to see you, too, Light Dragon. I hope you both can hear me." He said.
"Loud and clear, jerk face." Yang growled
"I've not caught you at a bad time, have I?" He asked. "I was worried you might have forgotten about little old me." He said.
"Not at all. Punching a few more of your teeth out has always been at the top of my mind." Yang snapped.
The camera then panned out to reveal he was standing next to a chair Talia was tied up to, pointing a pistol at the back of her head. "Oh, Batsy boy! Take a look at your girlfriend, who as you can see, is in danger of having her pretty little brains splattered all over this camera. Light Dragon, if you're a good wingman- sorry, wing girl- You won't let that happen, either." Joke continued to taunt.
"Ignore him, beloved! Let him die!" Talia said, obviously to Batman.
"Oh, how romantic. Only problem is: I've never felt better. And we both know you really can't ignore me, can you?" Joker asked
"Oh, you've got our full attention. And not in a good way. Especially when Bats gets his hands on you." Yang growled.
"So, listen, you two: I'm putting on a little show for you two. It's going to be a doozy. A real red carpet affair. You'd better hurry, though. If you take too long, the leading lady may be found dead in her dressing room." Joker warned, giggling as her pressed the gun barrel to Talia's chin, before the feed cut out.
"Oh, he's gonna be a crying clown when we get done with him. Batman, I hope you're there already." Yang said as she continued her way towards the signal.
Soon enough, she reached the Ace Chemical building, where the Dark Knight was observing the situation in front of and around the movie theater. "Joker's in there with Talia." He explained, already sensing Yang's approach somehow.
"And you haven't stormed in and saved her already?" She asked.
"After I got away from that helicopter, I had a run-in with Deadshot. Between the two encounters, my aura's spent. I can't just rush in. And Joker has the place completely covered by snipers. We'll have to carefully manage how we handle this." Batman explained.
"I get it. Well, let's take them out quick. I'd hate to miss the previews before the main event." Yang said. And with that, they got to work.
They first turned to the group of snipers furthest away from the theater, Batman gliding around behind the thug closest to the Ace Chemical building and silently smothering him to unconsciousness as Yang landed behind him, walking past and dropping down on the sniper on a walkway into between the building on the street, sending him to the floor, which she slammed his head against to knock him out. Batman then grappled to the building across from the one he started on, above the one in front of Yang, sneaking up behind the next sniper and bringing him down silently as well.
Yang then made her way to the building in front of the one Batman started on as the Dark Knight continued ahead until he got to the sniper across from Yang, the two of them each taking out their respective sniper. Another sniper on the roof top on the other side of the road from Batman spotted him, but before he could shoot the Dark Knight, Batman flung a Batarang at him to knock him down, quickly grappling across to that roof and taking down that sniper as well. Meanwhile, Yang had grappled up to the water tower on the roof she was on, leaping to a roof in front of the one she was on to the right, then dropping down onto the next roof, where another sniper lied in wait, sneaking up and pulling a silent takedown on him.
Then, she leapt up to the roof of the theater and took down the sniper on top of it. She then waited as Batman made his way over to her. There were only two snipers left: the two directly in front of the door to the theater. The two vigilantes looked at each other and nodded, Batman dropping a smoke bomb down, enveloping the two thugs in a thick fog, before our heroes dropped down and quickly throttled the two thugs. Yang dusted her hands off as the smoke cleared. "Well, that was fun." She said.
"It's time to end this. Joker's back at full strength and could have anything planned. Be careful." Batman told her as they entered the the theater.
They walked into the theater room, observing the ending screen of the video Joker had set up: "The Terror". They then glared daggers as they spotted the crooked clown on stage, holding a tied up Talia at gunpoint. "Hurry up and take a seat, you two! The show's about to begin!" He ordered, the gun aimed at Talia's head.
"Let's just talk about this." Batman said.
"Yeah! What do you really gain from any of this, Joker?" Yang questioned.
"Oh, you know exactly what I aim to gain! Give me the cure!" Joker demanded.
"What do you need that for?! You already took it! You're looking as good as ever!" Yang pointed out.
"Even if we didn't you had Harley steal it. We don't have it." Batman told him. Suddenly, stood up and twisted around, taking her sword off Joker's hip and putting it against his back. "Talia, no!" Batman cried out, both him and Yang preparing to rush in and stop her, but she drove the blade through Joker's back and out his chest before they had the chance. Joker gasped in shock at this, before the life apparently left his body and he went limp, Talia dropping him to the ground in front of the two vigilantes.
"Problem solved." Talia declared.
"You didn't need to-" Batman began.
"Why? You would never do it. You left me no choice." The assassin countered.
"There's always a choice." Batman insisted.
"Look, whatever. I don't like it, either, but what's done is done. Besides, she's technically in a prison, so it's not like we can arrest her again." Yang told her partner.
"And now you can save your precious city." Talia declared, producing the cure from her pocket. "Harley Quinn stole it for him, I took it back. It's over." She stated as Batman crouched by the Joker's body.
"But then... if Harley never got the cure to him, then Joker never got cured. So he should still look like he's at death's door, not good as new like this." Yang pointed out as Batman thought about events all through the night leading up to this point, remembering how he was attacked from behind while investigating the supposedly dead Joker. And finally, he pieced together Joker had a stand-in to keep up appearances and get the drop on him while the real one lied in wait.
Suddenly, the two vigilantes heard the clicking of a gun's hammer being pulled back, ready to shoot a bullet. And thanks to Yang's speed and reflexes, she was more than ready for it. "Get down!" The Remnant girl cried out, diving into Talia and taking a bullet in the shoulder that caused her aura to shimmer [1]
"Dammit, Blondie! You always spoil my fun, since the first moment I met you!" Joker complained from the seats on the second floor, looking as sickly as the first time Batman saw him while he held a smoking gun.
However, as Yang tackled Talia, the assassin had lost the cure, which rolled to the body of the Joker double. "It was never you!" Batman said angrily.
"A double!?" Talia asked, not believing she was fooled by something so simple.
"Hey, a man like me has to keep up appearances!" Joker explained, coughing a bit. "Now, if you would be so kind... Hand. over. my. cure!" Joker demanded, aiming at them again.
All three of them prepared to fight, but out of nowhere, the Joker double raised his arm, bringing his hand down on the cure as it, as well as the rest of his body, began to grow, distort and change to a mud-like color. "What in the world?!" Talia questioned.
Yang looked to the blob that was once a Joker stand-in, before looking to the screen, remembering the star of the movie and piecing it together. "It's Clayface!" She yelled. [2]
Meanwhile, Joker had been building up the transforming mass before them. "Ladies and gentlemen, for one night only! Standing in for yours truly and doing a damn fine job, I give you..." He began, before hearing what Yang shouted. "Oh, you are really getting on my nerves, Dragon breath! You always beat me to the punch!" He complained.
"I'm about to beat you WITH a punch!" Yang snapped, moving towards him, before Batman stopped her.
"No. You're better suited to taking on Karlo. I'll handle Joker." Batman said, before looking to Talia. "Talia, get out of here!" He declared.
"I'm not leaving you, Beloved." She said.
"I'm not risking you trying to kill Joker again." He said, before pulling her in. "And I can't lose you again." He secretly told her.
"Very well. Just finish this." Talia said as she threw down a smoke bomb to make her escape.
"Aww, isn't that sweet? Whispering sweet nothings into your lover's ear. I hope it was a good one, because it's your last!" Joker declared as Batman grappled up to him.
Meanwhile, Yang faced off against Clayface. "You were never meant to be brought here, Clayface. Why do this? Why join up with Joker?" She questioned.
"Easy. For the role of a lifetime!" The monster declared, preparing to fight.
"Sorry, but I think you're gonna have to be left out of the final cut!" She said, taking her own stance.
Background Music: "Had Enough" By Breaking Benjamin
Yang had faced off with Clayface once before and in that time she had learned that her normal method of fighting did not work well, as Clayface's mud-like body basically ignored physical damage, as well as being able to pull her in and almost ruining Ember Celica beyond repair with how bad the substance seeped into all the delicate mechanisms of the gauntlets. Thankfully, she now had a method to make his body more solid with her ice rounds. Quickly firing several rounds at Clayface's right leg, She then rushed in and punched the frozen portion of the leg, breaking it away from the rest of his body and leaving the leg thinner and weaker, causing Clayface to collapse to the ground in a massive puddle.
Meanwhile, once Batman got up on the second floor, Joker couldn't help but giggle. "You fell for it, Bats! Now I'll have the last laugh!" He declared, pulling out a button and pressing it. Suddenly, several cannisters of Joker Toxin hidden underneath the front row seats released their deadly gas into the air, soon covering the second floor in the toxin. As Batman struggled to breathe from the surprise attack, Joker rushed in and struck Batman across the face a couple times with a smaller and lighter cannister. He prepared to shoot Batman in the face, but the Dark Knight managed to knock away the gun, headbutting Joker and kicking him down. With the clown temporarily down, Batman attempted to put on his respirator attachment to his mask so he could safely breathe again, but Joker rushed in and leapt towards the vigilante, delivering a drop kick that sent him over the edge.
Back with Yang and Clayface, the mud-like villain simply flowed like water, grabbing up his frozen body parts that had been broken away, before rushing in like a tidal wave, trying to crash down on Yang, who leapt over the tsunami of sludge, peppering all over his body with her explosive rounds and flinging an explosive Batarang down on the large frozen patch, taking a sizeable chunk of out Clayface's back, causing the villain to scream and collapse back into an amorphous puddle. However, he would build himself back up into the form of a giant boulder, building up speed to rush at and crush Yang, Raiders of the Lost Ark style. However, Yang quickly took note of piles of explosives in the corners of their little arena, moving in front of one. Clayface finally shot forward, only for Yang to dodge out of the way and cause Clayface to slam into the explosives, detonating them and sending him flying back to the center of the room.
Back with Batman, He had managed to grab onto the ledge of the second floor. From there, he put on his respirator, now making himself immune to the gas. But as he did this, Joker got to the edge and tried to stab at him. Thankfully, Batman was able to leap away and grabbed further down the rail out of Joker's reach, before pulling out a Batarang and flinging it at Joker's face, knocking the clown down once again and allowing him to climb back up. However, once he got up, Joker was nowhere to be found. He attempted to use Detective vision, but found it unable to scan, meaning there was a jamming device hidden somewhere in the theater. He'd just have to search the old-fashioned way. He began checking down each of the isles, before hearing Joker's signature giggle under the middle of the middle row of chairs. He made his way to it and looked under, only to discover it was a phone playing a voice recording. Before Batman could react, Joker suddenly leapt onto his back, ripping off the respirator and stabbing him in the shoulder several times, before the detective could throw him off, collect his respirator and tend to his injury.
Returning to the monster fight, Clayface reformed in the center of the room, he formed his hands into pendulum or axe-like blades and swung his arms out wide, trying to slice the blonde brawler in half. Thankfully, Yang was able to dodge them with relative ease and then a few more ice rounds saw him frozen solid. Yang then noticed Talia's sword still stuck in Clayface's back. "That could come in handy." She said as she leapt up the villain's body, grabbing and ripping the sword free from its prison and using it cut Clayface into countless smaller and still frozen pieces. "Sorry, Clayface. Your performance just... Fell apart." She said with a smirk, silently missing Weiss after she used the heiress' attempted joke.
Up on the second floor, Joker was rather displeased with the current outcome. "Oh, come on, Clayface! Give a better show than that! I'm running late for my spa treatment!" The clown declared, before pulling out a comically oversized button. "Things are getting a little stale now, wouldn't you say? Maybe we need a new location. Lucky me, I've got just the thing!" Joker declare, pressing the button, revealing the entire floor before them was rigged with explosives, which began to rapidly beep, before finally detonating, sending Yang and the puddle that was currently Clayface through several stories of sub-level terrain, before finally hitting the ground in the room where Batman and Yang had faced off against Ra's and his daughters, Yang's aura flickering, before fading.
And, of course, just behind the reforming mass of mud that was Yang's opponent, was the Lazarus Pit. Suddenly, several other globs of Clayface's body rained down and took the form of smaller Clayfaces that moved to attack Yang. So she simply picked up Talia's sword once again and went to work cutting them down as they came at her. As they were cut down, they simply moved back to the main puddle that was Clayface, which absorbed them while shooting out replacements. Suddenly, the real Clayface formed in the middle of the puddle and roared while shooting out a large mud ball at Yang. Thankfully, she was able to dive out of the way before launching more ice rounds into his body, which seemed to do far more damage this time around, causing him to sink back into the puddle.
This went on several more times before Clayface finally froze over once again. Yang looked at the sword in her hand and threw it down to the ground, where it stabbed into place. She then rushed in and let out one final battle cry as she delivered an uppercut that shattered the entirety of Clayface's upper body, the cure flying into the air, before coming down to the ground. Thankfully, before it could make contact with the floor, Yang safely snatched it out of the air and held it close.
End Music
Joker could then be seen standing atop the device that shot electricity into the Lazarus Pit and restarted Ra's heart during his dips in the pool. "Out of the way, blondie! You may be a Dragon, but I'm about to dive into that pit and rise out immortal like a phoenix!" Joker declared, preparing to drop down into the Pit.
Yang growled at this. "Yeah, but the thing about Phoenixes is before they can rise, they have to burn!" Yang declared, grabbing the sword once again and throwing it at the clown. However, he was not the target, but the control panel to the electric device he stood atop. This caused a short-circuit, which led to a series of small explosions, knocking the electric device from its hold, sending it swinging into the rest of Clayface's body, causing even further disruptions to the pit, causing it to explode, as well as cutting out the light source in the room.
Yang picked up the cure, holding it close as she looked around for any signs of an ally or enemy. After all, she was now in the territory of the League of Assassins. They may not take kindly to a second intrusion.
Of course, with his chance at immortality gone, Joker was now desperate. "Quick! The cure!" He cried out.
Yang growled as she looked around. "A little hard to give you the cure when I can't see where the hell you are!" She snapped. "Then again, maybe you should take your time and let the poison do its job. I'm getting pretty sick of having to help Batman chase you down every other week, after you slaughter dozens of people each time, but we just stuff you back in a cell and hope you magically turn sane." Yang said.
"What can I say?" Joker began.
"Yang, watch out!" Batman cried out.
"Think of it as a little running GAG!" Joker declared, grabbing Yang's arm, spinning her around and slashing at her neck. She pulled back enough so that the knife didn't cut anything major, but it still left a nasty gash just above her collar bone, causing her to fall to the ground and drop the cure, which shattered on the floor. "NO!" The clown cried out in horror, dropping to his knees and frantically licking up any bit of the liquid he could, but the attempt was in vain.
"Yang!" Batman cried out, hurrying over to her. Thinking quickly, he broke open one of his ice grenades and poured the freezing liquid onto the wound, sealing it with ice to stop the bleeding.
"Are you happy now?!" Joker demanded furiously, glaring at the two.
The two of them returned the glare, but Yang stepped forward. "No. Honestly, it's a shame. I'm gonna miss punching you in the face. Because the funny thing is, even after all this, even after you JUST tried to kill me, I'd still save you." Yang told him.
Joker chuckled at this as he laid on his back, propping himself up a bit to look at the two. "That actually is... pretty funny." He admitted, before choking as his lungs failed to draw in more breath and the clown finally laid still, never to rise again.
Yang sighed at this, turning to Batman. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I really would have saved him." She told him.
He simply put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault, Yang. I should have had him restrained long before you finished with Clayface. Even on the verge of death, Joker was as crafty and underhanded as ever." He said.
"Still, he's the one who set all this up. He knew if we had the cure, we'd give it to him, but he still fought us all the way to this point. Maybe he wanted to go out like this. One more last big show." She offered a new way of looking at things.
Batman said nothing, merely going over to his greatest enemy's deceased form, picking him up and carrying him away.
Outside of the theater, the Joker's crew were all waiting with bated breath to see who or what would emerge from the theater. Finally, their curiosity was answered when the doors finally opened and out stepped Batman, holding the fallen Joker in his arms, much to Harley's horror, with Yang coming out just behind him, with a hand gingerly placed over the frozen cut on her neck. Joker's crew quickly backed off and allowed the two to pass safely down the street as they looked on, struggling to process the Joker was finally dead.
Not far off, Catwoman landed on a nearby rooftop, observing the sorrowful scene before her as Neo floated down and landed beside her. "So, the Joker's really gone. It's the end of an era." She said.
(One less crazy freak for this city to deal with.) Neo typed out.
Meanwhile, outside the gates of Arkham, Commissioner Gordon FINALLY had the GCPD ready to storm the prison city and get the situation under control. "All units, coordinate your... what the-?" He questioned when the gates suddenly opened and the two vigilantes walked out, a visible line of red ice across the neck of the dragon-themed hero and a very dead Clown Prince of Crime laid out in the arms of the Dark Knight. "What the hell happened in there?" He asked as Batman set the Joker's body down on the hood of the nearest cruiser. "Batman? What happened?" Gordon asked, but the Caped Crusader kept going. Yang, however, stopped beside him and sat on the hood of his cruiser as medics began to break away the ice on her neck and tend to the wound. "Light Dragon. I need you to tell me. Please. What the hell happened in there?" He asked, trying to process everything he was seeing.
Yang sighed, looking between the body of the Joker, to the retreating form of Batman and finally back to the Commissioner. "Joker's had his last laugh." She explained, before starting from the beginning and telling the Commissioner the full story.
A/N: So, that's the end of the main story, but I'll also be doing Harley Quinn's Revenge before I start Arkham Knight, so hopefully you are all looking forward to that.
How do you guys think I did with the last fight? I kind of think I made Batman seem like a chump, taking so much of a beating from a DYING Joker, but at the same time, I think I showed Joker's craftiness well enough. I had to make it seem like Batman was put out of commission long enough for Joker to get away to be able to attack Yang. Otherwise, they probably would've just given Joker the cure and he would've been another problem in Arkham Knight... Well, more of a problem than he still technically is.
Also, sorry to keep asking things of you guys, but I am once again issuing the challenge to make more RWBY X Arkham crossovers. You guys try and put a member of the RWBY cast through the insanity of the asylum and (hopefully) beyond. Maybe Penny could have another chance after we lost her AGAIN (Why, RoosterTeeth!?), or perhaps one of the boys, like Jaune or Ren, since the people who started those stories either deleted or abandoned them. Sun is also another good option: a martial artist who has one of the few weapons Batman would allow them to use on the inmates. Or maybe even one of the adults, like Qrow or Winter could join Batman. I leave the decision up to you!
[1] For anyone wondering why Yang tackled Talia and not Batman, A: Batman was already aware of the danger as well and B: he's still wearing a bullet-resistant suit. She's aware Batman could take a few bullets, even without aura. Talia, not so much, plus she knows what Talia means to Batman, so she prioritized her.
[2] I don't know why, but as I was typing this, every time I went to type "Clayface" my hands kept wanting to type "Two-Face".