Chapter Twenty-Two
Reacher
Our ride towards the station was made in silence. Observed silence, but silence nonetheless. Not that the silence bothered me, but the aura of his intimidation scared the life out of me. As Batman or Bruce Wayne I didn't appreciate his somber quietness, but I'd learned to cope these last few days. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to ease the stress out of my body. I closed my eyes and envisioned that monstrous beast Azana bearing her fangs at me. My eyes popped wide open and I shivered. He must've noticed, because he commented on that.
"You okay?"
I replied. "Mhm. I guess," I diverted my eyes to the small window-like slit in the Tumbler. He drove on, pushing the speed limit higher and higher, dodging in and out of alleyways and into shadows. I bit my lower lip. "I suppose I should thank you."
He stared straight ahead. "What for?"
"Coming back for me."
Batman looked at me this time. "And what made you think I wouldn't?"
The question caught me off guard, but I countered impressively fast. "Well, it's just, you could've left and went after Crane," I looked away, and then situated the mask over my eyes properly. "or figured I could handle it myself. Think about it," I paused, "you didn't have to come and get me."
He stopped the Tumbler and threw it into park. I glanced out the window and looked for a street sign, but spotted the sign pointing up a flight of cement steps towards the train platform. I unbuckled the belt around my shoulders and flipped my hair out of the way, then pressed the familiar buttons on the dash to open the compartment. "I'm just glad you did." I added, grabbing a few Shurikens and stuffing them into my belt. "Who knows what Ra's would've done with me."
I did my best to try and not look at him, but it didn't exactly work. My eyes couldn't really stay off of Batman more than a few microseconds, so I found myself continually staring at his dark mask, hiding the features of his face which I'd dreamt of for so long. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and closed the compartment. I looked up at the entry hatch and was about to release it when he grabbed my wrist and looked at me fiercely. Fear struck my heart for a moment but then I searched his eyes and saw only Bruce Wayne and was lost.
"Listen to me," he said deeply, "I want you to know something, Marianne. Wherever you are, I will not be far behind you. You…" he paused for a moment, my heart hammering loudly in my chest, "…are the only thing I have. The closest thing to family." He looked me dead in the face. "And I will not lose my family again."
I countered. "Rachel—"
He seized my wrist even tighter. "Rachel isn't important right now. You are what is important, to me, Marty. I lost you once—" he dropped my wrist and opened the hatch. "And I can't afford to lose you again. Understand?"
I nodded.
He leapt up through the hatch and was gone, and I followed suit. Sweat had formed on my palms and goose-flesh dotted my entire body. I could've sworn I was a burning fire-ball of embarrassment right now, but I pushed that from my mind. Once on the ground, he locked the vehicle down and handed me a small transmitter.
"Use this to take down the vaporizer. It had a magnetic pulse emitter inside of it. Just enter the last four digits of your social and it will lock the vaporizer down. I'm going after Ra's." I accepted the transmitter and he turned on his heel, cape billowing out behind him. I was at a loss for words, in my mind at least, until my mouth blurted out the words I thought had been locked safely in the vault of my heart.
"I love you, Bruce Wayne." My eyes widened and I bit my lower lip. My face exploded with redness and heat rushed through my veins, and I stood frozen, my eyes locked on his form. He stopped and half-way glanced over his shoulder.
I swallowed the desert that had replaced my mouth and shook my head, awestruck at myself for my unguarded vocabulary. Slipping the transmitter under the collar of my uniform, I took off for the cement staircase. Tears burned at the corner of my eyes but I choked them back, clapping my hand over my mouth to stifle my sob.
"Marianne-wait!" Bruce Wayne broke through the shadow of Batman, calling after me. I shook my head and swung over the railing of the staircase and took them two at a time. Stopping at the platform, I looked right and left before shooting straight for a car and slipping onto it. I disappeared in the darkness of the passenger car and took off for the last car. I stopped only briefly to catch my breath and glance out the small window to see him stop, look both ways and head towards the engineer's station.
He watched her board the shadows of one of the passenger cars, then looked down from his perch to see her pursuer follow hastily up the steps, taking them gracefully three at a time. A smile painted onto his lips as the words echoed through-out his mind. So, he finally understood what she was feeling, after all these years, and knew what it felt like to be left-behind. He realized the sweetness of adoration and the sting of reality.
Once the Bat headed in the other direction, he flipped off his perch and graced the cement with ease. He sauntered towards the car she'd scurried onto like a frightened mouse and slicked back his hair with his hand. He had found the League someone worthy to bear his blood, someone who somewhat compared to the sweet angel he'd left beneath the earth. She would do well with him; much training was required of her, but she would do well for him.
He stepped onto the car and faced the darkness, then mocked it by entering through it with ease. At the end of the car he kicked open the door and found her, attention focused on the vaporizer, scrambling wildly to input a security code on a transmitter.
"We meet again, my sweet."
I'd located the vaporizer with no problems asked—it was in the middle of the room, right beside seat 89, locked and ready to go. It had taken only a few moments to locate the programming system, and I'd locked the emitter on it with a firm slap. Only when I was about to enter the last digits of my social number did the door swing open and disturb my peace.
"We meet again, my sweet."
Ra's smirked at me daringly and entered the room, hands clasped behind him, waltzing around the vaporizer. His aura was haughty and suffocating, and my stomach turned over in my abdomen, upper quadrants churning with fireballs. I fell back onto my bottom and looked up at him.
He reached to his belt and pulled out a talkie. Clicking the button he spoke into it, not taking his dark eyes from me. "Full-speed ahead, Crusaad. No manifestations?"
"Negative." The heavily accented voice clicked back in reply. I narrowed my eyes at him and lunged for the receiver, determined to finish this job, determined to end this madness. In an instant he grabbed my wrist just as I shot by him, jerking me back. He flung me to the floor where my head cracked soundly against the wood, and I shrieked. He spoke into the talkie again, looking to me and then to the emitter.
"Glorious. Proceed as planned." He replaced the talkie to his belt and sauntered over to me, then knelt beside my head and touched my jawline with his fingers, stroking my tenderly. I jerked my head away from him, scowling, the throbbing in my head increasing into my eye sockets. He gave me a charming half smile and took my hand. "Do not fear. I will not harm you. Gotham cannot harm you any longer."
The train whistled, the brakes released and we lurched forward into a crawl.
A sarcastic chuckle erupted from my throat unexpectedly. "Wanna bet?" I grabbed his arm, pulled down and brought my knees up. As he tumbled over me I slammed my kneecaps into his abdomen and pushed him over my head. Ra's grunted, collided with the seats and I pushed myself up off the floor, whipping around to face him.
He blinked and shook his head to clear the mottle running rampidly through his brain and sprung from the top of one of the seats back into the main aisle. He rubbed his neck and chuckled at me, hand on the hilt of the samurai sword swinging at his side. I glanced at it, determined to remain unafraid, and he smiled at me.
"You cannot win, my love. The League prepares even in the darkest of times. Even the desperation for being desired is not strong enough to overcome it. I am the League."
I shook my head at him, my voice barely a whisper as I choked out the words. "It is not the desperation of being desired that fuels me," he poised himself to counter my statement. "it is the passion of seeing Gotham overcome the darkness that has overtaken us."
He glared at me. "Precisely why I am here!" he shouted.
"We will overcome you," I challenged him, standing tall at my normal height, determined to win this battle of voice. "There is a time and a season for everything, Ra's," I said calmly. "And your season has ended. Gotham can rise out of this darkness, it can shine again. Burning away the filth and corruption is easy," I added, "Igniting the fire is the challenge."
His anger rolled into a boil, and his nostrils flared with intense attempts to remain calm. Reaching for his sword he drew it with one hand focused it in front of him, then bent his head and shook it slightly. Then, he looked up at me with rageful eyes and growled evilly at me from the depths of his vocal chords. "Then you will burn with them!" He stepped forward, swung the sword to the left and then whirled around to bring it back towards me.
I dropped a shoulder backwards then pivoted with my right foot and brought my other around in a round-house. It barely missed his temple, for he ducked and popped back up. I checked my flank and then dodged his other attack by dropping to the floor. Catching myself with my wrists I shifted my weight around and raised a leg to kick his wrist.
I connected with it and he hollered, dropped the sword but then spun around to catch it with his other. He dived to attack me, but I pushed myself up and threw myself into a backflip. Now atop the vaporizer, I used the advantage of his back turned towards me by slamming my fist into his shoulders. He growled, dropped to his knees but impressively somersaulted back up to face me.
Bowless and without arrows I was forced to challenge him hand to hand. The train beneath us rapidly chugged along now, full speed and bulleting through Gotham's array of tracks without any barricades to stop it. I desperately longed for Batman to at my side, to overcome this madman, but I was alone. My heart frantically prayed for Divine intervention, but as of yet nothing happened.
He stood there, still, watching me with vengeful, disappointed eyes. In that moment of connecting with the windows of his soul I saw a hurt and young man within him, desperate to be released, to be one with his beloved again. Ra's al Ghul had lost someone near and dear to his heart, who took along all passion for life and freedom with her departure. I pitied him for a brief instant, loss in compassion, when he used it against me sprang into another attack.
This time he hopped up onto the vaporizer with me and swung the sword in front of me. I ducked and dodged, the tip waving in my face like a taunting time-bomb waiting to go off. I dropped a shoulder but misjudged my position and went tumbling off the machine when his hand lunged for me. Within seconds his strong gloved grip had me around the throat, fire erupted within my lungs and taking captive my intake of oxygen. Instinctively my hands clawed at his as he began to lift me up to stare up at me.
"Your weakness is in your eyes, doctor," he chortled at me darkly, "compassion is emitted only when we allow it pass through the windows of our soul. And compassion will be what kills you."
I squeezed my eyes closed and suddenly something whizzed by my ear. My eyes, which had started to blur, popped open and Ra's' body twitched. Instantly his grip weakened and I raised my legs to let the heel of my boot collide with his collarbone. He did not foresee this and screamed, releasing his iron grip and I dropped to the floor. I caught myself, pushing my palms against the floor and flinging myself into the air to land securely on my feet, away from him.
We both gave our attention to the side of the car, where the protruding silver bat-shaped throwing weapon stuck out haphazardly. Ra's glared and my heart rejoiced briefly, when I looked over my shoulder in a quick glance. Batman was there, perched in the window of the train-car, holding on tightly while his cape whipped wildly in the wind as the train continued on full-force. Ra's swore and gripped the sword again and Batman came crashing through the window and appeared beside me, popping up from a roll-in entry. On his back behind his cape I spotted a familiar strap round across his shoulders.
"Ah, so the bat joins us again," Ra's rumbled, "how wonderful to see you, Bruce. You will enjoy fighting for your city's survival." He chuckled and stared straight at Batman, a smirk evident on his face. "And your efforts will be unfruitful. You will lose both your city, your woman, and your life."
"Not if I can help it." Batman growled back. With that, he released a gunpowder caplet and the room exploded with the chalky substance. Ra's hollered a battle-cry, and I felt the vibrations against the wooden floor of the car as he landed off the vaporizer. A hand grabbed my and yanked me out of the smoke, my eyes watering. Batman's black figure pressed me close to him and the quiver with my bows and arrows pressed into my chest armor. As I slung it over my shoulder, he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me towards him. His lips tickled my ear as he whispered.
"Out the window. Go." He pressed the equipment into my hand. As my fingers wrapped around it I realized it was a grapnel gun. "Be fast and be quiet."
I shook my head. "No. Not without you-"
"Cowardice is something you were always susceptible to!" Ra's screamed. He came bursting forth from the cloud of chalky smoke, and Batman pushed me out of the way. I fell to the floor with a thunk and Ra's fist collided with Batman's jaw. He fell back into the wall and I balanced myself on my wrists and swung my legs around. Ra's' feet came out from beneath him and he hit the floor. I attacked him and pinned his hands to the floor with my knees. I slammed my knuckles square into his face and sneered at him.
"A fighter's spirit is contained and maintained," Ra's chuckled. "And you have lost both."
"I'm going to kill you!" I hissed at him. Without warning his feet came sailing up from behind me and his heel crashed down into my shoulders. With this I screamed and tumbled off of him, but righting myself and popping up into a crouching position. Reaching for one of my throwing arrows, I whipped it towards him where it missed his head by a few inches.
Batman came up from behind him and grabbed his neck with his arms, but he pulled Batman's body up over his head and crumpled over in half. Batman came flying towards me, but I had no time to counteract and he crashed right into me. All the air soared from my lungs and we collided with the wall. I moaned and slid down the wall, blackness dotting my vision. My head began to throb and tangy blood erupted onto my taste-buds.
Batman got up and struggled to position himself to counteract Ra's next attack. He stood, a hand to his side, and dodged Ra's throws. He ducked, dropped a shoulder and then attacked Ra's abdomen by plowing into him and knocking them both to the ground. I got up, put a hand to my pounding head, and struggled towards the vaporizer. As I leaned against it and knelt before the emitter, there was a hissing noise and then a small explosion.
I was knocked away from the machine, into a row of seats, my shoulders popping and my back protested. I screamed, rolled onto my stomach and struggled to push myself up. To my surprise, my wrist would not hold my weight—as a matter of fact; it wasn't working properly at all. I struggled to my feet as I heard a holler and then looked over my shoulder. Ra's was pushed against the wall, Batman's arm shoved tightly against his neck.
"The emitter, Reacher! NOW!" he barked hastily. I lunged for the machine but found green-neon numbers counting down beside my box of choice. I stared at it, confused, and shouted back to him as he struggled to keep Ra's contained.
"It's a timer!" I exclaimed. "We have five seconds!" I hollered. Tucking my hair behind my ear, I slammed the number pad with my thumb and listened to the clicks of the entry. It beeped back and me and produced a red text in neon. System deactivated.
I whirled around on my knees to give Batman the good news. My eyes widened as his body came flying across the train-car and colliding with the other wall across the room. I screamed as he failed to get up, and Ra's came stalking to me. Frantic, I grabbed the emitter and ripped it from the vaporizer. Throwing it down, I got up and slammed the heel of my foot into it and then grabbed an arrow. I faced the tip towards the main controls. Ra's eyes widened and he lunged for me.
"NO!" he shrieked. I slammed the arrow into the main controls and released it, dodging Ra's lunge. He went crashing into the vaporizer. Within seconds his body began to convulse, as the machine began to crackle and hiss and spark beneath him. His eyes widened, his skin paled and his joints locked. The echoing of his voice was captured by the electricity coursing through his body.
The machine shut down, darkened, and Ra's body dropped to the ground. His eyes were plastered open, his hair stick-straight out from his head and his body coarse. I swallowed and stepped back from his lifeless body, shocked at the play of events. A hand clapped onto my shoulder and pulled me back. I screamed and whirled around.
"Reacher!" Batman growled, "Let's get out of here."
I nodded. "Good idea." We both ran towards the door and I pulled it open. The wind whipped into our faces, tossing my hair around my face. The world was a hectic blur as the high speed of the train rocketed forward. Batman stumbled into my and I gripped the support rail for stability with my good hand. I helped him up and was about to fire the grapnel when a fire-hot explosion sent us both flying from the train-car.
The train hissed and creaked, and faded out of sight with Ra's body as Batman and I fell through the air. My vocal chords were frozen and no scream erupted from my lungs. My thoughts were on the splattered mass of whatever was left of my body sprawled out across the earth as the city around me began to swallow my existence. I closed my eyes and welcomed this free-fall, awaiting the life to be sucked out of my lungs when an arm wrapped around my waist, pulled me through the air and began to soar with control through the sky, fifty feet above the ground. My eyes opened and I looked to Batman.
"And you thought I was going to let us die." He chuckled deeply.
"I was entertaining the idea." I teased back, smiling.
He released the line and we soared onto the rooftop of a building. We hit the ground rather hard, but that was okay. My feet gave out beneath me and my shoulder hit the concrete, sending my body tumbling across the rooftop. I noticed that Batman was intertwined with my body liked a mixed chemical, unable to separate with me. The edge of his cape caught my cheek, tearing a small scrape across it, and the weight of his body suppressed my chest.
We stopped abruptly, his body beneath mine. I lay horizontally across his abdomen, the world spinning in my vision, my stomach a rolling ball of soup. I shook my head slightly and pushed myself up off of him, with one wrist pulled into my body. I moaned when a hand cupped my cheek and turned my face to the side.
"You okay?" he rasped.
I nodded. "I think my wrist is broken," I whispered. "But otherwise I'm good. You?"
He groaned and pushed himself up with his elbows. "I'm good. What was that?"
"I dunno," I seated myself next to him on the rooftop and began to slowly take the glove off my broken wrist. The sight of the blue, purple and black skin frightened me slightly, but I nodded slightly and pressed the side of my wrist to my chest.
"It was an explosion," he mused, standing and approaching the ledge of building. "The track. It's missing!" he declared. "Someone blew the rest of the track!"
"And the train?" I asked quietly, pain throbbing throughout my entire body. I thought of Ra's' lifeless body, engulfed in flames on the asphalt beneath the track. The smell of gunpowder, diesel fuel and melting metal perfumed the air and stung my senses. I got up and approached Batman to his left.
"Gone." He whispered. I put my good hand on his shoulder. "Along with the rest of Gotham's problems." He added.
He looked at me and turned to face me, then tossed me a half smile. "It all happened…so fast. It's over then?"
Batman looked down and wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me toward him. With his other hand he caressed my cheek and tamed my frazzled curls protruding from every direction from my scalp. My heart jumped and heat flared through my stomach and up my neck. Suddenly my mouth felt very dry.
"It's over." He lulled.
I shook my head and his hand fell from my face. "No, it isn't. Ular is still out there and all the inmates need to be accounted for. There's much to do yet." I looked to the smoldering remains of what was left of the train and shook my head, letting my eyes fall from the wreckage. "Gotham isn't free yet."
"Gotham has redemption," he countered, "it has redemption—for now. That is why we are here. For such a time with this." I looked over my shoulder and spotted the blatant outline of Bruce Wayne's face, exposed to the world. I turned fully to face him and he put his hands on my shoulders, gloves gone and skin exposed. A shudder ran up my spine and I blinked. "Gotham will always need saving. And we are the saviors which it needs."
I looked him in the eye and took my good hand, raising it to my face and removing the mask shadowing my eyes. I tossed it aside and tilted my head to the side, forcing tears from my face. "If being Gotham's redemption means losing you," I choked back my sob, "then I can't do it."
"Who said anything about losing me?" he chided, "Marty—you can't lose me. I'm here. Now. And that's not going to change. Whether you like it or not I am Batman, and Batman will be here as long as I'm alive. Nothing is going to change that."
"But I love you!" I exclaimed, my contained sob bursting forth from my lungs like a rapid animal. "And if loving you means offering you to the filth of Gotham-"
"-don't offer me then!" he shouted back at me, "Let me do this. Trust me. Let me earn this, Marty. Please."
I shook my head. "No. You have to say it. You have to tell me. Nothing you can do will ever earn my love, Bruce." I shook my curls and stared at him through blurry tears. "I haven't been able to stop loving you since we were kids."
He was quiet a moment. His eyes betrayed him, though, and I couldn't help but wonder if he would sacrifice Batman for just a brief moment and tell me that he loved me. If he didn't, then this was completely over. I swallowed thickly and let him collect his thoughts.
"And what do you want me to say?" he asked, rhetorically. "That Ra's is right? That I've lost everything that means anything to me?" his eyes frantically scanned mine, but I stood fast and looked down. "I love you, Marianne. I can't help but love you. Just when I thought I'd finally gotten away from you, Rachel, my parents' death-you came running back into my life like a whirlwind. There was Reacher playing with my emotions, and then she became you. Everything spiraled out of control."
I stepped by him. "I don't believe you." I picked up my mask and replaced it back onto my face. "A long time ago I thought that maybe there was a chance of you loving me, but, I'm not so sure now."
I pressed my wrist back into my chest and stepped up onto the ledge. I turned to face him and looked down to his naked face. "I'm just not sure anymore."
He rushed towards me, grabbed my good wrist and yanked me back down to him. "Why aren't you sure? I just told you I loved you. What more do you need, Marianne? What more do I have to do?" his voice broke, just slightly, and weakness protruded through his persona. My heart cracked, my throat constricted and
I smiled weakly. "Be consistent."
"Consistency?" he looked confused. "And what's 'being consistent' to you?"
I pushed him away and I laughed shakily at his comment. "What's consistency to any woman, Bruce? What was consistency to your mother? Marriage. A family. A career. That is consistency! Not running around masked vigilante's playing on each other's emotions!"
"Playing on each other's emotions? Does it look like I'm playing with you, Marianne!?" Tears flowed continuously from his eyes and down his face, something I had not seen from Bruce in a long time. I saw the hurt in his eyes, the desperation. For a moment I thought I saw my own emotions flash across his eyes. "Does it!?"
"I don't know!" I sobbed freely now, pushing him on his chest even harder with one hand. "I don't know, are you!? Are you playing with me? When I'm boring to you are you going to move on to the next item!? You tell me if you're playing with my emotions, Bruce! You have to figure it out yourself! You have to show me!"
He quieted and then nodded. "Fine. I'll show you a thousand times if I have to." He stepped briskly towards me, wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into the outline of his body. My heart panicked into a brass drum, pounding against my ribcage. My stomach fluttered like a mad-rabbit. I could hardly think straight. "I want to show you forever, Marty. I want to show you that I love you for the rest of my life." My brows rose and my eyes teared over. "Is that consistent enough for you?"
I chortled. "What exactly are you saying?" I whispered.
"I'm saying I want to marry you." He said seriously. "And I'm as serious as I can be."
"Marry me? Since when?" I snorted. "Since when does Bruce Wayne decide to get married? You realize marriage is for life, right?" I made my point by crossing my good arm over my broken wrist. "You can't abandon me again. If you do I'll never take you back."
"That a promise?" he chuckled, touching his forehead to mine and touching my cheek with his hand. I looked down and nodded, allowing him to caress my cheek softly and play with my wildly bouncing curls.
"That's a promise."
End of Part One…
