Moments before Protocol 10 was commenced.
Max Payne was giving some of the political prisoners that stayed there, rations of food that was taken from the supply drop outside church. He looked over to see the Mayor Quincy Sharp sitting all alone with a guilt ridden face by the confession. Couldn't have happened to a much nicer guy. He got a warming welcome from some of his old Arkham employees that sent distain looks when he was brought in by one of Batgirl's associates. Apparently he had a deal with the devil that was the Warden of Arkham City to get him the Mayor's office by and once he served his purpose, he was arrested and sent.
When someone banged on the gateway. heading over, he opened the gate to see Mona standing before him.
"Max! You're here. Good."
"Mona! What's going on?" Max asked.
"You need to get out of here. Strange is about to kill everyone in this place!" Mona told him.
The warning was too little, too late as the building shook from the impact of a missile strike caused by Strange himself. Max instinctively grabbed her shielding her from a piece of debris falling from the tower. "What the hell?"
"It's starting." Mona whispered.
XXXX
Park Row
Barbara Gordon: It was a fucking massacre. I had to stop Strange from turning Arkham City into Afghanistan 2.0. Maybe I still had a chance to correct the mess our wonderful mayor Sharp had created when he collaborated with the 'Savior of Gotham' although that would be wishful thinking on my part.
Seeing the destruction of Arkham City, Batgirl pressed her ear communicator and contacted her broker. She knew what it had to be done and fortunately she didn't have personal attachment to Ra's daughter like Bruce or her brother had. Talia's safe for now. But not for long.
"Prophet, Strange has started Protocol 10 and is launching missile strikes from Wonder Tower." Batgirl reported. "I'm going after Strange and stop his attack."
Prophet was confused by the sudden change of goal. "What do you mean? Weren't you going to get the cure from Joker?" He inquired.
Batgirl sighed as she partially told him what had occurred in the Mill. "I did and thankfully I'm back at full strength but there's been complications. Talia had been taken hostage by Joker."
"What?! How?!"
Batgirl didn't have the patience to go full detail. "Not the time. Have you got a lock on her signal?"
"Yeah I do. But shouldn't we try to save her first?!" Prophet exclaimed.
As much she wanted to, Stopping Strange from committing mass murder on a large scale was the main priority. "Not when Strange is about to kill everyone else here. I don't like this anymore than you do, Shawn. But If I don't stop him, there won't be a Gotham by dawn. I think deep down you know that I'm right. Just don't lose Talia's signal."
"The Wonder Tower is under lockdown and I can't get in unless I get the codes from the master control program. One of the Choppers must have it. " Batgirl thought to herself, making a plan in her head.
Seeing the point she made, Prophet sighed in resignation. "Got it. What about Bruce and Jericho?"
"Don't tell them." Batgirl said and she added when Prophet was about to argue. "Yet. I stop Strange and then I go after Talia. She's in way over her head on this. She doesn't know the Joker like we do."
She looked up to see and heard a commercial air plane flying over the choppers and herself.
Barbara Gordon: Coming to Gotham Airport. Get right on to Newark, pal. Don't look back.
She grappled up to the skid of the first chopper and scanned the built in program near the tail rotor. No Codes. She jumped off the skid and went to the second chopper. Same result. Third. All the while they were destroying everything in their path.
She hit the lucky jackpot when she used her detective cowl to find the master program on the fifth helicopter. She removed a lid underneath the chopper's set before using her remote device to download the entry codes from the head program.
"Prophet, I got the codes. I'm heading to Wonder Tower." Batgirl informed him as she gilded of the skid and headed to the main entrance. "The codes should let me enter the guard room through the main gate."
Barbara Gordon: Strange was about to come face to face with my own brand of justice.
XXXX
Wonder Tower
Guard Room.
A few selected political prisoners were gathered by some of the tyger Guards that were ordered to execute them on sight when Batgirl appeared behind two Guards smashing their heads together by having to walk through the front door. She swiftly disarmed the third and final guard of the taser in his hand before thrusting it into the side of neck, incapacitating him into unconsciousness. The political Prisoners were in awe of her rescue.
"Wow."
The large screen behind them went online and there was Hugo Strange from the monitor room of the Wonder Tower. "Why continue the pointless effort of stopping me, Batgirl when you know that you have already lost?" He goaded like the madman that he already was. "You are only delaying the inevitable. I will burn the old Gotham into ashes and rebuild it in my master's image. Then we will rule over this world by bringing hellfire to all those animals."
Seeing that he's already gone mad from the power he had, Batgirl lifted a lid from sewer entrance and went into it, taking a shortcut to the elevator. During the shortcut, she was amazed by how many men that were guarding elevator. She knew that she didn't have the time or energy to take them out so she snuck past them expertly. She hacked the panel to get inside and take herself up to the upper floor before his men had. Strange's arrogant voice spoke through the speakers in the elevators with an eerily message.
"When I have eliminated the criminal scum of Gotham, Ms. Gordon, I will pay a visit to your dear father and drag him through streets of Gotham, showing him your greatest failure. And then when it is done, I will have you bow down before me in defeat. Only then shall I grant you death's eternal sleep."
"Charming." Batgirl muttered with distaste, having that image planted in her head, thanks to Strange. It only served as a motivation for the Flamed Knight to stop him at all costs. She arrived at the Observation deck where a small unit of guards were waiting for her to shoot on sight by the order from the Warden. When the door opened, they opened fire only to find the elevator empty. they entered unaware that Batgirl had been on a roof of the elevator and snuck past them before using the railing to get to the right side of the tower. She was getting close.
"Batgirl. I'm getting a lot of reports of dead inmates from all areas of Arkham City. It's getting worse." Prophet said. "How did Strange even pull this off?"
"Strange is working with someone. I'll find out the moment I stop Protocol 10." Batgirl said, taking a moment to recuperate before resuming her way to the top.
Barbara Gordon: The codes had led me to the heart of his operations. Strange's men were everywhere. So that meant he was close. If I had been a little smarter I would have let Bruce take point but I'd never been that type of girl that punches her way in. I've always been the bold, taking more subtle approach kind. That's my strong suit. The further I got in, the more men I saw. Strange wasn't running a small security detail, he was commanding an infantry. They were a lot more equipped than the swat team from Loeb's time. The whole thing screamed suicide but I didn't give a damn, if I'd were to be go down tonight, I'll do it by being a real pain in the ass.
XXXX
The Monitor Room.
To say that Hugo Strange was displeased of the stubborn display shown by Batgirl as she entered the control room after inside would be putting it mildly. Not only did she bypass the heavily encrypted security but also went past his men undetected. Months of training his men to beat the so called heroes and this is end result?! How disappointing.
"You have not won. You will not win. I am Hugo Strange and I am Gotham's chosen savior." Hugo proclaimed as he came face to face with Batgirl. This is the moment she's been waiting for the second she was brought in earlier this evening. She head butted him before spin kicking him in the stomach, sending him flying across the control room. She walked up to one of data hubs and pressed a button that allowed Prophet to get access to the system.
"Prophet, Shut down the Protocol!" Batgirl commanded.
Prophet was more than happy to oblige. "With pleasure, Boss Lady!"
"No! You have ruined everything." Hugo Strange spat hatefully.
Batgirl looked at him in disbelief. Where did he get the gall to say that to her? Furious, she picked her up by the coat and dragged him against the window, forcing him to see the destruction that he caused. "Ruined?! DO you have any idea what you have done?!" She bellowed.
"It is quite glorious, isn't it?" Strange leered, taking sadistic pleasure in it. Disgusted by his behavior, she threw him away like a bad habit. She looked at her left to see that Protocol 10 had been decommissioned. Gotham was saved.
"You're through, Strange. You have lost." Batgirl declared.
Hugo let out a demented chuckle standing up to his two feet.. "No, I haven't. You may have caused a temporarily set back but be warned, Batgirl. This is only the beginning. I will command an army that is beyond your imagination very soon. I will achieve something that you and Batman have failed. The world will be forever in debt to Hugo... Strange?!"
By the end of his monologue, He was pierced from behind by a sword through his chest and to Batgirl's shock, it was no other than Ra's Al Ghul. He drew out his sword from his body and wiped the blood off the blade.
"You have outlived your usefulness in this, Professor Strange." Ra's sneered. He was disappointed. He'd hoped that that the Warden would reach his goal but he had failed.
Snapping out of her stupor, Batgirl rushed to his aid. "Why? I did what you asked me to do." Hugo gasped, looking at him in question.
"Yes. And you have shown me that the Detective's disciples are your betters." Ra's said bluntly.
In a dawning moment of realization, the Flamed Knight figured out who was Strange's secret partner and Sharp's funder to his mayoral campaign. "You're his puppeteer, Ra's." Batgirl snarled venomously. "Why?"
"You promised me that I would replace you...That I shared your vision." Strange recalled, he was losing blood by the minute. He didn't have much time left.
"And you failed so inadequately of achieving it." Ra's retorted. "Once you came to me with both Batman and Batgirl's true identities as well as my sons whereabouts, I gave you an opportunity to prove your worth, providing you with limitless resources to reach your objective. You were close but you have failed me like all the others!" He shook his head in disgust.
"Damnit, Ra's! He needs medical attention or he'll die. Now!" Batgirl demanded firmly. All she got from the Demon's Head was a dismissive shrug.
"He is dead to me either way, Apprentice. Do what you want with him. I could not care. Besides, It is a wonderful day to rejoice."
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Has he gone insane?! "Is that what you think?! People are dying!" She inquired incredulous.
"Why do you worry about such pitiful scums?" Ra's snapped looking out of the window to relish. "The world will not miss them. You may have bested Strange but this is the beginning Join me. We will cleanse this planet off the vermin that is destroying it from the inside and a utopia will be finalized."
In that moment, she got an indefinite answer to her own question. "No. That's where you're wrong, Ra's." Batgirl said, putting her foot down. "I will not become the every thing you have turned into: a monster and make no mistake, I will stop you."
Ra's threw his head while letting out a sinister laughter. Foolish woman. "You are welcome to try."
But then something unexpected happened as a dying Strange made a final request. "Computer... Enact... Protocol 11." He ordered as he was begging to fade out of existence.
"What?!" Ra's hissed in alarm.
"Passcode: Wayne." And with that, Hugo Strange was no more. A countdown started showing Batgirl what he'd done with his last act. He's just initialized a self destruct fail safe and the monitor room was about to explode.
Ditching Strange, she got up and charged at an angry Ra's Al Ghul with a cry, rugby tackling him through the window as Wonder Tower blew up, taking Strange's unmoving body with it. The blast radius sent them several feet away as they found themselves free falling. Batgirl was able to correct himself by spreading her cape wide and slowed down for a safe landing. Ra's though wasn't as lucky as he met his end by the sharp end of the emblem of the gateway.
Batgirl flinched at seeing his body. Hopefully he'll stay dead this time.
"Barbara! What the hell just happened? The Tower just exploded." Prophet demanded.
Batgirl looked up to see the top of the tower in flames. "Really? What gave you that idea?"
Prophet let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God. You're still alive."
"Ra's Al Ghul was the master mind behind Hugo Strange." Batgirl revealed. "In fact, the whole place was his little playground."
"Jesus Christ." Prophet breathed out in shock. "Where is he now?"
"Let's just say that he's taken a permanent dirt nap." Batgirl quipped.
"And hopefully he'll stay that away."
Batgirl turned to see Jericho and Batman merging from the shadows. They both had a look that Batgirl knew all too well. The Why didn't you tell us that Talia was taken by the Joker before you stopped Strange look.
Batgirl sighed in exhaustion. She almost died in that tower and they were gonna be harsh on her? "Not. One. word." She warned. "Or I might say something that I'm sure that I'll regret later, ok? Let's find Talia."
Barbara Gordon: With Strange gone and Ra's Al Ghul out of the picture, I had one more card to play.
XXXX
Monarch Theatre.
The three heroes were able to find the tracking device which was inside the abandoned Monarch Theatre at Park Row. There they saw the Joker stood on stage with Talia on her knees and had hand gun aimed at her head with her personal sword still in his hand.
"Hurry up, boys and girl." Joker said jovially. "The show is about to start."
"Let her go, Joker! It doesn't have to end like this." Batman snarled. Jericho looked at him incredulously as if he drank gasoline.
"I don't think you're in a position to negotiate, Bats." Joker snapped. "Now give me the cure."
The heros were bewildered by the demand. Didn't he get it already? Talia took advantage of the confusion as she smacked the gun out of his hand and moved around him smoothly. She then took her sword back from his hand and held it to his back.
"Talia, don't!"
Ignoring them, she put the sword through his chest, seemingly killing the clown for good. "There. Problem solved." She said unfazed as she walked up to them. Batman wasn't happy.
"You didn't have to...,"
"Why?" She asked cutting her beloved off. "You three would never do it, you left me no choice."
"There's always a choice."
"Exactly, and that's doesn't include getting kidnapped by an assclown." Jericho agreed.
"I had to save your beloved, brother." Talia argued.
While the three were debating the classic question of taking a life to save others, Batgirl noticed something strange. there were no blood for a blade through his chest, normally there was which got her thinking about her capture earlier in the Steel Mill. She recalled two small but important details. the mirror reflection at the funhouse and his words as the healthy Joker smothered her with a chlorophyll cloth echoed in her head inside the Manager's office.
"Can't believe you fell for the old fake Joker gag, Batgirl!"
Realizing that she had been duped, She turned her head quick to try warn Jericho's sister. "Talia!" Batgirl shouted, But it was too late. Talia gasped as she was suddenly shot in her back and fell into Batman's arms while Jericho rushed frantically to her side.
"I am so sorry, beloved. I didn't know." She whispered her last words, a final breath escaped her mouth while the real Joker laughed in sick amusement from the rafters with a gun in his hand. He was looking more sick than ever in both body and mind.
"My dear sister." Jericho whispered as a silent tear escaped my eye.
"That was spectacular. Marvelous!" Joker clapped his hands in delight before coughing into his hands. "Encore!"
"You tricked us." Batgirl muttered to herself. Joker shrugged, not confirming nor denying her allegations. "Why?"
"Well, Let just say that when you are at Death's door, it's important to keep up appearances." He coughed once more, his chest felt like it was contrived. "Now if you may be so kind and give. Me. The. Cure". He said as he aimed his gun at them threateningly.
Batgirl was at her wits end and Joker picked the worst time to give out that demand. After everything she went through tonight. "No." Batgirl declined coldly, startling him greatly. "If you want it, you're gonna have to take it from my cold. Dead. Hands."
Joker sneered menacingly not pleased by the answer. "That can be arranged."
Then the fake Joker began his transformation as he bulged up into a 8 ft tall mud monster, towering easily over the three Gotham Knights. It was Basil Karlo aka Clayface who had been missing for 8 months since his escape from Stryker's Island.
"And now, for one night only. I present to you: Clayface!" Joker presented his impersonator, surprising the heroes.
"This isn't your usual gig, Karlo." Batgirl mused. "Why join up with the Joker?"
"It's quite simple. I get the role of a lifetime!" Clayface roared as the heroes avoided the big rock fist heading their way. Batgirl picked up the sword that Ariel handed it to her as a thank you gift for freeing her from the Order's machinations from her belt and wielded it.
"As the sun to the earth or the stars to the sky, so is the detest to the detestable." Batgirl declaimed in a tranquil tone, taking a fighting stance, as she was holding the Sword of Sins whose blade lit up in fire. She had a lot of pent up anger inside her and she found the perfect dummy. Batman took Talia's body to safety.
"Jericho, get out of here."
Jericho wasn't gonna let her fight the former actor turned rogue alone. "Batgirl!"
"Just go!" Batgirl repeated in a 'No point of changing my mind voice.' Jericho clenched his jaw before heading out of the theatre.
The fight was on. Clayface started a few swings and The Flamed Knight dodged them quickly. He threw his fist rock at us and we dodged it again. She threw ice blasts at any opportunity she could get. Clayface decided to become a cannonball and charged at her. Batgirl rolled out of the way and he ran into an explosive wall. She capitalized on it and threw as many as ice blasts as she could. Eventually Batgirl was able to freeze Clayface and then she sliced him up into pieces of mud with the sword that allowed him to be unfrozen.
This time the former actor was ruthless, he hit her with everything he's got as she barley avoided his attacks. But just when he was about hit me with his hardened fist, he froze solid again thanks to the amount of ice blasts she had thrown into him to freeze him again.
"Well, it seems I'm gonna be late to my spa treatment, Girl-Bats." Joker quipped, pulling out a detonator. "But don't worry, maybe a change of scenery should do the trick."
Barbara Gordon: It seemed that I had missed out on the pun and it was a really good one.
Batgirl looked down to see the floor was rigged with explosives. "Oh come on." She groaned, she ran up on Clayface's frozen figure as the floor blew up, sending them both down to an very familiar place. The Chamber of the Demon. She landed gracefully with the help of her cape while Clayface was in a weakened condition. Despite that, he was able to create his mud cronies.
Batgirl started hacking the cronies with relative ease while Clayface spat out clay at her which was disgusting. He was relentless. But nothing can stop her tonight, not even Clayface. She threw ice blasts at him whenever we got the chance. Batgirl landed one last ice blast and Clayface became frozen, for good this time . Before he knew it, Batgirl jumped in Clayface's enlarged mouth and started to cut him apart from the inside. In one final swoop, she cut Clayface up and got out of her.
"Gross." Batgirl muttered twirling her sword before sheathing it back to her belt.
"Out of the way, Girl-Bats!" She looked up to see the Joker ready to take a dip into the Lazarus Pit. "I have a date with my impeding immortality."
Rolling her eyes, she threw an explosive batarang that causing the structure to fall apart immediately on impact. It dragged Clayface into the pit and it exploded, almost knocking her out.
A few moments had passed as she got up slowly. her head was killing her, but she was still alive. She took a vial that contained the antidote to Joker's aliment but debated in her mind. If she does this, she'll continue the vicious cycle of bloodshed that claimed so many lives thanks to that madman.
"Quick, the cure!" Joker demanded, coughing in the background; should she give him the cure or not? That's the question of day. "What are you waiting for, come on! I've killed Bats' girlfriend. Poisoned Gotham, and hell, It's not even breakfast." He laughed. "But So what, we all know that you'll save me."
"Every decision you have ever made always ends with chaos. I'll give the cure to you, you just break out from Arkham and kill again." She mused.
"Think of it as running gag." Joker stated as he came from behind and stabbed Batgirl in the shoulder, causing her to drop the cure accidentally. It shattered into pieces onto the floor.
"No!" Joker cried as Batgirl flipped him off her and pulled out the knife from her shoulder. Joker crawled over to the cure and tried to pick it up but it was in vein. He knew it too. His last chance of survival was gone.
"Well, I hope you are happy now." Joker spat in what could be his final moments.
Batgirl felt something else other than hate. Pity. He was experiencing the very same things that he let his victims feel. Hopelessness. He was almost human. Keyword: Almost. "Not yet." She removed her cowl allowing him to see her face for the first and only time. Joker gasped in shock at seeing who was behind the mask.
"Barbara Gordon is Batgirl? Oh, the irony has not been lost on me." Joker coughed uncontrollably.
"You wanna hear something funny?" Batgirl said. Joker looked at her puzzled. Was she about to tell him a joke? "Even after everything you have done, especially on that night where you almost took away my legs... I wanted to save you."
He laughed and coughed simultaneously at the irony in Batgirl's quip."That was … actually pretty funny."
Then his laughs turned into huge gasps for air as he was near the finishing line and then, he took his final breath, collapsing to the floor. He passed away with a smile on his sickly face, his bloodshot eyes stared up to the ceiling. The Joker was dead. The Titan poison in his body has reached the end of its fast paced journey.
Barbara Gordon: And that... was the end of the line.
XXXX
Outside the building, Joker's thugs were cheering waiting to see Joker the Immortal like he promised. But they all went quiet in shock as they saw Batgirl carrying their boss's body, exiting the Monarch Theatre.
Joker's corpse was on full display. Harley gasped, stepping back in horror. Her pudding was dead. Gotham had lost the Clown Prince of Crime. The former Arkham therapist collapsed to her knee, letting out a sorrowful wail as Batgirl continued her walk toward the exit of Arkham City.
The cops surrounded the main gates with Commissioner Gordon leading the charge.
"All units coordinate... what the?" To say that the cops were shocked to see Batgirl carrying Joker's corpse out of the facility was an understatement. She looked like hell. Like Having to walk through the nine circles type of hell.
"What the hell happened in there?" Gordon asked her in somewhat shock, Batgirl didn't answer her father's question she just left joker's body on the top of a squad car and stared at the corpse for a moment or two. "Batgirl? What happened?"
Batgirl finally looked at her father with a tired look, showing the wear the night has taken on her: both physically and mentally. "I told him a joke."
And with that, she left leaving the GCPD high ranking officer with more questions than answers as she was heading straight down a path on her own.
XXXX
2 days later.
Gotham Crematorium.
It was a surreal moment, really. The clown prince who had escaped the cold grips of the grim reapers many times, has finally met his maker.
Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon was inside a room of the Gotham Crematorium staring at the body of the mad man that had been terrorizing Gotham on so many occasions.
"You know it's kinda funny." Gordon mused. "it's been what, 2 days since he kicked the bucket and yet I keep expecting him to wake up and laugh."
Batgirl shared the same thought. "I need to know something." Gordon said, wanting to get it over with quickly. It's been bothering him since Arkham City. "Did you kill him? Because I wouldn't blame ya if you did."
Batgirl shook her head as she looked at his father dead in the eyes and answered his question. "No. I didn't."
"Good."
He pressed a button and the two watched as the body of the Clown Prince of Crime was pushed into the furnace, allowing it to be nothing more but bones and ashes. Finally, Gotham can rest easily.