The Joker grunted and groaned, lifting a hand to his forehead to nurse the pain while he gazed up at where the Batman had walked around to face him across the interrogation table.
Rebecca waited tensely, glancing away briefly as the door to the observation room opened and Gordon walked in, before she looked back into the interrogation room as the Joker spoke.
"Never start with the head." The Joker complained to the Batman.
Rebecca's brows furrowed while the Joker continued.
"The victim gets all... fuzzy. He can't feel the next-"
The Batman's fist shot out, smashing down on the Joker's fingers and probably breaking one. The Joker stopped talking for a moment, his brows wriggling slightly as though in mild discomfort, before he looked back at the Batman.
"See?" He said calmly.
Rebecca stared at the madman while the Batman settled into the seat across from the Joker.
"You wanted me." He rasped out, his dark eyes boring into the Joker's as the pair examined each other intently. "Here I am."
The Joker turned as serious as the Batman, his own dark eyes staring right back at the Batman's as he replied, "I wanted to see what you'd do. And you didn't disappoint."
The Joker leant in, gaze boring into the Batman's as he said in a low voice, "You let five people die."
The Joker smacked his lips, an odd habit he seemed to have along with licking his lips constantly, before he continued with a wry look, "Then you let Dent take your place. Even to a guy like me, that's cold."
"Where's Dent?" The Batman asked brusquely, ignoring the Joker's pricks at his conscience.
But the Joker wasn't finished, and he in turn ignored the Batman as he went on, "Those mob fools want you gone so they can get back to the way things were."
The Joker brought his hands together on the table before him and his voice went even lower as he said, "But I know the truth: there's no going back. You've changed things. Forever."
"Then why do you want to kill me?" The Batman prompted.
But question apparently cracked the Joker up as he burst out laughing. Rebecca tensed and she could sense Bruce's confusion too as they watched the Joker laugh so hard he started to gasp for air.
"I don't want to kill you." The Joker exclaimed, still laughing as he looked at the Batman with amusement. "What would I do without you?"
He leant back, still smiling a little as he asked rhetorically, "Go back to ripping off Mob dealers? No."
The Joker rolled his eyes, apparently so revolted by the very idea that he didn't want to think on it if he could.
"No. No, you…"
He looked right back at the Batman.
"You complete me."
"You're garbage who kills for money." The Batman shot back in a low hiss, but the Joker protested, "Don't talk like one of them."
He gestured toward the two-way mirror, toward the officers watching the pair's exchange.
"You're not." The Joker's eyes narrowed shrewdly. "Even if you'd like to be."
Rebecca tensed and she sucked in a breath as the Joker leant back, his mouth twisting like he had a bad taste in his mouth as he continued.
"To them you're just a freak. Like me."
The Joker leant forward on his hands again as he regarded the Batman with something that was fast approaching pity.
"They need you right now."
The Joker tilted his head.
"But when they don't... they'll cast you. Out like a leper."
The Batman leant back just slightly, watching the Joker with unreadable eyes. The Joker continued to search the Batman's face despite the mask as he continued poking at the Batman's mental armour.
"Their morals, their code." He said the word like it left a bad taste in his mouth, his expression twisting with disgust from just saying it.
"It's a bad joke. Dropped," his hand mimicked the movement, "at the first sign of trouble."
The Joker jerked his head toward the two-way mirror again before he went on with a scoff, "They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you."
The Joker leant forward as he said almost conspiratorially, "When the chips are down, these, uh…" He smacked his lips. "These 'civilized' people. They'll eat each other."
The Joker grinned and he leant back as he went on, "See, I'm not a monster."
He looked the Batman up and down before he leant in slight again.
"I'm just ahead of the curve."
The Batman finally had enough and he shot up, grabbing the Joker by his lapels and pulling the insane man bodily across the table so that they were face to face.
Inside the observation room, the air changed and everyone tensed.
In the interrogation room, the Batman hissed threateningly, "Where's Dent?"
"You have all these rules." The Joker complained, before he eyed the Batman shrewdly. "And you think they'll save you."
The Batman shoved him bodily against the wall between the two glass windows in the room with a resounding bang. Several detectives started, and one of them started for the door.
"Wait." Rebecca called, and the man hesitated.
Gordon agreed with her, and he told the other detective, "He's in control."
The man turned reluctantly back to scene in the interrogation room as the Batman growled at the Joker, "I have one rule."
"Oh." The Joker choked out from the Batman's tight grip across his throat. "Then that's the one you'll have to break to know the truth."
"Which is?" The Batman demanded, and the Joker smiled. Before he rambled once more.
"The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules. Tonight," the Joker's tone darkened as he stared Batman down.
"You're going to break your one rule…"
"I'm considering it." The Batman replied bluntly, unmoving to the Joker's taunt.
But the Joker had another hidden card up his sleeve, and he let it peak out as he insisted, "There are only minutes left, so, you'll have to play my little game if you want to save," his tone darkened with relish,"one of them."
In the observation room, all the detectives straightened up even more, raised on alert at the Joker's reveal.
Rebecca's fingers dug into her palm she was so tense and she watched in apprehension as the Batman repeated slowly, "Them?"
Bruce's mind whirred. Who did the Joker mean? Rebecca was safe, she had to be - there was no way Gordon had left so calmly if Rebecca wasn't in the observation room. And no way Gordon hadn't come storming back in if Rebecca had disappeared. No, no, she was safe, he was sure of it. So who-?
"You know, for a while there," the Joker mused and Bruce's attention returned fully to the man he held by the throat. "I thought you really were Dent. The way you chased down every criminal in the city after you found out she was the next target-
The realization hit him hard and Bruce threw the Joker bodily over onto the interrogation table, slamming the man on his back onto the metal in his anger.
Inside the observation room, the understanding came slower as the detectives tried to piece together the Joker's words. Only for Rebecca was it immediately clear who the Joker was talking about - but her brain refused to fully process the terrible truth as she stared blankly at the Joker.
"Rachel."
Rebecca didn't realize she'd spoken numbly as the cold, horrifying truth sunk into her mind slowly. Gordon snapped his attention to Rebecca and his eyes widened in alarm as he understood what Rebecca was saying.
"He's got Rachel. Oh my God, he's got Rachel!"
A sudden bang from inside the interrogation room made Gordon jerk. He turned back to the two-way mirror to see with no small amount of shock that Batman had smashed the Joker right into the mirror, causing the glass to splinter out from the impact.
The mad clown himself however didn't seem to mind, despite the fact that his blood ran down from his broken nose and spilled from his split lip. Instead, the Joker just laughed harder than ever even as he collapsed on the ground before the two-way mirror.
"Look at you go." The Joker chuckled darkly, gazing up at the Batman with shrewd eyes.
"You know, I couldn't really decide which to pick first. After that party, I knew either sister worked. But then, I realized if I pick the older one, I would have a fair shot at figuring out if you were Dent or not. Didn't quite work the way I thought but hehehe-"
The Joker broke off as the Batman grabbed him up and smashed him into the two-way mirror once more. Rebecca clutched the table in front of her, needing the support.
"Oh my God, oh my God." She whimpered, and Gordon held her shoulder.
"Hang in there, Becky, don't let him get to you." Gordon said, and Rebecca cried shrilly, "He's got Rachel!"
Inside the interrogation room, the Joker slid down to the ground again, laughing like a maniac even as the Batman loomed over him like an avenging angel.
"Where are they?!" He roared, but the Joker just laughed in the Batman's face.
"Killing is making a choice." The Joker cackled, and the Batman punched him hard across the face.
It shut the madman up for a second as his head snapped to the side and he fell over, and the Batman repeated in a furious roar, "WHERE ARE THEY?!"
Gordon ran out of the observation room in alarm, heading for the interrogation room. The Batman's violent reaction had taken them all by surprise but there was no way Gordon could let the Batman continue to attack their criminal, no matter how much he might deserve it. But upon reaching the door to the interrogation room, Gordon found it locked somehow. He banged on it, hoping to force it open, but it was well and truly jammed. Leaving the two occupants trapped within.
Meanwhile, inside the Batman suit, Bruce's heart hammered. Not Rachel. Not Rachel. He knew what it would do to Rebecca if her sister were brought to any harm. And if she were dead… No, he couldn't think like that. He'd save her. He'd save her and Dent. He had to.
The desperation clouded his mind, but then the Joker's laughter filled the room once more. It was obvious the Joker enjoyed the Batman's anger and fear, almost feeding off of it as he gazed up at the twisted growl that graced the only visible feature of the Batman's face.
"You choose one life over the other." The Joker told the Batman with far too much glee for a man who was being beaten into a bruised and bloody pulp. "Your friend, the district attorney. Or his blushing bride-to-be."
The Batman breathed heavily and the Joker eyed the Batman closer before he commented in a low voice, his tone almost offhanded, "You know, you never could have been Dent. I see that now. It's the sister for you, isn't it?"
Bruce's fist surged back and he smashed it into the Joker's face again with all his strength. But even that did nothing to faze the insane criminal; in fact, the Joker only seemed to get happier and crazier with each hit.
"You have nothing." The Joker informed the Batman, his eyes laughing and burning with murderous triumph as he gazed up at the masked vigilante despite his increasingly bloodied mouth and nose.
"Nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength."
The Joker spat out a broken tooth, and the Batman grabbed the Joker's lapels once more while on the other side of the mirror Rebecca clutched the table so tightly her knuckle split and a tiny sliver of blood trickled down her hand.
Inside the interrogation room, the Joker fixed his gaze on the Batman as he revealed his next card to them all.
"Don't worry, I'm going to tell you where they are. Both of them, and that's the point: you'll have to choose."
The Batman stared down at the Joker, his mask doing nothing to hide his rage as he continued to breathe heavily through clenched teeth.
But the Joker could see inside the eyes of the man behind the mask, and he could also see the burning desperation and the fear for a loved one - whether it was for the woman currently tied up in a warehouse somewhere only the Joker knew where, or for the sister who was probably watching him right now with equal desperation and panic, some probably couldn't tell. But the Joker's smirk widened for he knew the answer.
"He's at…" His eye squinted as though he were trying to remember where Harvey and Rachel would be at this moment. "250 52nd Boulevard. And she's on... avenue X at Cicero."
The Batman dropped him instantly, turning away without a second's pause.
The Batman tore away the steel chair he'd used to jam the door before he threw the door open. Gordon almost stumbled inside when the door opened, but he saved himself just as the Batman stalked determinedly down the hallway.
"Which one are you going after?" He called after the masked vigilante, and the Batman answered without missing a beat.
"Dent knew the risks."
The Batman shoved open the back doors of the police station, not even surprised by the sight of the redhead already seated on his Batpod. Rebecca was pale and trembling as Bruce settled into place in front of her.
"Can we make it?" Rebecca asked in little more than a whimper and Bruce's hands tightened on the handles of the bike.
"Yes."
With that, he took them off, driving speedily down the streets without any regard for traffic laws - one of the reasons Rebecca had probably waited to let him drive. The other was that he was a better and faster driver, something he applied fully now as he drove them at breakneck speed to the warehouse the Joker had revealed.
'Oh God. Oh God.' Rebecca thought wildly. 'Please let us be there in time. Please let us be there in time.'
Her arms tightened around Bruce as the fear continued to grip her stronger. He felt the movement, knew the cause for it, and his jaw tightened beneath his mask even as his eyes were wild with desperation.
'Please, let me be able to save her.' He prayed. 'Don't let Rebecca lose her sister the way I lost my parents.'
They finally screeched to a halt in front of the abandoned warehouse and Bruce leapt off the Batpod.
"Stay back!" Bruce ordered as he rushed inside. "Do NOT follow me!"
Rebecca dithered anxiously, and she came close to disobeying Bruce - very close.
But perhaps because of the realization of just how precarious their position was, or perhaps because of her own anxiety, or maybe even because of the absolute fear that coursed its way through her body, but Rebecca waited.
Her blood was thundering in her veins and she could feel each thud of her heart as if it were pounding against her temples - but Rebecca absolutely started when she heard a faint, agonized cry coming from inside the warehouse.
"No! No!"
Rebecca's legs buckled out from underneath her, and she collapsed down on her knees as her body reacted before her mind could even process what she was hearing - who she was hearing.
"No, why did you come for me?! No, Rachel! Rachel!"
Rebecca listened numbly as Harvey Dent's voice got louder and louder, but not because the man was getting more and more hysterical. It was too painfully obvious that Harvey had already been screaming at the top of his lungs before Rebecca could even hear him.
Yet, all of this information barely registered in Rebecca's mind as she struggled to process the reality of her situation.
It took the sight of Bruce, still fully in Batman mode, dragging - no, hauling - Harvey out of the warehouse for the truth to really sink in for Rebecca.
"No."
Bruce looked up, the grim determination to save at least Harvey and the Batman mask unable to hide the pain in his expression as he conveyed to Rebecca the confirmation of her worst fears over Harvey's continuous wails.
"No!"
Rebecca fell over, grasping the Batpod in an attempt to steady herself but there was no bracing herself.
Before anything else could happen - whether Harvey continued to cry, or Rebecca could work through her emotions, or Bruce could try to reason with the grieving man or the stricken woman - the entire warehouse exploded up in a ball of flames.
Exactly the way they knew a similar warehouse on the complete other side of the city would have gone up at the exact same moment. And Rebecca knew in her hearts of hearts that Rachel would have still been inside. Bruce had barely dragged Harvey out in time and they'd had a head start and the advantage of speed over Gordon and his men.
He wouldn't have made it in time.
Harvey was screaming - and a small part of Rebecca noted that Bruce seemed to be hastily patting the man down as if he'd caught on fire somehow - but Rebecca barely heard him. There was a piercing keen, shrill and ear-splitting that was blocking out most of Harvey's pained cries. And it took Rebecca a moment to realize the one making the noise… was her.
"NOOO!"
In movies or books, the characters often slipped into unconsciousness when the mind could no longer keep up. But that luxury never came for Rebecca, who collapsed back on her knees as she continued to scream for her sister. Screams that were in vain - Rachel was far beyond a place where she could hear her anymore. She would never be able to hear her again.