The Dark Storm Match Point, a batman begins/dark knight fanfic

I would just like to say, that I am sorry for this one. But I'm happy with it nonetheless. As always, thank you so much to everyone for reading and loving this story, it's turned into one of my favorite stories to write and I can't wait to share more and more.

Special thank you to the reviewers who make my day every time, and an extra special thank you to those who see the details, who love the little things in Bruce and Evelyn and express their love for this.

Batman glanced at me as we waited on the roof for the newly appointed Commissioner Gordon to come for us. 'Rachel should have called by now.'

He was right. After getting home, Rachel wouldn't have done much without calling one of us. There hadn't been a word. The night was getting colder as it moved on.

We were about to return to the tumbler to stay warm when Gordon burst through the doors. He drew in a deep breath as quickly as he could and rallied his voice. 'We need you. Dawes and Dent; they're missing.'

The cold sunk around us with a heavy force. We were grim and drove any expression from our face, an uncomfortable task for me, but a herculean effort for my counterpart. We followed Gordon in. He let us into the interrogation room and ordered the men to bring in the Joker.

The Joker glanced around as he was brought in with a content expression, nodding a little as he looked around at the lit parts of the room and the one-way mirrors. He was walking very relaxed and as he was brought to the table, sent the one-way mirrors an innocent shrug as he sat comfortably in his chair.

I reached out and put a hand on Batman's forearm, an unnecessary but safe-guard type reminder to keep his control. The anger radiating from him was more than the determined, pissed off aura I was staring at the back of the Joker's head with.

Then in came Gordon. He was calm, he was collected and he strode right up to the Joker, sitting opposite him.

'Evening, Commissioner,' the Joker drawled.

Gordon sat down. 'Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes never made it home,' he began quietly.

'Of course not,' he replied simply, agreeing.

'What have you done with them?' Gordon asked patiently.

The Joker dipped is head forward a bit, dramatically indignant. 'Me?!' He looked around the room. 'I was right here.' He paused, and held up his hands, bound by the cuffs. 'Who did you leave them with? Your people?'

I squinted, impatient.

'Assuming, of course, that they are still your people. And not Maroni's,' he finished mysteriously.

Gordon nearly grinned as he watched pleasantly.

'Does it depress you, to know just how alone you really are?'

Gordon's eyes never left the Joker's. I admired the man in that moment as much as I ever had before.

'Does it make you feel responsible for Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes' current predicament?'

'Where are they?' Gordon said.

The Joker tilted his head. 'What's the time?'

My eyes narrowed again; my face curled into a sneer.

'What difference does that make?'

'Well,' replied the Joker, voice similarly calm to Gordon's, 'depending on the time, they may be in one spot, or several.' He finished with a sinister tone and nodded and Gordon.

Still without breaking eye contact, Gordon pulled out the keys to the cuffs. 'If we're gonna play games...' he unlocked the Joker's handcuffs.

'Mm?'

He stood up. 'I'm gonna need a cup of coffee.'

'Ah, the "good cop, bad cop" routine?' sang the Joker, unimpressed.

'Not exactly,' Gordon said from the door, with a slight tilt of his head.

The door opened and closed with a clank. The lights went on.

As the Joker blinked against the light, Batman grabbed his head by the loosely dyed green hair and forced it onto the desk with a loud whack.

We rounded the table, either side.

The Joker squeezed his eyes shut and slowed his movements. 'Aargh! Never start with the head, the victim gets all, fuzzy. He can't feel the ne-.'

SMACK. Batman slammed his fist on the Joker's fingers.

The Joker broke off, paused for a second as he listened to his nerves and glared at us like he was disappointed as Batman sat down. I stood away, near the wall. 'See?!'

Batman sat down. I stood over his left shoulder, ignoring the eyes that were on the room.

'You wanted us,' Batman began flatly. 'Here we are.'

'Yes, yes, and Thunder, too!' The Joker looked up at me with his hands going out in a celebratory way. 'I'm honoured,' he emphasised. 'I noticed you didn't even bother volunteering to turn yourself in today. And, now, we come face to mask at last.' He dipped his head.

I didn't move.

The Joker, again a little disappointed, diverted his attention back to Batman. 'Fine, fine! I wanted to see what you'd do. And you didn't disappoint,' he leant forward, a proud grin lingering on his face beneath the caking makeup. 'You let five people die. Then… you let Dent and Dawes take your place. Even to a guy like me... that's cold,' the Joker grumbled, glaring at Batman.

'Where are they?' Batman interrupted, still flat.

'Those mob fools want you gone so they can get back to the way things were,' the Joker continued like he hadn't heard him, talking like it was important for him to say this. 'But I know the truth- there's no going back. You've changed things. Forever.'

'So why are you still on this job to kill us?' I demanded blankly, not expecting much to come of the question.

The Joker laughed, bouncing excitedly in his chair. 'Kill you? I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off Mob dealers? No you . . .' he settled into sincerity. 'You. Complete. Me.' He looked both of us meaningfully in the eyes.

Batman wasn't impressed. 'You're garbage who kills for money.'

The Joker gestured vaguely at the mirror closest to us. 'Don't talk like one of them- you're not, even if you'd like to be.'

I squinted as I thought. He missed his mark there. I began to see why he was so fascinated with us. He didn't understand us, our minds, what drove us. He was excited by our blank stares but wishing for a little more of us to see, all the same.

'To them you're a freak like me... they just need you right now.'

The Joker had some grand scheme, trying to get into our heads. What he didn't know, or what he was perhaps trying to figure out, was why unlike many others, we weren't so easily swayed in our thoughts.

'But when they don't… they'll cast you out. Like a leper.'

We knew. All the Joker was doing was making us more impatient as he tried to dislodge us from our "code."

I didn't buy it, either. He knew enough about us to know that we didn't take our position lightly, that there was more beyond a simple need and want to help out that would drive a person to don cowls and reputations like these. He had to know that everything he was saying, we knew already.

'Their morals, their code... it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble.'

I began to wonder more about the Joker. He spoke things that I agreed with. That I had known and learnt about the world a long time ago. So what was the difference between him and I? What made me want to work toward harmony, and the Joker toward anarchy?

'They're only as good as the world allows them to be,' he continued. 'I'll show ya…when the chips are down, these civilized people... they'll eat each other.'

He leant back, proud of himself.

He had to know. He had to know that we knew this already. If the world wasn't this way, then there wouldn't be people like us at all. So why was he saying this? Was it important to him that we knew his motivations? I decided that was part of the reason.

I was listening more than Batman, who was studying him but was rather more impatient than I was. I was able to compress my worry and panic more than he was and seize the opportunity to analyse the Joker, close enough to see how his eyes complemented his gestures when he spoke and the tiny movements he made as he spoke that could make even a weather report sound thrilling.

'See, I'm not a monster...' The Joker leant in closer to Batman. 'I'm just ahead of the curve.'

A curve that didn't need to be tu- Batman seized the Joker by the shirt and pulled him up, over the desk. 'Where are they?' he growled.

'You have these rules. And you think they'll save you,' the Joker went on.

Batman, still holding him in the air, slammed him against the wall between two of the one-way mirrors.

I took a step forward.

'We have one rule,' Batman said.

'Oh,' rasped the Joker from his choke hold, 'then that's the one you'll have to break to know the truth.'

'Which is?!'

The Joker went on, panting as he let Batman hold him without any fight. 'The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules. Tonight you're going to break your one rule . . .'

His rule philosophy was wasted on us. We knew what happened to innocent lives when rules were abandoned. The memory of Jordan in my mind instantly overpowered the Joker, sweeping any power his meaning had away as if it were weightless.

'Otherwise, you, Batman…'

My focus snapped and my thoughts stopped dead. What did the Joker have on Batman?

'… will lose your little fake-thunder.'

Shit. The Joker knew.

'See,' giggled the Joker, 'for a while I thought you really were Dent, the way you threw yourself in front of her…'

Batman dropped the Joker and through him onto the table. The Joker landed with a thud and as Batman bore forward I stepped between them.

I stood tall against the Joker from where he lay at the table's height.

Rachel yelled in relief at the sound of Harvey's voice. 'Harvey! Harvey, are you okay?'

'For now, yeah, I'm fine. Rachel, where are you?'

She couldn't find the will to tackle the waver in her voice. 'In a warehouse, we both are, I know. They said that only one of us would survive. And that they were gonna… leave it up to our friends! And they said that if we got too smart, one of us would cost one of them.'

'Wh- One of who?'

'I don't… I think Batman or Thunder.' Tears poured down Rachel's face.

'What?!' Dent screamed in panic.

'I don't know, I don't know.'

'Rachel, don't panic, they'll come for us, okay?'

'I know, I know.'

'There's nothing we can do about that. We just have to make sure we get out on time when they get us, okay?'

If that morning she had pretended to be Thunder, then she could pretend for a little longer. She pretended to be in the suit, she tried to sit more like how she knew Thunder did. She forced the breath slowly from her lungs. 'Okay.'

'What? No fun?' the Joker demanded, swivelling off the table and back into the chair.

'You're not much,' I replied coolly, sitting opposite him. Batman's eyes drew holes into me as he stared, fuelled by anger, not able to do anything with it as he stood down and calmed his wild nerves, knowing to trust me.

My calm nature had stopped Gordon in his tracks as he ran for the door. The GCPD looked on, not a breath between them.

The Joker sat up and stared at me, clasping his hands in front of him, somehow enjoying himself even more.

'You're going to tell us,' I said as if I were stating common knowledge.

The Joker's face lit up. 'Well, look at you go!' He frowned dramatically and leant closer to me. 'Are you really incorruptible? You know,' he began, musing and pointing a finger at me casually, 'it doesn't take much.'

I stared at him. Behind me, Batman, seething, continued to force himself to be still.

'I'm sure you'd love us to beat it out of you,' I said as conversationally as Thunder's tones allowed. 'So we'll wait.'

The Joker tilted his head. 'You know, unless you get it out of me, both of them are going to die.'

'Alright.' There wasn't a hint of anger or frustration in my eyes. I watched him.

He frowned and studied me. We both knew that what he really wanted was not for it to end there and then. This was a game that had to be played. He wanted to make his point, to have his fun. For things to go the way he wanted, he would to tell us. But I could not be riled into beating it out of him. All I did was wait, knowingly. And my patience drove him mad.

Everything was quiet.

He squirmed.

I blinked at him, still watching blankly. His eyes darted to Batman, who was visibly in less control, but had enough grip on his being to keep himself back and out of the way to show that the Joker, in that moment, was playing against me.

The Joker grimaced and broke the silence. 'You know,' he deliberated, 'I wonder how you feel. Look at The Batman,' he said theatrically, 'who went wild over a woman… that wasn't you.' He added the last part just in case, then as I didn't react he paused and pretended to realise something. 'Do you two even know who you are? You two, you know who he is, right? You must do. Look at you. No amount of trust can form between people behind a mask like yours.'

Still my lack of reaction didn't deter him.

'How do you really know that he won't sell you out, hm?' He studied me, looking very closely into my eyes. He was far enough away that we wouldn't see details; he was trying to read what little expression could be seen through the cowl. 'Alright, then. How do you know… if, for example, I was to say they'll let her go,' he paused for a fraction, just to give his words more weight, 'if Batman reveals your identity? Dawes will be safe, and not in several places at once, in exchange for your identity.' He clasped his hands together.

He didn't miss the involuntary angry narrow of my eyes, though I had seen this coming. He knew Rachel was a weak point of Batman's, which in turn made her one of mine.

'Or maybe… maybe you'd reveal yourself to save her. For him,' he said, nodding at Batman behind me. He squinted a little and leant forward with a curious frown. 'Maybe?'

I looked at him. He was fascinated by Batman, but he was captivated by me. There was something in the difference between us that made me the more intriguing one, if by a margin. He was obsessed with us.

'Hm… maybe not. But it can be arranged, you know, even from in here,' he added, and looked at Batman. Batman faced him, glaring. 'Reveal who Thunder is, and you'll find your precious Dent's fiancé returned.'

Unknown to everyone but Batman, I had to strengthen my hold on my nerve. I kept my eyes on the Joker as Batman focused to not let his eyes drop to me and ruin the progress I'd made in wavering the Joker.

I knew, for a fleeting moment, he was tempted, and was even after giving it mild consideration. The sight of the Joker's smiling face reminded him of the danger Rachel was in, and what danger she would yet face.

But it wasn't about not being rattled. Everyone had buttons and weaknesses, things that made them upset. Everyone pondered an idea. It was about being calm anyway. I waited for the creeping feeling in my back where Batman stood outside of my eyesight to leave and I waited for the Joker, still as a statue. It was hard not to move, but I was practiced in it enough by then to delve more into Thunder. I was confident, so waiting for the Joker was more calming than it was stressful.

He would tell us eventually, and my nerve would hold.

'Oh, he's about to,' the Joker said gleefully, nodding at Batman behind me. 'Was that a nod, oh incorruptible Batman?'

I knew it wasn't. The Joker was pushing because he wanted to see more about our relationship, about us as a team and as individuals.

We were practiced, much to his unsurprised disappointment, in hiding any scrap of identity. Neither of us gave him a single hint.

Not for the first time in that minute, Batman wished he shared the same weird strong inner nerve that I did. It balanced out, he trusted others far better than I did, but in that moment it wasn't helping him.

The Joker sighed. 'Fine, fine,' he gestured twitchily once more. 'How about this?' He indicated me by a slight nod. 'Remove her cowl, take off her mask, right now, and the other one, whatever her name is, Dent's squeeze, lives. Hm?' He gauged for any reaction. 'Or, oh, I'm sorry, are you the better fighter?' he asked me. 'Well in that case her name will do.' He pointed at Batman. 'Or… Take off your mask. And she'll live. I swear. I promise. All I wanna show, is how corruptible everything really is.'

We'd been there, done that. Batman knew, from the moment Dent had volunteered himself as the Batman that morning, the moment he took my hands a minute later, that he'd never consider it again.

The Joker grinned and pretended to tell me what Batman was doing yet again. 'Oh how tempted you are, Batman, look at you, feel that fear and you aren't going to lift a finger, aren't you?' he asked me suddenly, frustrated.

My response was the same, so there was no need to say it again. We both knew my patience would outrun his game.

He wrestled with himself, sticking his tongue into his cheek, licking his lips and rolling his shoulders. Then he snapped. 'Fine,' he grumbled, like a child giving in. 'Well, I'm sure you know, you're going to have to play my little game… for at least two of you to survive.' He leant back. 'Now. He's at 250 52nd street, and she's on Avenue X at Cicero. But one of them will blow before the other.'

We couldn't waste time asking which.

'And remember. As much as Gotham rests on Dent, it rests, for now, on you. I wonder, I wonder… how far you can fall.'

We were already moving.

'Oh, Thunder…' the Joker added as we neared the door.

I turned.

'In case we don't meet again.' He pointed at me with certainty. 'You're now my favourite.'

Such was the reward for meeting him head on. I shut the door, unhappy.

'Who's going where?' Gordon panted the second we appeared around the corner.

'Rachel,' Batman said, moving like a whirlwind.

Of course. I followed him. I knew I didn't have time to convince him that I was the better choice to go after Rachel. It was better, should we fail, that it was me that didn't make it in time than him.

The tumbler opened as we neared it with a simple signal. The bike was quicker through the traffic, but the tumbler was faster. Batman drove the bike better; I drove the tumbler better. We didn't have to think for even a moment.

I leapt into it and demagnetised the bike. Batman jumped on as I closed the tumbler. The engines started and we raced through Gotham.

"At least two of you to survive," the Joker had grinned meaningfully. He'd also said that one of them was going to blow before the other.

In other words, one of us was likely racing toward our deaths.

The tyres screeched as I forced the tumbler around a sharp corner that only it could take.

Or were there more people in these buildings? If we chose wrong, if somehow we went wrong, would innocent people die?

"250 52nd street."

I reached the address and flew out of the tumbler before it had even come to a stop. The police, though they were coming, were far behind me. Their sirens had faded minutes before.

I ran through the dark, and suddenly a building on my left exploded. I ducked on instinct behind my arms, then straightened and stopped in shock, feeling the heat dance on my face, staring. No… no, no, no… … … …

'What was that?' Batman roared as he heard the explosion through our comms.

Mind blank and limbs frozen, a faint trickle of thought brought my daze to a halt. That wasn't number 250; 250 was on my right.

Like fuel on a fire I sparked back to life and sprinted. That clown was finished. My anger exploded. 'He blew a decoy building.'

We'd arrive being too late and stand there in shock, and then Harvey would go up. I kept my focus but didn't bother keeping my anger in check; the Joker definitely knew how to destroy a person.

I ran inside 250 and kicked the door in.

It was dark, I searched the room frantically and suddenly I was faced with Rachel, on a chair, in the centre of a sea of oil drums.

'It's Rachel,' I told Batman and raced forward.

'Thunder!' Rachel yelled, not sounding as relieved as I'd expected.

I didn't have to be only Thunder right then, so for her sake I let her see both Evelyn and Thunder. I stopped beside her, crouching to look her in the eyes, the steel in mine making her nerves calm, letting the familiarity she was rarely capable of sink into her, reminding her it was me and that I had reached her. For a brief moment I put my hand on her shoulder and looked around.

'Is he going for Harvey?' she croaked.

'Yes,' I replied, very distracted.

There was a phone behind her, and what looked like the main detonator. I took one look at it and the other many detonators littered on and in the drums around the room. There was no way I was disarming this. I bent down. 'Is there anyone else in here?' I asked as I got her arms free from the rope.

'No,' she panted, working with me, 'Harvey?' she called at the phone, 'is anyone else with you?'

'No,' Dent called.

Yeah. I was right the first time. One of the pairs were at more of a risk than the other. It could be Rachel and me, to bring both Dent and Batman down.

Or it could be them, taking out Gotham's white knight and consequently showing Thunder what Batman's eagerness to save Rachel had cost.

'What's going on?' Rachel asked me.

'Something the Joker said, I don't-,' I stopped when I saw two very thin wires across Rachel's legs. I immediately pushed on her shoulder to stop her from moving. She looked down and gasped.

'What is it?!' Dent yelled.

'Harvey,' Rachel soothed, glancing at my focused, wide eyes, 'it's okay. Let her think.'

'Dent, have you got wires over you?' I asked, bending down.

'No.'

One wire led straight to the bomb. I followed the other. 'It's not rigged to the explosives,' I realised.

'Then what?' Rachel panted.

So it was us. The method was… horrible. My eyes burned stronger still. I pushed all thoughts of the Joker out of my head, no time.

'They're tripwires. Doors maybe, to seal us in.' I looked at her. 'And then when it's completely hopeless it blows up.'

She took a few deep breaths, keeping her eyes on mine, the easiest place to recognise all of me.

'Leave me, go, go,' she said, shaking her head.

Occupied, I put a hand on her shoulder again as I looked around, otherwise ignoring her but it got the message across. I knew her and she was captured, I had to try. And she mattered to Bruce; I would not give up on saving her.

Brain whirring, I examined the wires. Where did the current flow to? I glared around the room and then winced, not liking the options. 'Go limp.'

That was all the warning I had time to give Rachel and, picking my angle carefully, swung a leg under the chair, breaking the legs and sending her crashing to the ground. I lifted the wires as much as I dared. 'Crawl,' I growled.

She got her hips under and I put the wires down, moved, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her across the floor, making sure her feet didn't catch the wires and then pulled her up.

I put her in front of me and we sprinted to the door.

Rachel had begun to yell about what the henchmen had said but at that moment I was forced to skid to a stop as a steel panel dropped in front of my face in the doorframe.

Rachel screamed from the other side of the door. 'There was a sensor, it-!'

One-way sensor, in but not out. I just blinked and turned around, already looking for another way out.

Better me in here than her.

'RUN!' I thundered at her forcefully. 'RUN, RACHEL! NOW!'

'No, there must be something I can-,'

Everything was covered in metal framing. I wasn't getting through those windows. She had to get out. 'Rachel… please.'

Batman heard everything I said through his cowl, but he didn't have the time to register it. Through the phone, I heard Dent gasp and turn around as Batman arrived at Avenue X.

She put her head on the door and screamed in anguish. After a sob and a bang on the door I heard her footsteps, hesitant, but there, nonetheless. She understood. Good.

I'd just have to try and survive it.

35.

My blood was boiling, my mind and body kicking into overdrive.

Explosions; heat, shockwaves and shrapnel.

I was in the suit; heat and shrapnel weren't a problem.

This many barrels, filled with gas, the blast wave from an explosion this big, I was dead.

34.

Blast waves: get distance from the epicentre.

There was a door at the other end of the room. If it was in plain sight, it was a dead end. I sprinted for it, anyway, kicking it down.

29.

I was faced with a thick wall a few metres back, and an empty room.

28.

I turned and found the nearest barrel with an explosive, worked with the wires to bypass the single explosive and grabbed the drum, yelling with effort as I pulled it across the floor.

15.

I was fighting for my life but I didn't have time to feel the fear that was driving me.

'RACHEL!' Dent yelled, alarmed at the noise.

12.

I got the drum through the door against the exterior wall, in the corner away from the door, threw a timed explosive at it from my belt and threw myself back through the door, pulling it shut and moving back.

10.

BOOM. The floor vibrated under my feet.

'RACHEL!' Harvey yelled again. Batman wished he wouldn't. He didn't have time to fear for me with Harvey still tied up and in danger.

The explosion had blown a huge hole in the wall. It led to another large space of the warehouse.

I sprinted.

I shot through the hole with a duck of my head and ran.

It was really dark.

'Are you still in there?!' Batman yelled. Through our comms, I heard Dent's chair breaking followed by urgent scuffling.

'I'm-.'

Bruce. Dad. Ryan…

At Avenue X the phone went dead, but Batman could still hear the pained yell annihilating around his cowl, jamming his thoughts.

The chilling, tortured scream was as bone-chilling as its immediate and abrupt end.

'HELLO?!' Dent yelled at the phone as Batman pulled him up.

Together they ran out of the building, Dent ahead as a precaution, and made it out, ducking their heads and shielding themselves from the blast, debris flying into them. The only sound was the crackling from the fire as both stared at the flames, shocked into silence.

As Bruce's panic rushed back and his control began to spiral out, Dent collapsed beside him in a slump with a low, faint groan and he was drawn to a wound in his back. Immediately, he picked Dent up away from the ground as the police arrived.

'What happened to Dawes?' they asked.

'Safe.' Batman walked past the officer without a word. He passed Dent to another and vanished into the night.

Rachel collapsed to her knees and stared at the smoke billowing from the building as the walls fell apart. 'HELLO?!'

Her only response was the noise of the fire as she shouted helplessly into the dark and smoke.

Police descended on her and she recognised Jim Gordon.

'What happened?' he asked as he ran over.

'Thunder, she's in there, she was in there!' Rachel screamed, not able to take her eyes off the building.

Gordon froze, staring at the blazing light blasting their faces with a heat too intense. Then he moved, and his officers had to hold him back.

'GET IN THERE!' Gordon yelled finally, turning around and striding back toward the police car.

As the police rallied to gear up against the fire and Rachel cried, Batman appeared.

'SHE WAS IN THERE!' Rachel screamed as soon as she saw him.

Gordon ran over to the bike as Batman got off it and ran beside him. 'Could she have survived?'

No. Not in there. He ran straight through the fire, surprised shouts hollering around him.

Rachel stared at him as he went. 'I'm sorry…' she breathed.

Immediately the heat and smoke hit him like a ton of bricks. He held a hand up to cover his mouth and crouched, looking around. He forced himself to calm and relied on his eyes as he walked around.

What would he do… what had he heard moments before?

The crash. I'd broken something down.

He started for the other side of the ruined room, crossing into a small room, the wall completely shattered. A door lay on the ground.

The fire made it hard to see the next wall but it, too, had been shattered, though not as bad. He vaulted over a ruined section of it, into the next room, coughing against the smoke.

He crouched down low to see through the haze.

Corner. Dark shape. Fire.

He sprinted over.

I was face down.

He landed in a crouch. 'Evelyn,' he breathed, carefully turning me over.

He picked me up and dove out of the building, the opposite side of the police and landed on the ground, extinguishing the flames on my suit first.

Once he'd put out the flames on his, a forced breath left him. Putting his ear above my face, he stilled and prayed to hear or feel even a single breath.

Shallow and broken, but there for now.

He tried for as long as he dared to wake me. I didn't stir.

He clicked his radio. 'Get an ambulance. Hit and run cover.'

Alfred heard the immense pain and strain in Batman's voice. 'Very well, sir. Who for?'

'Thunder.'

'Sir?'

Batman's voice was slipping away as nauseousness overflowed. 'Explosion,' said Bruce's pained and breathless voice.

No response came from Alfred.

Batman picked me up again and hurried around the warehouse, avoiding the police's sight and making it to the tumbler where Rachel was waiting. When she saw my weight hung limply in his arms She gasped and hurried toward him then out of the way. Without a word or even a look to her he opened the tumbler, put me on the seat and got in, driving it away as fast as it would go.

His bike exploded a second later, making everyone shriek and duck in surprise as they kept looking into the burning building, trying to spot Thunder.

Rachel knew not to say a word and returned to Gordon.

When far enough from the scene, he stopped on the side of the road, went into a very dark alley and removed my cowl and suit, unbelievably grateful for the way I'd redesigned them, able to get most of it off quickly, by removing the plates methodically and then pull the mesh they were attached to away.

We'd plead amnesia if when questions were raised about why a victim of a hit and run was wearing a sports shirt and pants in the middle of the night without shoes on. At least they were both long-sleeved.

'I have your location and have sent the ambulance to the address. ETA, given by the computer's estimate, is ten minutes.'

They were the longest minutes Bruce's entire life, lurking on the roof on overwatch, preying no one came by.

It was vital that the Batman, having just run into a burning building to save Thunder and then disappeared, was nowhere near a hit and run victim on the Gotham streets.

But it was so late that there was no one to be seen, even through the windows. The first sign of movement was the ambulance, which sped into sight eventually.

He watched as the team hurried out, assessed their patient's condition and carefully loaded me onto a stretcher.

The doors shut and the world closed around him as he stared silently after the ambulance. As much faith as he had in the good of Gotham, he hated leaving me completely in the hands of strangers, it drove home with an awful sting that there was nothing he could do.

He followed the ambulance all the way to the closest hospital, Gotham General, and stared at the emergency bays where ambulances poured in and out.

He watched the stretcher enter the building and stayed watching the hospital. He was there to see the police escort the injured Dent through the ambulance bay a little while later. There was nothing he could do, nothing he could see or learn from where he was, but he couldn't leave.

Finally, when it became clear that the sky was beginning to get light, he sped back to Wayne Manor.