It's huge

I don't know if I can stop it

One thing I do know?

Half of Gotham is already destroyed

BATMAN BEYOND REVISITED

EPISODE 28

GOTHAM'S DESTRUCTION

What I saw through my vision was chaos. Roughly around fourty percent of the city was gone now and nearly the entire city was on fire. I heard the twisted maniac behind me laughing. The image of the 300 foot tall godzilla animatronic had fuzzed out and it was replaced with the vision of what was really around me. I extended my suit's fingers into claws, wings extending. "Sorry, Dino, but I got a monster to take care of."

And with that, he ran over to me, smacking into my stomach with an overgrown fist. I groaned and sat up. The pain that was already inside of me was so much worse now. I could hear Grayson's voice in my earpiece, but all that was getting through was a ringing noise going through my head. I shut my eyes tight when I felt the next hit.

"I don't think you're going anywhere." He spoke with malice in his voice, picking me up by my neck which I grasped at with both my hands. I was lucky that this suit had miniature batarangs stored into the wrist. By pressing a button, an electrical one flew right into his left eye. Some blood spilled out, but aside from that he didn't seem to sustain any real injuries. He did stumble back and let me go whilst yelling in pain, of course. And luckily I was quick enough to manage to cuff him from behind and shove him to the ground.

"Jake! You have to shut this thing down now! It has caused enough damage to the city already!" I could hear Inque shouting into my ear. "There's no way you'll be able to fight it so you need to figure out how it's being controlled!"

"Easier said than done! This thing is way too advanced to exist yet. Tamara may be powering it, but I have no idea how." I shouted back. "Inque, get Dick and Barbara clear out of the city."

I stood there, my breath heavy and my vision blurry. A couple of moments passed before I heard her say "All right. But stay safe."

I disconnected the ear piece and slowly walked towards Tamara, nearly passing out twice. Once I got to her, I found her in the same condition that I am in, ready to pass out. I slap her gently on the cheek a few times. Her eyes opened and I can clearly see the purple irises in them and the left one is slightly gray, as if it was blinded.

"...B... Batman?" she whispered with a coarse voice and tears streaming down her face. Both of sorrow and regret, as if she held herself responsible for this. "I'm sorry. I should have stopped it. I should have been strong enough. It's my fault."

'Ouch. Okay, that stings.'

"It's not your fault. He forced you. Now let's get you out of this."

I noticed that there was nothing stopping me from reaching her this time. It's as if all her power is being used solely for the Godzilla machine now.

Her skin was turning gray and wrinkled and she barely had a pulse. I put my hand over her chest, over her heart, and could barely feel a beat.

"It can't be shut down."

I jumped back a bit, somehow startled.

"It can't. It's not connected to anything but me. I have to die for it to stop working. You have to kill me."

I gulped and nodded. I would never kill anyone for anything less. But I knew there was no other option. I closed my eyes and grabbed a sleep serum from my belt and injected the whole thing into a vein in her neck. I kept tears from falling out of my eyes. Not only was I forced to make my first kill, but it was to a child as well. Then I felt a hand on my cheek and heard her mutter the words 'thank you' before the life left her, leaving her corpse in my hands. I heard a loud creaking noise from outside the blimp. Picking up her body and climbing outside of the aircraft would show me that the Godzilla machine had stopped in its tracks, standing just before the Wayne-Powers Enterprise building. I held the girl's body in my arms and sighed, climbing into the batjet.

Once arrived back at the manor hours later, I found Inque, Barbara, and Dick all sitting in the batcave.

"What took you so long?!" Inque yelled, standing up and arm turned into a blade. I should have know she'd be furious. "We thought you had died up there!"

My eyes turned to the ground. "I buried her... I found out where she lived and saw her home was destroyed. But I found a large patch of grass untouched by the rubble and dug her her grave. She's home now."

My knees were feeling weak and I cupped my forehead in my left hand, sighing.

Grayson and Barbara looked at each other, exchanging glances.

"Listen, Vance. Let me tell you about a metahuman named Ace. She was a little girl that had the ability to alter reality, or peoples' perception of reality. She had changed so much of Gotham that once she was dying that an agent of Cadmus, Amanda Waller, was worried about the psychic backlash from her death. So she had sent in Batman to kill her... or, he volunteered anyways. Instead of killing her, though, he sat with her, talked with her. So she died peacefully after being convinced to turn everything back."

I stood up and pulled my mask off. "And this makes me feel better how? Are you really trying to make me feel bad? That I shouldn't have killed her? I know that already."

Inque put her hand on my shoulder. "No. That's not his point. His point is that sometimes death is inevitable and all you can do is just make sure that you make sure they die in the most peaceful way possible. And you did just that. You did nothing different than what Bruce would have."

Dick nodded his head. "Exactly."

"Fine. Even if I did the right thing with her, what about the half of Gotham that is destroyed? What about the thousands of people with their homes and businesses gone? How many died in that destruction?"

"Nothing you could have stopped. It was mostly abandoned anyways. Yes, people died, but there'll be casualties, Jake. It's nothing you can stop. Nothing even Batman could stop. The night the Joker died, at least 500 people were killed. Yes, it's still sad people lost their lives again tonight, but you can't beat yourself up over it. That area of the city can be rebuilt. Made better."

I took a few deep breaths before heading to the batcave, whispering "I need to think."