Hello lovelies! No I'm not dead! Anyone who visited my profile knows where I've been, but since I'm guessing most of you didn't I'll tell you I've been out of the country on a mission trip. However, I am back now and here's a new chapter to celebrate the 4th of July (the day after)! Yay!
I do not own Young Justice, but I do love reviews!
Chapter 6: Revelations
(Bruce's P.O.V)
Bruce was in the middle of his research when the bat-signal on his phone went off. Another murder? So soon? They're getting closer together.
He left his office, walking to the grandfather clock in in the living room. As he walked down the stairs to the cave he tried to think of something, anything else the alert could be about besides this case. It didn't matter though, when he clicked the incoming message on the computer there was no mistaking the picture that popped up.
The burned face of a woman, stabbed multiple times, on a rooftop.
Number Six.
Accompanying the pictures were the results of the forensic examination, including estimated time of death.
Two days ago, 11:00 PM.
Bruce slammed his fist down on the desk. 'When is it going to stop?' he raged silently.
Sitting down at the computer, he quickly pulled up the information on Renegade's sixth kill, putting the pictures side by side. Just as he suspected, no differences.
Yet just as with all the other incidents, he began to go through a piece by piece comparison between Renegade's kill and the new crime scene.
Just as before, no differences, down to the last knife wound.
'This is getting me nowhere,' he thought. But then again maybe he wasn't the one missing something. For the first three murders he had gone personally to investigate, unfortunately that just managed to terrify the public more than necessary so recently Batman had been allowing the police forensic experts to meticulously go over the bodies and Commissioner Gordon e-mailed him the results.
Maybe he just needed to find someone else who had had personal experience with Dick in order to find a clue in these crime scenes. But who else did he know who had both experience with Dick and enough forensic knowledge to give a helpful evaluation of-
Flash.
Barry had known Dick since he was little, was like an uncle to him, and worked as a forensic expert so he would know what both the police and a hero would have already looked for in the crime scene.
*ding*
A new message popped up on the computer. Warily, Bruce clicked. It opened, revealing the last thing Bruce wanted to see at the moment.
A man. Older. Maybe late seventies. In a park.
Number seven.
Another murder. So soon? He had only just gotten the lab results back from number six. The time between the other kills had always been much longer, a week at least, yet this one must have occurred barely two days after the sixth. What changed? Frustrated, Bruce closed the file and leaned back against his chair. He wouldn't know the details until the police sent him their report, but from the pictures it appeared that nothing had changed.
Well, changes or not, one thing was certain, the kills were speeding up, and he was running out of time...
...and ideas.
So he did the only thing left to do. He picked up the phone and called the fastest man alive.
The fastest man in everything except answering the phone apparently.
Bruce had to wait until the fifth ring before someone finally picked up.
"Batman! Long time no hear," said a far too chipper voice on the other end.
"Flash, I need your assistance on a case," Bruce answered, though far less enthused.
"I'm sorry I must've heard wrong Bats. What do you need?" Barry's voice dripped teasing sarcasm, he was loving this.
Bruce gritted his teeth 'it's for Dick' he reminded himself 'it's for Dick.' Well it was sort of for Dick, but then only if the two cases were in fact related somehow, and even then it might hurt more than it helped.
Still Bruce swallowed, or more accuratey choked, down his pride and answered "help Barry, I said I need your help."
"Really?!" Okay now he was pushing it. "Well why didn't you say so? I'd be more than happy to aid you in anyway I can."
Bruce sighed, this is why he tried to avoid talking to the speedster.
"So what do ya need me to do B?"
"I need you to run down to Gotham and take a look at a crime scene for me."
"Ahh, no can do I'm afraid." Flash apologized, sounding far less upset than Bruce would've wanted.
"Flash, this is important."
"I'm sure it is B, but seriously I can't help you. I'm off world right now with Hal and Diana cleaning up that incident on Nimron remember?"
No, Bruce didn't remember, but to be fair he'd been so wrapped up in the case lately he hadn't been paying much attention to off world problems.
"Listen Bats, I can tell this is important to you, why can't you just go look yourself?"
Bruce stiffened. How much should he reveal about the situation? How much did Flash already know? Of course, the whole league was aware of what happened o Dick two years ago, but for Bruce's sake they kept questions and discussion about it to a minimum. What had happened had affected the whole league. Dick had been like a nephew to each and every one of them, news of his imprisonment hadn't gone over well at first…
(Flashback)
"You did WHAT?!" Flash shouted across the long meeting room table. He would've probably jumped out of his chair if Green Arrow hadn't planted his arm to his shoulder to hold him down.
"I did what I had to Flash," Batman countered in a monotone voice that sounded like he was still trying to convince himself of that fact. "You all saw the evidence, it's not safe to let him run lose."
The gathered leaguers gave a variety of reactions.
Some, like Barry, seethed at the unfairness of the situation.
Others, like Superman, sat quietly, still trying to take in everything they had just read and seen on the screen.
"How could this have happened?" Dinah, one of the latter, murmured to no one in particular, "to one of our own?"
Bruce didn't answer her. He just kept staring down at the table, the whites of his lenses only half visible.
The room settled into silence, no one happy with Bruce's solution, but no one had any better ideas on how to fix it.
They stayed like that for a long time until Batman finally stood up. All eyes shifted to him, but he only turned and started walking to the zeta tubes without saying a word.
"Batman!"
He paused, but didn't look back.
"If there's anything we can do…"
Bruce stepped into the tube.
"Thanks Diana," he raised his head briefly to meet her eyes before disappearing in a flash of gold.
(End of Flashback)
Since then, Batman had withdrawn from the league quite a bit. Oh, he was still in it, but the Renegade case had consumed most of his time even then and league business had taken a backseat. He still showed up for important meetings and world catastrophes, but even then he was quiet, reserved in the way he handled himself. His fellow heroes had been very understanding, though Bruce suspected that it had something to do with how they themselves were uncomfortable with the topic at hand.
"Bats? You still there?" Flash's voice pulled him out of his memories.
"Um, yes I'm still here. I'm just, not sure how to start..."
"Well, just say it. I've never found waiting to be very helpful."
Why was Bruce not surprised?
"Flash, it's about… Robin" Bruce started.
All traces of humor seemed to evaporate from the conversation.
"What about Robin?" the normally excitable speedster's tone turning to ice.
"You remember the… incident two years ago?"
"How could I forget?" the question sounding more like an accusation for some reason.
"It's happening again"
Something crashed on Flash's end of the line.
Flash paused. "You mean… the murders? B, you realize you live in Gotham right? Murders happen all the time."
"No Flash, I mean the exact same murders. Victims, location, they're happening just like before, in the exact same order."
Another pause. "Where's Dick?"
Bruce hesitated briefly before answering. "He's here, with me. I took him out of Arkham a couple days ago to keep an eye on him."
Well, Flash didn't start shouting immediately so Bruce took that as a good sign.
"Batman. If you're telling me Richard was innocent this whole time…"
On second thought, maybe shouting would've been better, Flash's tone was lethal.
"No Flash. He's not innocent, the evidence was conclusive." Bruce quickly interrupted before the conversation could deteriorate any further.
"Look, the sixth murder happened barely a day ago and the seventh's details just came in. Whoever this killer is, he's speeding up. I have to find him now and I have no more leads."
Flash took a moment to think before answering, "why me?"
"Because the you're the only person I can think of who has experience with both super villains and police forensic analysts. I've looked at these bodies, they've looked at these bodies, and neither of us has found anything important. I was hoping maybe you, knowing what both groups look for, might discover something new."
"Okay," Flash said at last, "I don't think I'm going to get off this assignment anytime soon so here's what I suggest: sounds like you're dealing with a copycat so your murderer probably knew Dick or knew the person Dick was working for-"
"We have no evidence he was working for anyone," Bruce cut in.
"Don't interrupt B, I'm just throwing out possibilities. My suggestion is that you get Wally to go in my place. He knows almost as much about forensic science as I do, and he has had his own fair share of experience with supervillains. On top of that, he knew Robin better than almost anyone, and Renegade too." He finished with a touch of bitterness.
Bruce stiffened, that was new, "what do you mean he knows Renegade? He wasn't in Gotham before his arrest."
"No, no he wasn't. But unlike you, he did go see him in prison."
"What?!" Bruce practically shouted. Why wasn't he told about this? Then again, why wasn't he told a lot of things during Dick's time in Arkham?
'And whose fault is that?!' his inner conscience shouted at him, but he squashed it back down.
"Hey, I'm not saying he went everyday, but once or twice yeah he ran down to see him." Flash was quick to defend his nephew. "Dick was his best friend, and you know he had trouble believing he was guilty, he wasn't going to accept it without talking to him."
Bruce took a moment to absorb the new information. "Did he talk to him?"
Flash didn't answer right away and Bruce got the impression that this topic was almost as painful for Barry as it was for him.
"Kid never said much about it, and I didn't want to force him to say anything he didn't want to, like I said he only went a couple of times, apparently Dick wasn't up for conversation either time and he said he mostly talked to his psychiatrist, and I'm rambling aren't I?"
But Bruce wasn't listening anymore. Now he knew he needed to talk to Wally, even if he didn't come up with anything at the crime scenes, knowledge of what Dick was like in prison could be valuable, and anything his psychiatrist had to say certainly would be.
Bruce was just about to hang up to call Wally when his computer email flashed again.
*IMPORTANT NEW EVIDENCE*
"Flash, could you call Kid Flash for me, something just came up."
"Sure B, what's wrong now?"
"I don't know, could be nothing, I'm sure Wally'll update you later."
Bruce hung up without saying goodbye and opened the email.
A video, Bruce tried not to think of what happened the last time he received a video in this situation.
He opened the file, surprised to find that it was security footage. None of the other attacks had occurred within view of a security camera, or any camera for that matter.
From the quality of the footage, it wasn't a very advanced camera, but then again who installs high price surveillance equipment in a park anyway?
The clip was only about ten seconds long and showed a man, most likely the victim, but he looked quite different with his face still intact and no blood on his clothes, walking behind a medium sized tree.
He never came out the other side.
Within five seconds, the old man was lying on his back half-hidden by the tree, face aflame.
The video stopped. Bruce's mouth hung open.
So where was the murderer?
Even if the killer had been hiding behind or in the tree, Bruce surely would've seen a glimpse of a hand or something?
Bruce pulled up the forensic report that had come with the video. Same as before, stab wounds, face burned post-mortem, and died of lethal injection.
He rewatched the feed a few more times, zooming in on various parts of the tree in order to find any clue as to the identity of the killer.
Nothing.
Even though the man was half visible the whole time, there was no sign of his assailant.
So now the murderer was invisible?
Bruce re-read the report again, the puncture wounds from the injections were perfect, and there were only two, which means neither one ever missed its' mark. Whoever did this had to have extreme experience with giving injections and chemicals, to be able to prepare and deliver those two shots in that amount of time.
Wonderful. The culprit was invisible, had experience with chemicals, and knew Dick.
Invisible, chemicals, Dick.
Bruce went ridged.
Invisible... chemicals... Dick...
Invisible? Or just too fast to see?
His comlink beeped and Bruce nearly fell out of his chair.
He reached up to answer it with a shaky hand.
"Hello?"
"Bats? I tried to call Wally, but he's not answering his com and Iris said she hasn't seen him for a about a month. Apparently he told her he was going on a trip to Gotham for a little while. Sorry, I wish I could've helped you more."
Bruce hesitated. Should he tell Barry? When the situation was reversed, would he have wanted to be kept in the dark about Dick?
No, he had to tell him, no matter how painful.
"Flash," he started, "I think I know who's behind this."
"You do? Who?!"
Bruce felt his heart twist. He sounded so eager, so blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.
"I-I'm not sure how to say it..."
"Oh for heaven's sake Bats, just say it!"
"Barry, it's Wally."
*CRASH*
"What?!" Barry shouted into Bruce's ear, he kept shouting but Bruce didn't hear him.
He was too busy staring into the shocked blue eyes of the shadow that had snuck up behind him.
End of Chapter 6
Yes indeed! It is a cliffhanger (of sorts)! I had planned to put a bit more in this chapter, but when a perfect ending presents itself you don't argue. So we'll have to leave poor Bruce dealing with the aftermath of accidentally telling his son that his best friend is a serial killer for next time, what fun!
Sairey13: And you win the award for longest review, thank you so much! As far as the thoughts of suicide go, while I was writing the last chapter I got a bit to carried away with Dick's stream of consciousness and realized that was exactly where it was going. If you want to consider those thoughts implied, be my guest, but I'm not going to clearly state them in order to keep the rating at T. J'onn is coming into the story soon and no this is not a Birdflash, just a close friendship.
steelec1: Slade? My, my, my one of my favorite villains when it comes to hero/villain chemistry with Dick. However, the name Renegade has nothing to do with Deathstroke in this case, I was just to lazy to come up with a different name for Dick that didn't sound cheesy.
Elijah Dragneel: I'll tell you nothing! But here is a clue the villain is not an OC (not a hint at all, but just in case anyone was wondering I did not make up my villain). Thanks for the review.
Guest of honor: Yes, Bruce is not being the greatest role model for people in this situation, but in his defense... well, when I think of something in his defense I'll tell you.
Guest: I know, it's so much fun.
wittyusernames: I love your username, thanks for the review!