Important Author's Note: This story is moving into its final phase. As I've implied in the past, I have plans for a sequel. So... To see if I can gauge interest, I'm thinking I might offer a sort of teaser if people are interested. I'm planning on writing a bit of a prequel, that I'l like to send out to some people a bit early (before this story is even finished). So if you like the sound of that, send me a message or leave a review and I'd be happy to get that to you. I can guarantee virtually no spoilers for this story, so don't worry about that. It's really just a bit of fun.

Hugo Strange stumbled into his secondary hideout, supported by his head guard and followed by the rest of his troops. The Captain gently eased him down into a chair. "Are you alright, Sir?" The soldier asked standing at attention.

"I am fine. But my plan has failed. You were trained to stop the Batman. And your men have failed in that mission."

"I'm sorry, Sir, but it wasn't him! It was Catwoman! They didn't stand a chance, she doesn't move like him at all!"

"No excuses, Captain." Strange reprimanded. "You know my policy on failure."

"I... Yes Sir." The guard bent down on one knee and bowed his head. Strange picked up a pistol from a nearby table and pressed the barrel against the back of the man's head.

"Normally, I detest such meaningless demonstrations of brute violence," he said, twisting the gun against the soldier's head, "but alas, examples must be made." He pulled the trigger, instantly killing the man and splattering blood and grey matter over his lab coat.

"Pardon me, Sir," one of the guards said, nervously stepping forward. "But what do we do now? We've failed to kill Wonder Woman."

Strange scratched his beard thoughtfully. "I do not think that she will be a problem. I see no reason to adapt our plans. His inclusion of the Catwoman was... Unexpected, but it does not change circumstances in his favor... Quite the contrary, I believe that this my work to our advantage. Tomorrow, we move on to phase three as planned. Make the preparations."

When Diana woke up the next morning, she was less than surprised to see that Bruce wasn't in the bed next to her. She didn't remember everything that had happened the previous night (she'd returned to the manor and immediately collapsed from exhaustion), but she remembered enough to know that she and Bruce had a lot to talk about, meaning that he'd be nowhere to be found.

Sure enough, he managed to elude her for most of the day. She didn't manage to find him until later in the evening, when she could exploit his well-established nightly routine. She managed to corner him in the Batcave, where he was sitting in his chair, his eyes closed and his fingers pointed under his chin.

"I should've known." She said, approaching him from behind. "You would practiced brooding down here."

"I'm thinking." He said gruffly.

"What are you thinking about?"

"A lot."

"Mhm. The rest of us call that 'brooding.'"

"Do you need something?" He said dully, opening one eye.

"As a matter of fact, I do. It's time that we talked. About us. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

"What do you mean 'us?'"

Diana sighed. "The hard way it is, then. I mean that-"

Bruce held up a hand to stop her. "Hold that thought. The Batcomputer's picking up a news report.

"Of course it is." Diana groaned, rolling her eyes. "How convenient."

Batman ignored her, instead activating the Batcomputer's live newsfeed. An attractive woman with pin-straight blonde hair appeared on the screen, standing in front of a smoking building.

"This is Vicki Vale reporting live from the Gotham City Industrial facility, where a blaze broke out about an hour ago in an unoccupied employee housing complex belonging to the Sionis Corporation. Early reports indicate that the fire may be the work of notorious serial arsonist Garfield Lynns, alias Firefly, and-" She paused for a moment, listening to the earpiece that fed her information. "We have breaking news: Lynns' body has been found in the building, evidently murdered. Sources from within the Gotham City Police Department report that-" Vale's jaw dropped, and she stammered for a moment. "What the... That can't be right! Check it again!"

"You're on air, Vicki!" A voice hissed from off-screen.

"Er... Right." She sighed and continued. "Sources from with the GCPD report that... That Batman has been implicated as a person of interest in the murder investigation. City officials are currently calling for the arrest of the masked vigilante, claiming that he's been given too much leeway in the past, and that murder is the final straw. The Batman is urged to turn himself into the proper authorities, and any citizens with knowledge of his whereabouts are encouraged to step forward. Once again, I'm Vicki Vale for Gotham tonight, signing off."

Diana stared at him, dumbstruck. "Bruce... You didn't..."

"No." He said shortly. "One, I wouldn't. Two, if I did, they would never be able to implicate me."

"But... How?"

"I don't know. But I fully intend to find out." He said, making his way over to the display case where he kept the Batsuit.

"I don't like this. I'm going with you." Diana said, stripping off her clothes to reveal her armor underneath."

"If you must."

"Good to know that you enjoy my company..."

"It's not that, it's just..." Bruce stopped himself and busied himself with calibrating the settings on his cowl.

"Just what?" Diana asked curiously.

"Nothing. We'd better get a move on." He jumped into the Batmobile. Diana hopped in afterward, a satisfied smirk on her face.

As Batman had expected, the Bat signal was shining brightly against the evening sky, next to an enormous full moon. He swerved into an alleyway next to the GCPD building and parked the Batmobile, activating the vehicle's cloaking systems. He retrieved his grapple gun and pulled himself up to the roof of the building with Wonder Woman gliding closely behind him.

Police Commissioner Jim Gordon was standing next to the floodlight that was the source of the signal. As he was facing the other direction and looking over the opposite edge of the building, he didn't notice the pair until Diana coughed softly. Gordon jumped slightly and whirled around, a hand on his weapon.

"Geez, it's just you... You're late."

"I just saw the news." Batman said. "We need to talk."

"You're damn right about that." Gordon said grimly. "You picked a hell of a night to bring your girlfriend along." He said, eyeing Wonder Woman. "Not that I can blame you, I guess. Jim Gordon." He said, extending a hand."

"Diana." Wonder Woman said, shaking his hand.

"Yikes, that's quite a grip..." Gordon said quietly, massaging his hand and turning back to face Batman. "Anyway, shit's hit the fan now, I can tell you that much. Care to tell me what the hell is going on here?'

"I was hoping you could tell me." Batman said.

"So you're saying that you didn't... ?"

"You know me better than that, Jim. I don't kill people. Not even sleaze like Firefly."

Gordon nodded, a relieved look on his face. "I just needed to hear it from you. But if you weren't involved, then we could be in for some serious trouble. I'm talking a real political nightmare."

"Why do they think I'm involved in the first place?"

"Somebody was filming the fire. Caught somebody that looks an awful lot like you leaving the scene. Not to mention some of your gear. I've done my best to keep it under wraps, but the footage could break at any time now."

"I need to see that footage."

"Come on, Batman, you're a person of interest. You know I can't show you evidence." Although..." He tugged on his mustache thoughtfully. "If... Hypothetically, of course... Someone were to hack the police network, I'm pretty certain that they'd be able to find it there."

"Fair enough." Batman muttered. "But you know that I don't just leave my gear lying around anywhere."

"You don't think I've tried making that case? Believe me, I'm trying to take your side, but this is over my head. You know how those blowhards at city hall are. They're more concerned for their careers. They're afraid that if they defend you and you come up guilty, they'll end up looking bad. Not to mention that you being out of the way means that they can go back to taking bribes and giving out favors without fear of a midnight visit. Bottom line, they've already sided against you."

"No surprises there." Batman thought out loud "But I've dealt with hornet's nests before. I can handle it.."

"I hope so. I've given you pretty much a free reign on the streets for years, and if you don't get this cleared up, they'll be wanting my head next. Tell me you have something for me?"

"I think it's connected to the incident at Arkham."

"Figures..." Gordon murmured. "All the loonies come out of the woodwork at once." He shook his head slightly. "You know, as a Gotham Police Officer, it's my duty to at leastattempt to bring you in."

"By all means." Batman gave one of his rare grins and held out his arms. Gordon somewhat suspiciously approached the Dark Knight and placed a pair of thick handcuffs over his wrists.

"Alright, here's how we're going to do this... I'm going to take a moment to appreciate the moon..." Gordon looked away from Batman, and up at the sky, but didn't let go off the cuffs. "And just wait for a little bit. Not every night that you see a moon like that. Bit ominous, given the circumstances..." He waited for a moment, carefully avoiding looking at the spot where Batman was standing. "You know, that's your cue to-" He finally looked over; Batman and Wonder Woman had both vanished, leaving him alone on the rooftop clutching a pair of ruined handcuffs. "Heh." He chuckled, examining the mangled restraints. "Maybe now they'll make some room in the budget for some decent equipment."

"I can't believe that the people of Gotham would just tur their backs on you like that, after all you've done for them." Diana said, folding her arms indignantly.

"I would, if I were them." Batman said reasonably, as he set the Batmobile's autopilot to take them back to the Batcave." Most of them don't know what I do, because I don't broadcast it. I can't operate like you and Superman. I have to work from the shadows. It's hard to strike fear into the hearts of criminals when you're making appearances at the Macy's Day Parade."

"But still... Maybe you should have gone to the police? Just to clear things up?"

"Yeah, that would've worked well." Batman said sarcastically. "'My alibi? No, I couldn't have done it, because at the time of the murder I was sitting alone in my cave underneath Wayne Manor.' No, I'm doing this my way."

"And your way is... ?"

"We start with that video." He opened the Batmobile's built in computer, and began punching away at the keys. "Their files are a mess... I think I have it." He opened the video, and instantly knew that it was what he was looking for. The video showed an enormous building, with brilliant red flames pouring out of every window- definitely Firefly's work. However, the most interesting piece came partway through- a shadowy figure appeared crouched in one of the windows. The smoke was to thick to see most of the details, But Batman could just barely make out a pair of pointed ears on top of the head, and white eyes that bore all too strong a resemblance to his own cowl. The figure jumped out of the window and launched a grapple gun, evidently similar that Batman used. Still using the smoke for cover, the figure swooped away and out of sight.

Bruce looked at Diana; her mouth was hanging slightly open, and her eyes were wide. "You have to believe me, I didn't... I couldn't have..."

"He moved just like you..." She said slowly. "I don't like it anymore than you do, but we have to consider the possibility that that really was you."

"How could you think that?" Bruce asked, not believing his ears. "You know that I would never-."

"I know, Bruce. I know. But this is exactly the kind of thing that Strange would do. Who knows what he did to you at the Asylum?"

"I couldn't have..."

"You need to look at this objectively, Bruce. The truth is, Strange is out there, along with the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter. That's three horrible people who specialize in doing terrible, terrible things to people's minds." She hated herself for saying it, but she knew what she had to do. "Bruce... It's just a precaution, but I'm taking you back to the Watchtower tonight for psychological observation."

Bruce didn't respond, but slunk back into his seat, looking miserable. "Bruce... It's not your fault, even if Strange did manipulate you." She reached over to hug him comfortingly. "We'll go straight to J'onn. He'll know how to get to the bottom of this.

Author's Note: This would have been up last night, but seems to be down more often than not as of late. I'm sure that this chapter is riddled with plot holes and typos, but I'll deal with that soon enough. Probably nothing glaring, but some oddities that might need cropping.

Once again, I'm going to put out a request for some input- is this getting to convoluted? I've been laying false trails and leaving subtle hints, but I don't want to lose people.

I think that we might meet another old friend next time... Any guesses who? That's a challenge, by the way. There's a painfully obvious hint somewhere here...

I think that's all I have to say... I'm a bit scattered tonight, so I might have missed something. This one was written in two parts, so it might be a bit of a headache. If anybody has trouble with any of it, just let me know and I'll be sure to fix it right up. Now... I think that's everything.