I looked down toward the Batman, who was lying on a blue sofa with a towel on his head. I decided not to touch his costume even though I have certainty of his identity. It is no longer an issue of uncovering Batman's identity, nor bringing in a vigilante. This city needs Batman, and Batman needs the city. More than even that, I have my own mess to clean up. B, is free, who killed so much less then Kira, but was so much more frightening. He came for me. Batman and Gotham is paying the price for my intrusion on their lives. Their legend, the guardian of the night is before me in terrible condition. Sweat comes down what portion of his face that can be seen, his breathing is heavy, and his pulse was racing, although there was no sign of physical injury.
The news had live footage of what happened, Batman's battle with Beyond Birthday, Batman's fall, and the police rushing in. After that it goes bad. B had headed down into the building. Shots were heard, and screaming. Then, from the front door stepped the murderer now appearing much more to be a demon. Every inch of his flesh and clothing was now a deep red of blood. His axe was dripping with fresh blood, however despite all the lives taken with it and blood drying as well on the edge, the weapon was still apparently very sharp. The police aimed their weapons; however B had a surprise for them: He held up the commissioner with his unarmed hand in the way. Gordon insisted they fire, but they instead dropped their guns. With that B and the commissioner left with little resistance.
B's last move was also one that was most disturbing, although it cannot be proven for sure if it had been him or not. Three criminals were found carved up within Arkham, during a short time all the cameras temporarily shut down, the victims being: Poison Ivy, Bane, and the Penguin. Bane and the Penguin were found dead from blood loss, Ivy is currently in critical condition, it is not known if she would live or die. All of their wounds were similar; their flesh was carved into and stabbed multiple times leaving each bleeding out. I had already sent Watari to question Poison Ivy that we may obtain the information that can be gathered from her in case time runs out. The criminals had one thing in common: I had enlisted their help in gathering a sample of dna from the Batman near the beginning of the investigation. Ivy was the distraction, Bane forced Batman to take to the rooftops were Penguin sent his birds to cut and steal a piece of Batman's costume with a bit of his blood. My question is the following: How had B found their link to me, if indeed that was his reasoning for attacking the three?
I stayed behind to watch over the Bat in his recovery. My suspicions is B may have infected Batman with a virus when he unleashed that yellow gas, I have already taken blood samples, its been separated between virus and blood finding nothing. All that could be found is normal human blood, nothing more. However, on closer investigation I found his current dna within the blood sample taken did not match the original taken by Penguin's birds. Could the birds had made a mistake? Or has his dna been modified somehow? If so, what will the effects be?
I clenched my fists together as the world around me and Batman fell apart in chunks on all sides. Suddenly I was standing on a floating chunk of rock with batman lying at my feet. By instinct I looked up seeing a dark figure looking down at me, the one who gives a distorted reflection. B was looking down at us with a cruel smirk on his face standing on top of a skyscraper covered in blood holding a simple blade. A sound caught my attention, a crack. My focus went down at my feet seeing the sides of my platform were starting to crumble apart. Slowly the area began smaller and smaller. I gritted my teeth thinking as the world began to shake. My eyes widened as the area under the bat crumbled, and down he plummeted into the dark abyss. More fell at the sides leaving me to balance simply on one foot, and suddenly even that fell sending my body hurling down into darkness as his dark chuckle echoed from all sides.
In reality Batman slowly began sitting up as a slight smile began spreading over his lips. A smirk appeared on his face, then he dived into my chest slamming me back onto the floor.
He began to loudly laugh as he slammed his fists rapidly into my face sending a stinging tingle sensation bursting with each shot. I thrown my weight to the right hurling the caped crusader from my body and stood up facing the dark knight. "What has happened to you? Why are you doing this?"
The Batman snarled and spoke in his growl of a voice, "Don't play me for a fool Rue. I intend to put you in Arkham where you belong murderer!"
He reached into his belt hurling several of his own style boomerangs, I flipped to avoid the attack, but a second later my legs were wrapped by some hurled instrument which could only be described as a cord and weighted balls. I slammed into the ground with a thud and another burst of pain. I took calm slow breaths to calm down and assess the situation. Batman thinks I am B based on our appearance, and I have been captured by this hero. But, it must be simply more than my appearance… there is something off about the bat… something about his expression...
That is how I found myself in a padded cell, and right across from me was none other than the Joker himself as a neighbor you could say. He sat within his own cell watching me laughing, always laughing, yet choose not to speak a word. My dreams began to be effected by his laugh. Before long I began to have dreams of killing the clown, and woke in a cold sweat.
One night on waking I found a crudely made, yet amazingly sharp blade sitting at my side, with not a soul or sighs of anyone entering my cell was to be seen. I gripped the blade and glanced around; within moments I opened one of my cot beds legs from the bottom, slipped the shank in and resealed it. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes relaxing now that a threat to my earlier release that I could possibly have.
A sudden insane laugh snapped my eyes open as a cold whisper came into my ear, "Rue… my boys don't play coy. I thought you were just some punk boy… but I know now what you are. I watched the broadcast; the blood and axe play was simply delicious! So, I sat here awaiting your move when I could escape any time, but you seem too content with sitting here to rot. Tonight we will break out from this place… and you will get another chance at the bat, but this time by my rules. The way I see it is you lack a mentor to disciple you in the ways of mayhem and murder." The clown prince of murder let out a cackle at the word murder that continued on for a time.
I slowly turned facing the criminal and slowly stroked my left leg with my right balancing for a short moment while scratching at a small itch, "How had you entered my cell…. No I shouldn't ask that question. From what I have gathered, you Joker, practically live here, coming in and out at will. I am also sorry to say this, but I must decline your most generous offer."
The grin of the clown went to a scowl as he brought his own blade to the pale soft flesh of my throat giving a slice nick causing a cold trail to slowly run down my neck as he speaks coldly, "This was not an offer or an act of generosity… tonight we will leave this place… and later you shall kill the one who saved you from me.. Or die at my hands."