Ch 2: Batman flew out at 9 o'clock on the dot. Joker was not there yet. Bruce was grimly nervous because he had not spotted any of the toys that he knew Joker would likely have around and about.

Bruce also felt naked because he knew that Alfred was watching worried and he had not resolved things with his friends. Also, he had made sure that the decoys were his only toys. He did not want to risk the Joker not showing up. Besides, this was the ultimate battle between the two and he wanted to be as much about the two of them as possible

Joker showed up at 9:05. "hee hee, ho ho, oh heee hee."

"I knew you would do this. So self-sacrificing." Joker put a note of mock-sorrow in his voice.

Batman said nothing just narrowed his eyes and stood tall.

Joker aimed an RPG at the ceiling as he walked towards Batman.

Batman ran up the wall to land behind Joker and turned Joker's RPG to face over his shoulder so the RPG blew up a pillar rather than bringing down the ceiling.

"Oh hee." Batman sighed internally, he was going to get tired of that laugh.

Many of the reporters and observers scattered. "Good." Batman said, grimly. This was going to get ugly fast. Also, now his decoys looked now like overeager reporters who just idiotically stayed in this epic battle.

The Joker threw his RPG to the side, which made Bruce immediately suspicious. Bruce examined the RPG. But his attention turned back to the Joker who was reaching for one of his knives. Bruce ran at Joker and tackled him down. Bruce turned his eyes and tried to find the RPG again. But before he could, he heard barking and sighed.

He ran up the wall, securing himself to a few pipes using ropes he had in his belt.

The dogs were barking at him but he waited until all the dogs were in a circle barking up at him. He disconnected the ropes suddenly, falling down to a crouch and letting one of the dogs hit into the other dogs and then whirling in a circle flinging dogs until every dog was hit against the wall. He winced internally as he heard the sounds of dogs hitting the wall. The dogs were innocents that the Joker and the mob had brought into this melee.

He again looked for the RPG. He had a sinking feeling that the dogs were a distraction to allow the Joker to set up the RPG.

His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the RPG was very close to the waiting crowd. There were still people in the crowd.

He turned around and saw the Joker with his sinister smile holding a gun in one hand, humming and moving his fingers and a detonator in the other.

Bruce looked at the RPG and then looked at the Joker. This was the Joker's game. He wanted to see how far Batman would take his self-sacrifice. There was no way to do both, protect himself or the few civilians. But Batman knew that the Joker also had another game, this would shame Gotham which was willing to let him self-sacrifice… wait, there was something else in this game he was missing. That was too simplistic for the Joker. He liked to layer his gammes.

"No time." Bruce scolded himself and he leapt for the RPG and it exploded just as Bruce got his hands on the back of it. Thankfully, Bruce was simply pushed backwards into the wall behind him.

Bruce saw that his decoys were knocked off of their feet along with a few other reporters and everyone who was left was running as fast as they could out of Lower fifth.

Joker began to laugh which made Batman nervous. He pushed himself up and he ran towards the Joker again, but as he got closer he realized something was wrong. "the explosion must have addled my brains." Bruce groused internally.

But it was too late, Bruce had gotten too close to the Joker. The Joker moved his head to the side and pulled the string. Another explosion rocked Lower fifth and again Bruce found that he remained unscathed though the flames surrounded him.

Batman leapt over the flames and rushed the Joker, ignoring the pain in his side from the debris and the push against the wall.

Batman managed to wrestle the Joker to the ground. He pinned the Joker's hands around his head to ensure that the Joker could not pull any of his tricks. "Oh hee. I don't need my hands." The Joker said, ominously.

Joker waited and then continued when Bruce's eyes just narrowed. "Just watch." Joker sing-songed.

Bruce worried as the Joker was obviously counting down to something. Two minutes later, an explosion rocked lower fifth. "Not me." Joker said. "The honest and civilized people." Joker said.

Bruce finally understood Joker's game. He expected that both of them would walk away from here and continue this. He wanted Batman demoralized and unable to protect Gotham.

Batman smiled at the Joker. He stood up and waited for the next explosion.

But before the explosion came, Joker came at Bruce with a knife. Bruce tossed the Joker over his shoulder again, not letting himself visibly wince as the knife cut skin on his shoulder. "Oh we are so repetitive." The Joker sing-songed.

Another explosion rocked lower fifth and this one knocked the pillars down, pinning the Joker and Batman. Batman managed to push the stone pillars that were pinning him down away from him. He then contemplated whether or not he should go and save the Joker. "It would be murder if I did not." Batman decided. "I will bind him and leave him for the GCPD and Arkham."

He got up to save the Joker but another blast knocked him back which was followed by the other. This one was obviously one the Joker had set up in the situation that he was killed as it was accompanied by "Hee hee, ho ho."

That was the last thing Bruce heard as he blacked out. This time he let himself succumb. The Joker was dead. Gotham was safe in Gordon's capable hands. Dent could be the White Knight. Bruce and Batman could rest now. There was no reason to fight anymore. Alfred could retire and Rachel did not want him…

Meanwhile, "Harvey, stop this." Gordon begged, feeling completely flatfooted by the DA who had come in, and, with the mayor's assent, had begun ordering the national guard to fire on Lower Fifth after the initial explosions.

Harvey paused and walked to Gordon. "Gordon," he said, his tone clipped and crisped, but still somehow warm, said, "Batman is dead. We saw the first two blasts and did not see his cloak after the second. And you saw that the first blast also probably injured him deeply."

"Alright, but hold off for a few minutes. In case, the Batman is alive, it will give him a chance to leave."

Harvey looked conflicted, and Gordon understood that the reason. If the Joker was still alive he could leave as well. But Gordon valued Batman's life more than he wanted Joker dead.

"Batman is resourceful. I am not even certain that he has not neutralized the Joker and is the one that is alive."

Harvey and Gordon both paused for a second, jolted from their thoughts and considerations when the final bomb went off and the Joker's voice. "Move in. Move in." Gordon yelled to his SWAT teams, his heart cold and elated at the same time.

"what are you doing?" Dent yelled.

"The Joker is dead. I want to get the Batman out." Gordon said.

When Dent did not move. Gordon shrugged off his arm and then told his SWAT to move in. "Carefully." He cautioned putting on a Kevlar vest so that he could go in as well. "watch for booby traps."

He bounced a few balls ahead of the SWAT team to explode any mines or any weapons that could be rigged to blow up on contact. This technique had saved many lives as the Joker did like his traps. But Gordon was more concerned with what had had happened to the Batman.

Gordon looked around and saw the devastation. He paused and cursed Dent. It would take ages to fix up lower fifth.

Gordon found the Batman pinned under some pillars. "Get him out." He barked.

But he knew that though he wanted to help dig out the Batman he had to go look and see what happened to the Joker.

He gave the SWAT team extracting the Batman one last glance, and then moved around digging to find the Joker. He gestured over three officers. Batman would be pleased at his exercising caution and realizing that, "nothing was simple with the Joker."

Gordon found the Joker pinned down and dead with his eerie smile fixed onto his face.

Gordon bent over to check the Joker's pulse. He wanted no chance of any mistakes. He braced himself so that he could quickly leap back and get help. And then he checked Joker's pulse and relaxed when he felt none. Even the Joker could not fake the lack of a pulse.

"Dig him out."

Gordon ran as fast as looked dignified. He supervised the removal of concrete over Batman until he was called away. "Commissioner, the Mayor wants an update."

"Why doesn't he get it from Dent." He grumbled to himself.

"Mayor. The fight is over. The Joker is dead and the Batman is pinned under rubble and debris. Due to his mask we are unclear whether he is alive or not." He paused, and then added, "Lower fifth is in shambles."

"What do I want to do with the Batman? Sir, I know this is not really my place, how can we arrest him after the injuries he has taken. In fact, injuries, with respect, that we have inflicted."

"True… we can deal with this later." Gordon said. "Sir, for the media." Gordon had no illusion that he had any political capital and had no desire to step on any toes. Gordon internally rolled his eyes as the mayor promised to be on scene soon to deal with the media. Gordon thought Mayor Garcia was better than previous mayors and had more of an anti-crime stance. Though he was a true politician and Gordon knew that if Garcia ever figured out his views on him, Gordon would be out on his ear.

After getting off the phone with the Mayor he walked around supervising the clean-up and ended his circuit at the crew that was freeing Batman. He resisted the urge to run and help in pulling off debris from Batman. That was not dignified. He had to more subtle about it so that the rumors did not start about Gordon and Batman being in league.

In ten minutes he started being able to help taking the debris off of the Batman as he was able to make it appear like he was simply supporting his men and women and helping to pull off Batman.

He heard footsteps approaching and did not turn around as he continued to help the teams lift debris off of the Joker. "What is the situation?" Harvey asked, quietly.

"The Joker is definitely dead. We cannot be sure about the Batman." Gordon said, turning around finally.

He was surprised to see Rachel Dawes standing next to Harvey. "Congratulations on the engagement, Ms. Dawes."

"Commissioner." Rachel said, with the ghost of her trademark mischievous smile. "We have known each other too long, Rachel."
Gordon smiled, but waited. Harvey answered the question that Gordon did not ask. "Rachel has asked to be given charge of the Batman."

Gordon was conflicted. "Keep working." He told his teams and then gestured for Harvey and Rachel to follow.

"I have already talked to the mayor. We cannot arrest the Batman. He is in too fragile of a condition and besides…"

He trailed off as Harvey raised a hand. "Rachel made the same points. Even I can make a sacrifice. The Batman deserves a medal and not to be jailed for sacrificing for us. But, MCU is too closely associated with the Batman as it is. Turn him over to Rachel so you can tell the press you turned him over to the DA's office. Then we will decide based on public opinion on how to spin it. If there is a lot of pro-Batman sentiment, we will spin it as we did not want to penalize the hero. If more neutral or negative sentiment, we put him in protective custody, we made a deal with him, et cetera."

Gordon inclined his head. Again, he felt a bit used by Dent's political ambitions and calculations but he knew that it was in his best interests just to let it go. Besides, this was about the greater good of Gotham.

He was also reassured by the fact that Rachel kept looking over to where the police teams were digging out the Batman. She would take good care of him.

Dent and Rachel also both began to help dig out the Batman. A few minutes later, Rachel put her hand on Harvey's shoulder and said, "Harvey, someone needs to talk to the press."

"Yeah." He said.

"Harvey, Mayor Garcia is not here yet and will not be for a few minutes." Rachel reiterated.

"Oh. That is right." Harvey said, and then he walked out. Harvey looked back at Batman once more, which caused Gordon to guess that the DA was feeling guilty for his role in Batman's injuries.

"How did he get this injured." Rachel asked, softly as they finally got to the last layer.

"Well," Gordon decided to risk telling the ADA the truth, "partly the Joker's doing and party…ours."

Gordon saw that Rachel understood that the our meant Harvey. He was surprised to see a flash of anger as well as guilt cross her face.

She stopped asking questions for a brief moment and then started again. "What do you think should happen to Batman?"

Gordon hesitated but again decided that he had nothing to risk. She was not a political climber and as such was unlikely to rat him out. Besides, even if he were wrong about that, he would speak carefully. "Unmasking him will just cause ourselves a headache. Even if we follow policy and arrest him, we will be incurring cost, since he is so injured and hassle."

And what you want to do?" She asked softly.

This time Gordon looked at her and searched Rachel's face. He found himself staring at a vulnerable young girl. He wanted to hug her, for some reason, but then reminded himself that this normally tough young ADA had battled mob lords, and maneuvered internal Gotham politics to get herself to where she was. She would not take kindly to even well-meaning paternalism.

"Let him go free." He answered, honestly. "Let him blend back into Gotham society and forget that he ever had to endure this."

She smiled.

"You?"

"The same." She said, wistfully. "Of course, like you, official policy will bind me."

He had a feeling that that was not entirely true and when he looked at her she winked slightly.

"Of course." He said, cheered.

Rachel let out a slight gasp along with Gordon when they pulled out the mangled body of Batman.

Gordon had to raise an eyebrow to get the young DA to take charge. "Uh. Put him on an ambulance stretcher. I will be taking Batman to his destination. Commissioner, would you escort me for awhile."

"Of course." Gordon gestured for his men to do as Rachel had asked.

She walked to the back where the paramedics had loaded the Batman. They made to get into the ambulance. "Just set him up so he will be safe and comfortable for the ride. Doctors will meet us."

Rachel waited until all of the paramedics had left and then sat in the driver's seat, Gordon climbing into the passenger seat.

She made polite small talk and then surprised Gordon by pulling into an abandoned carpool lot. "Harvey is waiting for you here. He will take you home. We will be safe now."

Rachel gestured to the waiting unmarked Lincoln Towncar.

"Are you sure?" Goron asked.

Rachel smiled at him. "The Batman and I are going to one of the safest places in Gotham. Do not worry about us. Take care, commissioner."

After leaving, Gordon was unsure whether he believed her. She looked like she was preparing for one of the hardest things she was ever going to do.

Rachel waited until the Commissioner left, though all she wanted to do was get Bruce to the safety of Wayne Enterprises and his penthouse. Also, she knew Alfred was worried silly despite the fact that Rachel had sent him a coded text informing him that Bruce was with her and alive. He would not be fine until he saw both Bruce and Rachel at WE. She had hated to leave him before the fight was over. Her watching the newscoverage of the fight with him had helped him cope as well as gave her someone to watch it with who understood. But she had also needed to safeguard Bruce and his secret. After all, it had taken a bit of convincing to get the mayor to agree to let the Batman leave and even then he had only agreed because Rachel had volunteered to watch him. Not knowing Batman's identity, Harvey would not have volunteered her and she shuddered to think of Bruce being taken care of in Arkham.

A moan from the back brought Rachel to the present.

"Come on, Bruce. Just a bit longer." Rachel said, driving even faster.