Well it's a bit longer than I thought it would be. I couldn't get to writing as soon as I would have liked, I was just getting settled down. But, the important part is that I'm trying... Anyway, any reviews would go to the starving muse association.


They had moved through the upper levels of the mansion to the study of Bruce's father. Bruce's mind itched incessantly, every thought turning to cold calculation as the Joker neared the secrets that he had tried for so long to keep. Every ornament in the house had a trace leading back to Batman, Alfred and Fox's joke. Bats were carved into the staircase, behind the desk that Bruce used were wings so that when he sat down they seemed to be growing out of his back. Bat wings.

What once seemed like a harmless joke now was looking more and more like a threat to his security. He had gotten too smug in his disguise, too like the man he was portraying to the outside world.

Bruce winced as the Joker ran a wandering hand over the books that if pushed would reveal a secret stash of weapons including the throwing knives that were his trade mark.

"You know, Brucey-Boy," The clown paused his wandering hand on a leather bound book, Seduction of the Innocent. "A lot has changed in the past twenty four hours."

"You mean with Batman's death." The clown turned to face the billionaire. Exasperated he flung his hand up towards the ceiling.

"What is with you people? Batsy's dead. Batman isn't. Do you really think that you can kill Batman? That it's going to die with a bullet? You only see the flashes, you don't understand. Like flies by a puddle you notice nothing but the effects of one another-" The Joker stopped his monologue and stared at Bruce. For a moment Bruce thought that the Joker had guessed, there was a glint in those mad eyes, a glint that Bruce had never seen before.

"You're not afraid of me Mr. Wayne. Now why is that?" And then the Joker was close, far closer that Batman liked.

I am Batman.

The realization hit him hard. Harder than any blow that he had ever been dealt. Those eyes, he knew them almost like he knew his own, the malicious brown surrounded by red tinged white. The makeup that clung to every sense without being touched. And he staggered away from the Joker, the heavy sunglasses that masked his bruised eyes fell away and he suddenly found himself gagging over the wastebasket by the side of his desk.

He was Batman, no diplomat between good and evil. A soldier, a symbol to the people, an inspiration and a warning. He was tired of waiting for the Joker to tell him what he wanted, tired of the talk and the loops and turns of the Jokers mindless games, tired of keeping the delicate balance between Bruce Wayne and Batman.

He looked up at the clown and anger surged through him in an unstoppable tide and he could almost feel the his throat rip with the shout that came from somewhere deep within him. "What do you want?"

Now leaning against a wall, the Joker didn't immediately answer, the gun had disappeared somewhere, not that Bruce cared. The Joker wouldn't use a gun to kill him unless he was really pressed for time. Peeling himself away from the bookcases, the Joker tipped himself sideways to look at Bruce from a new angle.

"You don't look so good, Bruce."

Bruce pushed himself away from the Joker and the oily, imaginary hands that were approaching from all sides, holding knives and mirrors. "Don't! Don't... touch me."

He closed his eyes and willed the hallucinations away. But when he opened them, four Jokers were morphing together, each grinning with sharp black teeth dripping with dark red makeup.

"What did... where- what did you do to me?" The world was slanting and dimly he could feel his shoulder hit something hard and sharp that fell with him. The floor was cold and comfortable. An ice pack on his bruised body which had been pushed past every endurance.

It didn't take a genius to become a thug. But it took more than muscle to stay in the criminal world. Gordon had always prided himself on being an honest man, even in the days before batman and all that had happened in the days when you joined the police force to get a gun, he had swayed to the unlawful side.

And now he was the toast of Gotham's underworld, they had all but raised him on their shoulders and held a parade. As soon as 'Mike';had learned his name, he had been shoved through doors and bars as the 'batkiller'.

He wondered briefly if he should be taking these addresses, he had seen more than enough to put these people away for life. They had offered everything from cocaine and whores to maids who would clean his house every two weeks.

In fact, Mike had had a doctor take a look at Gordon's ribs.

But even through the celebration and the kindness that was surely meant well, Gordon tried to break away. But every time he had gone five steps they called him back, weapons glinting nonchalantly at their sides to tell them once again how he had killed Batman.

Every time he heard it or told it he almost had to believe it. His mind was deterioration night after night sleepless and alone, knowing that if he went home he would be hunted down without mercy.

And that is how he came to be with Mike and Jesse, his worshiping captors dead drunk and singing about his exploits.

Jesse wasn't actually a bad kid. Just failed too many math tests, got hit too many times, and just felt that a life of crime would get him farther than an education in whatever he could pass in high school. And Mike, well mike was strange. Gordon certainly wouldn't have him home for dinner, but the man had an outlook on life that Gordon could understand if not respect. Life in Gotham was hard, hard enough to warrant finding jobs wherever you could. But there were more honorable ways to find an income. And the uncomfortable tug of a job that needed doing was just about wrenching his heart out. The Joker was out there, Bruce was out there, both were a potent mix to the trouble brewing in Gotham, the city of criminals who were now freed from Batman's restraints.

It's going to be a long night

Damn right. The fate of the city rested on Batman's shoulders and Batman was no where to be found, rumor was that the Joker had disappeared off the map too. From what Gordon had seen tonight the gangs were arming up. They were going to take to the streets tonight and they were going to fight for the territories. Fear was mixed with elation. They had all been held in check for so long that they had had plenty of time to plan their take over. The Gotham police force stood a slim to none chance of putting down the criminal element tonights.

It was a nightmare, all of it. In fact if he was any other person, any other cop, he would have just drunk himself into oblivion with Mike and Jesse and holed up in the nearest safe building. He had to get to Bruce, had to protect him, because if Batman protected everyone, the Gordon would do his damn oath justice, even if that oath had been under a drunken slob who couldn't remember his lines, Gordon would protect the guardian in weakness.

Some things are meant to matter.

And Gordon would do anything to keep Gotham from collapsing,he was too stubborn to let that happen.

It's going to be a long night.

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