"Jervis? You still working?" asked his secretary, Alice Pleasance, as she entered his laboratory later that night.
"Yes, my dear, why don't you head home? It may be awhile," murmured Tetch, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he manipulated some small wires with a pair of tweezers.
She nodded, then looked around carefully and slowly approached him. "You wanna stop by my place after you're done?" she murmured, sliding her hands up his back as she kissed his cheek.
He immediately dropped what he was doing and whirled around to face her. "Oh, Alice," he breathed, taking her tenderly in his arms as she kissed him passionately. "Alice, we must be careful…"
"I know. Which is why I want you to stop by my place," she whispered, grinning. "We can come to work separately tomorrow, as usual, but I want you to stay with me tonight."
"Yes, of course, my dear, whatever you want," he breathed.
She kissed him. "I want you," she murmured, heading for the door and smiling. "Don't be too late."
She shut the door and he gazed after her for a long time, before shaking his head and trying to focus back on his work. He wasn't successful. He put down the wires and went to the door, reaching for his jacket.
A hand suddenly seized his arm. "Going somewhere, Mr. Tetch?" murmured a voice.
Tetch was stunned. "Mr…Wayne?" he stammered, as Batman stepped into the light. "What…what are you doing here at this hour?"
"Looking for some answers," retorted Batman. "And you're the one man in this world who can give me those."
"Answers?" asked Tetch, puzzled. "I don't understand…"
"Neither do I," interrupted Batman. "But you're going to help me understand, Mr. Tetch. You're going to tell me what you've done to me, to my mind. You're the only one can explain all this, and I'm going to make you do that by any methods necessary."
"Mr. Wayne, I don't…"
Batman seized him by the collar and lifted him off the ground. "I'm not here as Mr. Wayne!" he hissed. "I'm here as Batman!"
"Who?" gasped Tetch.
"Let's just say he's your worst nightmare," muttered Batman. "Now tell me what I want to know! What's happening to me? Where am I?"
He threw Tetch to the ground. He struggled to his feet, stunned. "You're…you're at Wayne Industries, Mr. Wayne…"
"That's not what I mean!" snapped Batman. "This world isn't real! I don't exist in it, at least not the way I do in the real world! I'm Batman, and nobody here has ever even heard of Batman! My parents are alive, the Joker doesn't exist as the Joker…you're going to tell me what you've done to me to create this world, and how to get me out of it!"
"Mr. Wayne, are you sure you're feeling all right?" murmured Tetch, gently. "Because you appear to be talking nonsense."
"Yes, and you just love nonsense, don't you, Tetch?" retorted Batman. "You're the only one who can explain this nonsense, so do it!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" he cried. "Nothing you've said has made the slightest bit of sense to me…"
"Does the Mad Hatter mean anything to you?" growled Batman.
"Um…yes…he's a character in Lewis Carroll's…"
"I don't mean him – I mean the real Mad Hatter!" interrupted Batman, angrily. "You!"
"Mr. Wayne, I don't understand…"
The door opened at that moment and Alice entered. "I'm just leaving, Jervis…Mr. Wayne!" she cried, shocked.
"Alice, just go, my dear," said Tetch hastily, looking anxiously at Batman, as if expecting him to threaten or attack her too.
"But what…"
"Just go!" he exclaimed, shoving her out the door and slamming it shut. He turned to face Batman, who was staring at him steadily.
"You're having an affair with her," he murmured.
Tetch nodded slowly. "Yes…yes, I will never be ashamed to admit that, even if you intend to fire me for it."
"How did you manage that?" murmured Batman. "Even if I didn't exist…"
He paused, smiling. "Ah. Miss Pleasance's fiance didn't just mysteriously and inexplicably dump her one day, did he?"
Tetch stared at him, in a mixture of surprise and guilt. "I don't know what you're…"
"Oh, I think you do," murmured Batman, heading over to his desk and holding up a hat card.
Tetch gaped at him. "How do you know about my research? I haven't told anyone, not even Alice…"
"No, because if you did tell her, she might realize the connection between her fiance's sudden disinterest and your ability to control minds," interrupted Batman. "Unless you're controlling her mind too, of course…"
"No!" cried Tetch. "No, I would never do that to her! To him…yes, yes, I admit I forced him to change his mind about Alice, but I did it for her! It was for her own good! You must understand, it was the only way to save her…"
"For yourself, is that it?" asked Batman, scornfully.
"No, I promise, that was never my intention!" he cried. "It wasn't a selfish act! She would never have been happy with him, not truly happy! He never treated her the way she deserves to be treated! I couldn't let her make the biggest mistake of her life and marry the monster, only to have her heart broken several years down the line! To live out the remainder of her life with regret, in pain and misery, I could never let that happen to my Alice!"
He turned away. "I never thought…she could ever think about me…in that way," he whispered, tears in his eyes. "As a lover. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that the child would…want me. But when she did, when that thing I never dared dream came true, could I have refused her? Could I have had a stone enough heart to do that? No. No, not even if guilt was to eat away at me for the rest of my life. I am many things, Mr. Wayne, but I am not a monster. And I love her…so much. I…"
Batman was silent. "What other things have you been working on, aside from this mind control chip?" he asked.
Tetch turned to look at him, puzzled. "I only told you last week when you toured the premises with your father…"
"Tell me again," snapped Batman.
"Well…my main focus at the moment is an alternate reality simulator," he said, gesturing to the wires.
"Tell me about that."
"Um…it's pretty self-explanatory, really. It creates a different reality in the mind, a reality that seems as valid as the real world to the person experiencing it, but is, in fact, an illusion. I hope to design it so that I can control factors in that reality, for instance, if you remove a person or place from…"
"Remove a person?" repeated Batman. "You could conceivably do that?"
"Well, yes," said Tetch. "It's merely a question of the proper mental suggestion."
Batman stared at him. "What if I was to tell you that I believed you had done this to me? That you had removed me, real me, from reality, and brought me here, where I don't exist."
"But you do exist, Mr. Wayne…"
"No, I don't!" snapped Batman. "Not as I really am! I'm not just Bruce Wayne – I'm also Batman. And he doesn't seem to exist here. Nobody has ever heard of him. The event that prompted his existence hasn't happened, so he hasn't happened."
Tetch was silent. "Tell me about this Batman," he said at last.
"He's…well…he's a superhero."
"A super…hero?" repeated Tetch, puzzled. "Oh, you mean an alien, like the one they have in Metropolis?"
"No, he's just a man. A man who puts on a costume to conceal his identity and fights crime."
"And why would he do that?" asked Tetch, looking even more puzzled.
"Because there are crimes the police can't handle…"
"Oh no, I understand the concept of vigilantism," interrupted Tetch. "But why would he wear a costume?"
"Well, to keep the people close to him safe, so nobody knows who he really is. To protect his identity."
"Yes, but why a bat?"
"To strike fear into the hearts of criminals," retorted Batman. "A creature that stalks the night…"
"You mean like a vampire?" asked Tetch. "Hardly an inspiring image, if you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Wayne."
"It's meant to be more threatening to evil-doers than anything else," retorted Batman. "And it does the job well enough most of the time. The only ones I really have to fight are the supercriminals…"
"And what are they?" asked Tetch.
"They're criminals who put on a costume and fight me…"
"I don't understand this concept of putting on costumes," said Tetch. "There is no precedent for it, not in Gotham anyway. If a man is to be a hero, surely he should be brave enough to be who he is, without the need for concealment? And if a man is to be villain, surely the same should apply?"
"The supervillains are lunatics," retorted Batman. "I don't know why they started…"
"Well, obviously because of this Batman character," retorted Tetch. "If he's the first one to put on a costume, he set the standard for the others. People begin to think that if you're going to be a powerful force in this city, whether for good or ill, you must have a costume, and a persona, I imagine."
"I am not responsible for the likes of the Penguin or the Scarecrow or the Riddler…"
"I don't know who these people are," interrupted Tetch. "If indeed they are people. They sound like characters out of a children's book. No such fantastical characters exist here, because no such fantastical character as Batman exists here. If you want to blame a lunatic for leading the way, I suggest you blame him. Or yourself, Mr. Wayne, if you insist on identifying yourself with him."
"I'm not asking you who you think I should blame," growled Batman. "I'm asking you how to get out of this reality and back to my own."
Tetch shook his head. "I can't help you with that, I'm afraid. My own alternate reality simulator is as yet mostly just theoretical, and I have not designed a failsafe for it. I doubt I ever would. I'm afraid you're stuck here, Mr. Wayne. I would be relieved if I were you. It sounds like this is a far safer Gotham than the one you exist in. Ironic, isn't it, that superheroes only lead to the creation of supervillains? We have no such colorful characters here. Just people. Ordinary people going about ordinary lives. That certainly sounds like a better world to me."
He headed for the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go spend the rest of the evening with my girlfriend. It sounds to me, Mr. Wayne, that you're a bit like Alice in Wonderland – you've found yourself in a strange world and an unknown reality. Do what she does, enjoy it, and pray that you eventually wake up. Although for my own sake, as well as yours, I hope you never do. Goodnight."
He left the room and shut the door, leaving Batman alone with his thoughts.