I do not own Batman. Sucks, don't it? I do own Eleanor Black and all the other characters and plot points that aren't part of the movie. Rated T for the same reasons the movie was rated PG-13. Enjoy.

Chances Are…
Chapter Fifteen: Sonar Like A B... Submarine.

The Batpod was definitely not made for passengers.

Showing the foresight I had rather come to expect, Bruce had made sure it was capable of holding someone else for emergency situations, but by no means was it comfortable or a ride that felt that particularly safe. But it served for a quick—and I do mean really, really quick as listening to it move did not do the speed of the Batpod justice—ride to Wayne Enterprises, during which I clung tightly to Bruce, my face pressed into his back and my teeth clenched so tightly together my jaw hurt. I kept my eyes closed and it took a moment for Batman to get me off the thing and to let go of him; I didn't think my bones would ever stop vibrating.

"I will never, ever, ever get on that thing again," I informed Bruce as I marched passed him to the back entrance of Wayne Enterprises.

Batman didn't respond, but I could have sworn I saw his mouth twitch slightly. Instead, he just opened the door and led the way down the fluorescently-lit staircase, looking extraordinarily out of place and rather silly in the Batsuit and bright lights. Probably wisely, I kept my snicker to myself and watched as he broke into his own building. I followed him into Research and Development and across the cave-like room to an area that had been cleared to house a large piece of equipment. It was difficult to see in the dark, but it looked like an array of small screens set up on a slightly curved frame with a couple keyboards at waist height. As Batman went about checking things over, I examined the machine, severely impressed with the way Bruce had implemented Lucius' sonar technology in a much larger way. I wished we could turn the lights on, but I recognized the dramatic potential of the machine being revealed to Lucius as he walked into the room—and he would be down soon to check on the alarm that had been set off when we came in the back door of the department only accessible by very few people.

"This is... well, awesome," I told Bruce. "In the original sense of the word."

"Of course," Bruce muttered absently.

"I mean it. This is quite brilliant." I moved behind the machine and paused thoughtfully over the lack of tangled wires—there was only one thick cable trialing from the machine, all other wires wrapped around said cable neatly. If I had set something that complicated up, there would have been wires everywhere. Bruce had given me hell for making a knotted mess of the wires when I'd set up the computers in the Bunker and I spent that night untangling them while I listened on patrol. I wouldn't be so careless with plugs and wires ever again. "Did you do all this just to find the Joker?" I asked, partly for the answer and partly to get my mind back on track.

"Yes. I can't let him kill anyone else. I have to stop him."

I just nodded and resumed my examination of the machine, wondering what it would look like when it was turned on. As it so happened, I didn't have long to wait. Batman stopped moving suddenly and then grabbed my arm, pulling me to the back of the machine with him. We ended up standing so that we'd be visible through the middle of the array of screens—it would be a very dramatic entrance when Lucius walked in and the lights turned on. I leaned back into Bruce a bit, feeling the contours of the suit against my back. He placed a hand lightly on my back and I closed my eyes momentarily.

We had another moment of quiet and darkness before Lucius reached Research and Development and the lights started to come on. After a few banks however, the power diverted or something and instead of the lights coming on, the machine in front of me whirred to life, a low and comforting hum in the darkness. Lucius walked up the path of light and stopped in front of the sonar machine, his eyes only lingering for a brief moment on my face before moving somewhere above me to stare hard at Bruce, the look clearly asking what the hell was going on and what the hell he was looking at; even as I watched his reaction however, it dawned on him and his face went from curious to rather appalled. I suppose I couldn't blame him, but I still thought the thing was brilliant.

As I watched, Lucius' eyes pulled away from Batman's face above me and focused on the screens.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Batman asked, his voice making his chest vibrate against my back.

"Beautiful, unethical, dangerous..." I saw the muscles in Lucius' jaw clench. "You have taken my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city. With half the city feeding you sound and sonar, you can image all of Gotham..." His dark gaze returned to Batman, his face lined with frustration and the beginnings of what I thought was anger; I'd never seen Lucius angry before and I really didn't want to. "This is wrong."

At that moment, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I knew Bruce could hear it and Lucius might have been able to as well, but I didn't answer it. I slid my hand into my pocket and hit the button to ignore the call as discreetly as I could manage.

"I have to find him, Lucius."

"But at what cost? This is a mass invasion of privacy and not what you stand for or, what you stood for."

Ignoring the question and the insinuation that he had lost some of his morality, Batman continued explaining the machine to Lucius. "The database in null-key encrypted. It can only be accessed by one person."

My phone vibrated again. I had one of those hunches that told me the caller would be my Mom or Dad and I should probably take it. I slipped away from Batman, his hand lingering on my back as I moved. When I away from the conversation, I answered my phone. "Hello?"

Sure enough, it was my Dad who answered. "Hey Ellie. Your Mom and I made it home all right, but it is crazy out there. Where are you?"

Behind me, I heard Batman explaining that control of the machine rested solely in Lucius' hands. I ran the fingers of one hand back through my hair and wished I had a hair elastic to tie it back—this was going to be a long night. "I'm at Wayne Enterprises with Lucius and Bruce. We decided staying here was a better option than trying to run. Most of the staff is staying too, I believe." At least that wasn't a lie. I really didn't like lying to my parents, even when I had to. "We're not leaving until this is over."

"Good. Your mother is worried about you, but I'll let her know you're safe. It's probably a good idea to stay there."

I could hear it in my Dad's voice that he was worried about me to; I wanted nothing more in that moment than to hug him. "I wouldn't try and fight through the traffic on a normal day, Dad. This whole Joker thing is just... I'm scared. I'm not going to run out there when I have a perfectly safe place to hole up."

"That's good to hear Ellie."

"I'll call you if something comes up, okay?"

"Okay. Love you Ellie."

"Love you too Dad." I ended the call and slipped the phone back into the pocket of my jean shorts before taking a deep breath and heading back to rejoin Batman and Lucius, who were looking at each other with something like a challenge in their eyes. I stopped about a foot away from Bruce and opened my mouth to ask what the plan was, but closed it again when I realized the men were still in the middle of their conversation.

"As long as this machine is at Wayne Enterprises, I won't be."

I started. "What?"

"I will not spy on the city," Lucius said to me.

I frowned, but didn't press the issue. I didn't fight with Lucius. Sometimes I can curb my stubbornness. Instead, I turned to Bruce, the motion drawing his attention down to me. "What do you want me to do?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer. I just wanted to dissolve some of the tension.

"Just help Lucius monitor the city. I've set up an audio sample for the system to compare voices to, and once you find him, I'll nee directions to get me there." He tapped the side of his cowl, and lenses descended over his eyes. "My cowl is connected to the machine wirelessly so I can see what you see." The lenses retracted. He looked over my head and Lucius and then back down at me, his hazel eyes nearly invisible in the combined shadows of the dark room and the edges of the cowl. "Eleanor, you have to stay here," he said, his voice quieter than it had been before. "No matter what happens." He held my gaze for a moment longer, a weight there that hadn't been a moment before.

"What..." I narrowed my eyes, but it wasn't a glare, not yet. "I'll stay here," I snapped. "But I'm not going to say 'no matter what' because that would be a lie," I whispered harshly.

Bruce didn't say anything else. Instead, he turned and headed towards the back door, his cape flapping out behind him. I huffed and crossed my arms, watching him go. The door banged shut behind him, but my eyes didn't leave the portal for another long moment. I felt Lucius' eyes on me and sighed again, turning sharply to join him in front of the sonar machine, knowing that he expected more information from me and also that I didn't have the information to give him. I kept my arms crossed under my chest and stared at the blue images flickering across the screen, waiting for them to make some sort of sense. It hurt to look at an image splayed across multiple screens. I hoped that I got used to it over the course of the night; not that I'd let it stop me from helping Batman.

"Eleanor."

"Yes Lucius?"

"What do you know about this machine?"

I sighed once more and unfolded my arms so I could use the keyboard and figure out how to fine tune the thing. "Probably no more than you do. What did he tell you while I was on the phone?"

"To trust him and to type in my name to turn it off."

"That seems like an odd command."

Lucius was silent as I got the images to align into a bird's eye view of Gotham—the technology really was remarkable. "It is an odd command. You don't know anything else about the machine?"

I shook my head and then ran one hand backwards through my hair, shoving it out of my face, but I kept my cobalt eyes on the screen in front of me. "No Lucius, I swear I don't, and I would tell you if I did." I finally looked up at the older African-American man and tried to smile. "I promise."

He nodded once and then went to work at the keyboard beside mine. "How is he doing?" he asked after a moment.

I didn't need to be a genius to know he was referring to Rachel's death and how it was affecting Bruce. Against my will, my mouth twisted into a grimace and my cheeks flushed slightly in anger. Talking about Rachel with anyone other than Bruce was liable to lead to bitter comments and some nasty words. I frowned at myself and focused on Bruce. "He's pushing through, focusing on work... I think it's the only way he can function. Losing Rachel changed him. It broke something else in him. He's not the same." I rubbed one hand over my eyes and squeezed them shut. "I guess what I'm getting at is I really don't know how he's doing, other than he's not letting it stop him from doing what has to be done."

"And clinging to what he has left." When I looked up at Lucius, he gave a barely perceptible shrug with one shoulder. "Okay, maybe 'clinging' wasn't the right word, Eleanor, but he appears to have become more outwardly protective of you."

My cheeks flushed again, but it wasn't anger this time. It wasn't even embarrassment. It was just someone else commenting on whatever passed for the relationship between Bruce and me. "Maybe," I muttered, turning back to the sonar machine. "You got anything on the Joker?"

I heard Lucius sigh, but he didn't press the topic. "Not yet," he answered.

I wasn't sure what it was about Lucius commenting on Bruce's behaviours towards me, but it made me uncomfortable. Possibly, it was because for so long, it had just been Bruce, Alfred and myself with no outside comments, but whatever it was, I fell back on the job we were supposed to be doing. The blue images on the screens were becoming easier to interpret the longer I stared at them, and I found it alarmingly easy to slip into a sort of trance as I listened to the voices and noises and tried to fit them into the images of Gotham in front of me. Lucius seemed to do the same beside me, and the topic of Bruce's wellbeing was dropped for the moment at least, which was welcome; I didn't really know how to talk to Lucius outside a business setting, no matter how much I liked him.

We perused the figurative streets of Gotham for another few minutes, picking up conversations about the chaos in the city and arguments about what should be done and discussions about the Joker and the declining state of Gotham City.

"There's something going on on the ferries," Batman's voice said, coming from somewhere on the machine.

Fox, who had a better grasp of how to navigate the machine than I did, brought up the map of the harbour, where two large boats were visible a short distance away from the docks. They weren't moving. "I'm zeroing in." The Joker's voice erupted over the speakers and I jumped; Lucius remained rather stoic. "His voice is on the ferries," he said, the tone of his voice indicating the words were more out-loud thoughts. "But that's not the source."

"Do you have a location?"

"Working on it," I interjected. Half the screens showed the city moving as I tracked the source of the Joker's broadcast—he was talking about killing everyone on those ferries, blowing them all up if one boat didn't do so to the other. I suppressed a shudder at the thought of all that death and wished silently that Bruce did not get on those ferries; since the Joker wasn't actually on either of the boats, I was sure this wish would come true. "I've got it—go west from the docks. Prewitt building, the one that's under construction by the river."

"Got it. Plug in and you should be able to hear everything over the headsets."

"Will do," I answered with a small smile. It was almost as if Bruce had expected me to be down here for this—damn it, that would mean I hadn't won the fight. Or, he could have put the headset down here for Lucius, which made more sense, but I wouldn't put that amount of foresight passed Bruce, and when I found two headsets instead of just one, my faith was reaffirmed. I pulled the headset over my hair and found the switch to connect it wirelessly to the machine. Instantly, I heard Batman's conversation with Gordon and I realized we were wired into the cowl and thus, the bunker and Alfred. Again, I was impressed. "We're plugged in," I said, once Lucius had followed my example.

"I'm going after him. Gordon and the police will be on the building opposite the Prewitt building. I'm meeting them there."

"We'll be watching."

Lucius realigned the screens and the darkness in which we were working was once again illuminated by a cacophony of lines that formed buildings and people. He brought up a view that allowed us to see the Prewitt building and the roof across the street, where a group of people were scattered; there were snipers lined up along the edge and a few standing farther back, one of which had a pair of binoculars pressed to his face. I was betting that was Gordon. After a moment of observation, another figure appeared, the flourish of cape telling me it was Batman—as if I hadn't known. I chuckled a bit as we watched him sneak up on the police to perform one of his sudden appearances. Lucius shot me a knowing grin and I caught a faint echo of laughter over the headset—Alfred.

But after that, all levity was gone. There was no room for jokes or laughter—everything was about getting Batman up to the top of the Prewitt building, around the police and the S.W.A.T. team to stop the Joker.

The police had identified that there were hostages in the building, all with guns aimed at their heads. But there was something odd about the arrangement, as the people wearing clown masks—the Joker's men—were standing right out in the open, like a shooting gallery. It was too easy—Batman saw it, Lucius and Alfred saw it, hell, even I saw it, and I knew Gordon could see it to, but with pressure on him to get this situation resolved as quickly as possible, he was anxious to get men in there. He was anxious to save Harvey Dent who had been lost in the kerfuffle at the hospital—how do you lose a person?—and who was likely somewhere in the building. I sympathized with Gordon, I really did, and I didn't want there to be any more bloodshed, but just rushing in would be stupid and I listed with a clenched jaw as Batman tried to relay that very thought to Gordon.

"I've only got two minutes before the police come in," Batman told us as he moved across the rooftop and prepared to enter the half-finished building. "I need picture."

Fox's able fingers flew across the keyboard, only one tiny screen displaying the commands he was imputing. "You've got P.O.V. on alpha channels, omni on beta... All systems are up and running." Fox brought up some information on another of the small screens—diagnostic information on the suit's systems.

"How do you know how to operate all this?" I asked, my curiosity finally getting the better of me.

"He's using programs that I developed a few years ago and used in the creation of the sonar phone device I developed for the Hong Kong operation," he answered with a small smile.

"Smart of him," I muttered as I turned back to the screens in front of me.

Lucius manipulated his half of screens to locate all the bodies in the building and kept Bruce informed of their movements as Batman moved upwards. I kept my screens showing what Batman could see through his specialized lenses and, uncharacteristically, I kept mostly quiet. The Joker's voice kept trickling in over the speakers and I was getting progressively more freaked out and worried; I kept my hands on my hips to keep from flexing my grip against the keyboard and potentially damaging a piece of machinery that I probably couldn't even begin to value in my mind.

I watched as Batman moved up the line of hostages and shooters and took the first clown down silently. As the body fell, Batman pulled the mask off.

"It's Engle," he said, frustration evident in his voice. Frustration at himself, at Gordon, at the Joker, I wasn't sure. "The clowns are the hostages and the doctors are the Joker's men. There's no time to let the police know. The Joker's going to blow up the ships at midnight."

I nodded as Bruce started running and taking the S.W.A.T. team members out of the picture in strange ways, tangling a rope around their legs as he did so. "They'll notice Engle. There's more police coming up. If you're going to go get the Joker, you've got to move now." I didn't get an answer, nor was I really expecting one in the middle of a fight. It was however, a tense wait, and I took the opportunity to walk a couple circuits around the sonar machine, taking long, slow and deep breaths. The Joker scared me and Bruce was a few minutes away from going toe-to-toe with the madman.

"Ms. Black."

"Yes Alfred?"

"Did your parents arrive home all right?"

A small smile broke across my lips. Alfred knew how I got when situations with Batman got tense and he had started talking to me about mundane things to keep me from having a full-blown panic attack. "Yes, they did. They were a little worried about what was going on, but they're outside of the city proper now, so they'll be safe. My Dad said he'd call if anything else came up."

"That is good to hear. They were not injured in the explosion?"

"Not severely. I think they were more shaken then anything," I said as I reached the front of the sonar machine again.

"Will you be going to visit them after this is all over?"

"I'll pop in for a short visit, but this work will never be over Alfred."

"I fear you are all too right about that, Ms. Black."

The line disconnected after that, which was fine with me. Alfred had managed to keep me from getting too worked up, which I needed as Bruce was now engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Joker.

"If we don't stop fighting," the madman cackled, "we're going to miss the fireworks."

"There won't be any fireworks," Batman snarled.

I could hear them, but I couldn't see him. Batman's lenses seemed to have malfunctioned at some point during the fight, so the only images we had were ones from the outside sonar. Lucius brought those images across the screen and I found them, near the edge of a construction platform, close to falling off. As I watched, the clock stuck midnight, and everything just seemed to slow down, then stop, completely quiet. Would one of the ships pull the trigger?

There were no explosions.

"What were you hoping to prove? That deep down, we're all as ugly as you?"

I fought the urge to cheer as Batman only got stunned silence in response.

"You're alone."

The Joker seemed to have ignored what Batman said, as he sighed in an overdramatic fashion and said, "You can't rely on anyone these days. You have to do everything yourself, and it's not always easy. Do you know how I got these scars?"

"No, but I know how you got these—"

There was a metallic noise followed by the solid thump that could only have been the blades along Batman's bracers firing and finding purchase in the Joker's flesh. Sure enough, there was a strangled cry of pain followed by giggling. My eyes were glued the sonar images—it looked as if Batman had kicked the Joker over the edge of the building and he was falling. The rapid descent stopped suddenly and the form of the Joker started to move upwards, caught on the grappling line—Batman didn't kill.

"You just couldn't let me go, could you?" the Joker asked once he was back within speaking range. He sounded amused, if a little frustrated. I frowned, but didn't say anything. "I guess this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible, aren't you?" I threw some silent support behind Batman—I knew he was incorruptible, that nothing would be able to push him beyond the limits he set for himself—but still remained silent. It wouldn't do to distract him. "You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness, and I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. We're going to do this forever." The finality of the Joker's last statement was a little alarming.

"You're going to be in a padded cell forever."

"Maybe we can share it. They'll need to double up, the rate this city's inhabitants are losing their minds," the Joker replied with a sinister giggle.

I turned to Lucius and whispered, "What is he playing at? He's caught."

"If I was to guess Eleanor, I'd say he's trying to get Batman angry enough to kill him."

"Never going to happen."

Lucius didn't respond to that comment, although the shadow of disbelief on his face spoke volumes, more than words ever could.

"This city just showed you it's full of people ready to believe in good," Batman growled.

"Until their spirits break completely—until they see what I did with the best of them." The Joker laughed loudly, the expression ending in a slight cough. I hoped it hurt like a son of a bitch. "You didn't really think I'd risk losing the battle for Gotham's soul in a fist fight with you?" he asked, the dangerously amused tone back in his voice. "You've got to have an ace in the hole. Mine's Harvey."

My gasp was audible and loud in the relative emptiness of Research and Development. At the same time I asked the open air "What did he do?" Batman asked, "What did you do?"

"I took Gotham's White Knight and brought him down to my level. It wasn't hard; madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push."

The Joker's laugh took over the channels for a moment, before Batman came back on. "Find Harvey," he demanded, voice full of anger now. Lucius set to the task immediately. "Gordon's gone—he's probably gone after Harvey. If you can't find Dent, look for Gordon. We've got to find them, we've got to save Harvey, stop him from doing something that will destroy his life completely."

"What if... what if he has gone mad?" I asked tentatively.

There was a long pause. "We can only hope that he hasn't."

"I found them," Lucius said, his voice guarded. "They're at 250 52nd Street."

"Where Rachel died." Bruce huffed, but the Batpod was already roaring to life and he was moving across the city at a breakneck pace. "Did Gordon take any cops with him?"

"Yes," Lucius said. "They've set up a perimeter around the warehouse."

"Who else is inside with them?"

"It looks like three other people. Maybe a woman and two kids?" Even as the words left my mouth, I knew who else was in that building. I closed my eyes. "He's got Gordon's family. Shit." I got silence in reply. I crouched in front of the machine, using the keyboard support to keep myself upright. "This was supposed to end with the Joker, this was supposed to be over..." I squeezed my eyes shut, tired to find some sense of the situation to cling to. There wasn't any. It was chaos, just like the Joker intended. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

"Eleanor, maybe you shouldn't listen to this."

"I have to," I mumbled. "I have to." With a deep breath, I pulled myself back up to my feet and stared at the blue and white images without actually seeing them.

I was able to focus just in time to hear Batman say, "You don't want to hurt the boy, Harvey."

Everything kind of went blurry after that, at the idea of a child being killed, at the idea of Gordon's son being shot by Harvey Dent. I wavered on my feet slightly, clung to the sonar machine to keep from toppling over. With a not inconsiderable effort, I managed to focus myself again and I found some resolve that allowed me to pay attention to the horrendously wrong scene unfolding on the screen in front of me.

"The Joker chose me!" Dent yelled, his voice sounding ragged, probably from smoke inhalation.

"Because you were the best of us and he wanted to prove that even someone as good as you could fall," Batman said.

"Well he was right."

"But you're fooling yourself if you think you're letting chance decide. You're the one pointing the gun, Harvey, so point it at the people responsible. We all acted as one. Gordon, me, and you."

"Fair enough. You first."

The figures on the screen showed little movement for a few brief seconds. But then a gunshot rang out, the noise echoing over the headsets, ringing in my mind, and Bruce collapsed to the ground on the screen, the resulting thud bringing a strangled cry from my lips.

Harvey had shot Batman.

He wasn't moving.

I gasped for air that wouldn't come and leaned heavily on the machine in front of me, Lucius' hands appearing on my shoulders, trying to keep me from falling over. He was saying something, but I couldn't make out what it was beyond the ringing in my ears, beyond the pain at the possibility of Bruce's death. The sonar machine continued to transmit what the microphones in the cowl were picking up, but I didn't hear it anymore than I heard what Lucius was saying. I wasn't listening for any of that. I was listening for any sign that Batman was okay.

"I'm fine."

Author's Note.

Okay, so that was kind of a weird spot to end the chapter, but it's better than the original place. There's just one more chapter left now, and I'll try and get it up soon so I can move on to other fics. This one has been around for far too long, considering its length...

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it!

Next Chapter: The Dark Knight.