Chapter 14 : Stroke of Death
"Come on Brucie smile..."
That sordid laugh. It echoed in Bruce's ears as he tried to regain composure. He could feel the amount of blood loss leaking through the Kevlar armor from the wound of his collarbone where the clown jabbed his blade into the muscle. Bruce could feel the warm crimson liquid dripping down his chest. His body ached as he shook from the recoiling pain.
All he think could about at the moment, all he saw was Selina's cold corpse in Crime Alley wearing a white gown and blood dripping from her lips.
"No!" He raged, gripping himself back up.
The Joker popped open his switchblade. "I was going to use this on Miss Kyle." He licked his scarred lips. "But I guess you'll have to do."
Bruce felt the edge of the blade touch his chin. He clenched his jaw and reacted with a hard blow to the clowns skull using his head sending the Joker falling backwards laughing.
"You just like to make people dizzy don't you?" He licked his lips, looking at the "sweet spot" which was behind Bruce's arm, left of his spine. "Looks like the joke is on you Brucie."
He crawled to the unmasked billionaire and looked steadily to the left of his back. He cocked his head in contemplation. If he was feeling generous, going for the sweet spot would give Batman a quick death. Going for a higher spot would cripple him permanently.
The clown smiled sinisterly. Nothing would be a bigger joke than putting the Bat in a wheelchair and forcing him to watch his city burn and feeling helpless to do anything about it. The Joker licked his lips as he set his sights on the spinal cord.
"Just one jam and you'll be a flightless bat." He mumbled, knowing that part would render Bruce paralyzed giving him the advantage to take control of Gotham making it the ultimate circus ground filled with freaks and monsters that he would create. He'd debase the minds of the good people that once believed in the concept of justice.
"Imagine everyone like me. Crazy driven souls that think that death is just a joke." He hissed, picturing the billionaire prince as a cripple watching helplessly in the shadows as his city fell apart through madness.
"You would be subdued into a shell, wishing you could save their lives but in the end you'll just be wishing I'd finished you off tonight."
The Joker lunged forward, stumbling momentarily as he dug the blade deep into the back of Batman's armor.
Bruce cried in pain. "Get off me. Bastard!" He grunted at the Joker placed his elbow onto his side armor and pressed down hard. Joker grunted as he tried to dig deeper through the tough armor and the cape tangled around the blade.
"Stop fighting it Brucie... You can't win this fight."
Bruce struggled to break free from the clowns grasp. The blade was reaching in deeper. He could feel the sting.
"Yes I can!"
"Think about all these pitiful lives you're are going to fail. Mostly your dear sweet... when I mean sweet I mean delicious kitten. Just the taste of her red lips makes the joy rise up within this clown."
Bruce looked up at him.
Joker looked thoughtful. "She does have more fight than... what was her name, that beautiful woman of Dents. Rachel."
Bruce shook with anger. He lifted his arm and fired the scallops at the Joker's face making small cuts as the Joker tumbled off. He lifted himself slowly and pulled out the blade from his back with a soft cry.
"Looks like you've got a little fight within you. But for how long."
Bruce picked up the cowl and pulled it back over his head as the Joker was busy removing the scallops. Batman's eyes burned with rage. He picked up the Joker and hurled him into the brick wall with a little less force then he usually managed.
The Joker was bleeding from his cheeks and lips. Laughing.
"Its amazing how words of encouragement can give a man strength."
Batman stood over him and starting punching as blood dripped from his wound near his lower back. Joker giggled and laughed through the whole onslaught of pain.
"Killing me is not going to save them, but hey its a win anyway to see that I've pushed the Batman into breaking his own code" The Joker said.
Batman stilled in his assault, realizing the truth of the Joker's words. He felt dizzy from the amount of blood loss. He stared at the devilish clown and then stumbled to the ground falling weak in the arms. Both men were bloodied.
The Joker smiled. "Big old bats is on the ground." He kicked him hard in the chest as a pair of headlights flicked on down the alley. "Well Bats it's been fun." He pulled out another switch blade and sliced Batman's arm. "Something to remember me by."
Just like that the clown took off like a shot out of hell laughing.
Batman's eyes flickered as his head smack against the pavement and be fell unconscious.
Inside the warehouse Selina Kyle was walking in the dark shadows of the upper level carefully carrying Victoria in her arms as she made it to the exit door.
"Hold on sweetheart." Selina said in a comforting tone as she could feel the pulse growing faint. She pushed herself feeling the pain coursing through her rib cage from the bruised ribs she endured. None of that mattered. She promised herself that this child would make it.
Seeing such innocence slip away from this world from a cruel act of fate made was Selina's greatest weakness. Under that cocky and facade of not caring was a soul that sheds her own internal tears. Now she know that innocence that hide into the shadows of the city , behind the stone walls of apartment buildings and huddled up in homeless shelters were now threaten . No child was safe from that witch and her purpose to rid the future of this once great city that still had hope left on the streets.
Selina felt the pressure in her ribs . She fell to the ground not letting go of Victoria. She took a few deep breaths and looked into the young girls eyes and saw beauty inside the hues. "Don't you give up the fight."
The child was going into shock. Panting heavy and skin reaching a cold temperature.
"No!" Selina yelled as flashes of blue and red came through the broken glass windows. "Gordon." She thought knowing that the Commissioner of the Gotham Police would be waiting outside to bring Victoria to Gotham General . She looked into the girls fading eyes. "No please sweetheart don't give up on me..."
Selina began to shed tears. It had been a long time since she wept. The last time was when her wrist was broken by her drunken father who used to beat her if she would defend her mother. She made a promise that she would not cry and became cold hearten to her own emotions.
Victoria made the real Selina Kyle emerge from the shadows that covered her soul.
Selina placed a hand on Victoria's forehead.
"Am I going to see my mommy now?" Victoria asked in a faint whisper.
Selina nodded. "Yes. Close your eyes and just picture her . She's waiting ..."
Victoria smiled. "My mommy that Batman is the only hero of Gotham... she was wrong." She looked at Selina and gave her a smile. "You're a hero."
She lowered her head and watched the child give her final breath.
"I'm sorry."
After a few minutes...
Selina Kyle a woman that used to be careless to others carried the lifeless body of Victoria in her arms with tears streaming down her cheeks smearing her black eye shadow as her hands firmly grasped the child's cold flesh.
Jim Gordon raced towards her with a sadden expression. He stopped and gazed at the daughter of a good man.
Selina fell to her knees holding the child close to her chest. Her body was shaking with anger.
"I tried to save her.." She whispered. "It was too late."
Gordon lowered his head and placed his hand on her shoulder. "We were both too late."
Selina arose from the pavement and wiped the tears from her eyes. She glanced at the child one last time before she took off into the shadows running with her high heel boots clicking on the pavement leaving Gordon and his officers in care of the body.
As Selina raced feeling the pain through her chest and thoughts racing , she all of sudden felt the burning fire of determination. Something had rose up inside . Something deeper that she had never experienced. "I will save the innocence of this city from that witch even it if means sacrificing my own life."
Batman limped to the side of the warehouse, his gloved holding his left side as blood dripped from his upper lip and his wound. He was bleeding. A lot. He'd been fortunate the Joker's aim was sloppy and his kevlar protected him enough that the clown's knife hadn't struck the abdominal aorta or his critical nerves.
Had his aim been any higher, Batman felt he'd be paralyzed if his spinal cord was hit, any lower he'd be dead. Was it the clown's intention? To prolong his suffering? Batman could ill afford to contemplate what that psycho was thinking right now as he sees the red and blue lights flashing outside the building across from him.
His cape hung off his shoulders as he looked at Gordon standing next to a blue body bag. Dread and panic filled the Dark Knight.
"No," He thought thinking that maybe the Joker had gotten to Selina when he was unconscious. "No, please... don't be her..."
He'd have felt guilty any other day for his selfish thoughts, but right now he could barely focus. He felt dizzy and was about to fall over when a hand wrapped around his waist.
"Easy handsome."
At the sound of that alluring voice, Batman sighed in relief. "Selina." He turned around and embraced her with a tender kiss.
He gestured to the body bag. "I thought you were..."
Selina placed her hand on his lips. "No, Bruce. It's the Mayor's daughter." She pulled away, feeling her heart breaking. "I was there when she died. Vedette poisoned her. I tried to save her handsome. I did. But it was too late."
Despite how distraught she felt, Selina was quick to notice crimson mess, painted on Bruce's left side. "Were you planning to bleed to death before saying anything?!" She glared at him angrily.
Bruce clutched his side vehemently. "Its a flesh wound, I'll be fine once we get back to the man-"
Batman looked at the blue bag being loaded into the back of the ambulance. He spotted something underneath. His eyes widened quickly as he reacted. "Gordon!"
Gordon turned around and saw Batman racing forward.
"Get away from there!"
A blast from the ambulance made Gordon fall onto the ground covering his head. The paramedics were dead from the glass piercing their throats. Batman wrapped his cape around Selina and fell to the ground as glass exploded everywhere along with flaming debris.
Selina held tightly onto him, as she listened to the inferno rising. Batman pulled up and gazed at the flames. Despite the explosion across the parking lot, a whirl of playing cards landed everywhere.
He bent down and lifted the playing card. His fist clenched while up ahead he can see Gordon rising to his feet, yelling orders into his radio, calling in the fire department. They meet each others gazes a moment, communicating silently and the commissioner nodded his assurance to Batman.
He would handle this. Batman looked down at Selina who looked shocked and angered by this scene.
"Let's go home." Batman rasped helping her stand straight. "There's nothing else we can do."
Selina gazed at the flames and the lifeless bodies. She dug her head deep into his chest and sobbed.
Batman and his gloved hand through her hair.
"Is death all we have Bruce?" She asked. "Is it all we have ever known?"
Under the cowl Bruce Wayne could not answer that question. Instead she looked into her eyes and spoke in a soft tone. "You tried Lina. That's all the matters."
"No. I could have done more."
Batman placed his gloved hand on her shoulders, while the other still held his wound.
"We both... could have done more."
Two days later...
Commissioner Jim Gordon stood in front of two coffins looking down at the pile of roses laid on the flat sleek surfaces. A few tears welled up inside his blue eyes, making it hard for him to speak words of comfort to the mourning father hiding underneath an umbrella with his head pointing down.
The man he'd failed.
"No words can express..." He choked on his words. No words he could say right now would possibly make his friend feel any better he felt.
"I'm sorry Tony."
Standing in the crowd, dressed in a black dress, hair tied into a bun was Selina holding a red rose in her black gloved hand. A black hat covered half of her face as Bruce Wayne, wearing black attire stood beside her, motionless and eyes focused on the coffins of the Mayor's family.
Selina waited for the minister to say his final words and then she moved to the coffin and placed the rose on the lid. Everyone in the crowd looked at her whispering under their breaths. But she didn't care. In someway she deserved to be spoken about. Most of these people were victims of her crimes.
She wished that her lips could speak the truth and tell all of them that she changed her ways. She was no longer the cat burglar that was written in the Gotham Times instead a justice fighter.
There were a few cops standing around her that made tension form.
Selina back away from the coffin and went back to Bruce. Today wasn't about her, she wouldn't make things worse than they were.
The billionaire prince of Gotham stood in front of all the members of City Hall and some of the elite as he placed his hand over hers. He not did care about what they thought. He loved her and now he was not going to let it become a secret from the public eyes.
In the shadows behind an bare oak tree, dressed in a black overcoat with her long hair straight and eyes showing no emphatic emotions stood Vedette Countess with her body standing motionless as she peered at the coffins. Standing next to her, wearing no makeup on his scarred face or green hair dye in his blond dirty hair slicked back was Jack.
"Get used to this sight my sweet." She said looking at all the headstones that surrounded them. "I plan to turn this city into one big graveyard. The only sounds that we shall hear are the whimpers of the mourning as their tears flow through the drains."
Jack smiled.
"Mixed with blood..."
Vedette looked at the billionaire and Selina. "It seems that we have more work to do Jack. On the two lovers. I want to make them suffer like never before. Bruce will be the first one to taste my wrath. I thought the potion I poisoned him with would work but I underestimated Miss Kyle's love for him. But this time he will be helpless and hopeless."
"What about kitty?"
"Don't you worry. I have few tricks up my sleeve to make her nine lives a living hell." She glared at Bruce. "One of them involves making some changes to her boyfriend."
"Another makeover?"
Vedette shook her head. "Some much more cruel."
They both grinned sadistically at their ignorant foes.
Inside the halls of Wayne Manor, Alfred Pennyworth walked slowly, carrying a tray of tea to comfort the two saddened souls that he cherished. He walked through the gloomy halls heading to the study.
Curled in a chair with her head slumped down was Selina wearing one of Bruce's old Princeton sweaters with bare feet resting on the arm rest. Her hair was in a pony tail and she wore no makeup.
Alfred entered and approached her. "I prepared a little something to warm the bones."
Selina looked up at him and nodded.
"It will be waiting for you. When you're ready." He said placing the tray on the coffee table.
"Alfred." She spoke in a distraught tone.
"Yes, Miss Kyle?"
She lifted her head up and looked at him with desperate eyes.
Alfred sat down in a chair across from her.
Selina narrowed her eyes, looking down, trying to hold back the tears that were leaking out. "I can't just sit here and wait for everything to get better Alfred. I have to prepare for this fight... whatever it is." She paused. "When that little girl died in my arms I thought about all the other innocent kids whose lives are at stake. I have to fight for their freedom from that witches hands."
Alfred was silent, he could not believe that these were the words coming from Selina Kyle. He always remembered her tone as cocky and practical. She was changing, growing more mature and having a better understanding about the outcomes of human error.
"I can't bear to see innocence become a fading memory. This city has lost so much hope because of madness and death." She stopped, thinking about her own life and the mistakes she made because of the loss of her innocence which was taken from her at very young age.
"I know I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. That can never change. But I never thought innocence was a great treasure in this city that is worth keeping."
She looked at the old butler. "I have to confess something to you Alfred. This is just between you and me. Bruce Wayne's heart was the greatest treasure that I stole."
She felt conflicted.
"How can he love a woman like me? I mean come on I can be a real ** sometimes and I always like to tease him to get what I want from this playground of ours. He doesn't deserve me. He deserves someone far better that when she is out with him in public she won't be judged by past sins."
She sighed.
"Miss Kyle..."
"I don't want to hurt him."
She arose, heading to the door when a bare chested Bruce with a his left side bandaged stopped her. She knew that he was in the hallway listening.
"Handsome," she said with surprise.
"Selina I won't let you go out there. Not without me." He confessed looking at her flawless features and thinking how precious she was to him. He could not risk to losing her again. Not after what the Joker did her.
"Sorry handsome. I made a promise. I intend to keep it." She growled knowing that it wasn't going to be easy. She would get wounded but if it meant saving the innocent children that deserved to live... Than it was worth the challenge.
He looked at her with sincere honest eyes. "I know that you're hurting inside because of what has happened in the past few days."
"You don't know how I feel Bruce. I'm dangerous to you right now. It's because of me you always get harmed."
He shook his head. "I beg to differ. It's because of you I live Selina Kyle. Without you I would have died along time of ago."
"Things have gotten worse Bruce. A lot of lives are at stake."
Bruce placed his hand on her cheek. "I need you Selina, alive and so do the people of Gotham. If you're the hero that you are meant to be then you make the right choice right away. That's the Selina Kyle that I know."
Deep down he wanted to say 'love' but he was too well guarded with his heart. What if he lost her through an act of violence just like his parents? How could he move on knowing that he had failed the woman he loved.
"Don't go out tonight Selina." He knew that the Joker was scheming something deadly in the shadows.
Selina looked into his dark hazel eyes and then looked at his wounded side. "Fine. You've talked me into staying." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him as he ran his hand down her back.
Alfred sat there sipping a cup of day and shook his head.
Bruce pulled away and grabbed her by the hand.
"Let's go somewhere quieter."
"What did you have in mind?"
Bruce smirked. "The cave."
In the cave, Bruce Wayne didn't say anything the moment his eyes laid on her flawless features as the woman he called his "enduring love" laid on the cape that he had on the floor of the cave's platform.
Her chest was still bruised from the Joker's hands, there were a few faint marks on her neck. His jaw was flexing as she took out her pony tail and let her hair down. Without warning he grasp the back of her head and crashed his lips onto her crimson lips.
Selina felt his powerful hands grip at her waist but he was careful not to touch her ribs. She pressed against him and kissed him like never before. No more playful lustful thoughts or retorts came from her lips. Just a moment of romance that they both carved. His hand ran down her long hair as her head fell back and she sunk to the ground.
Selina dug her fingers into his back.
All the pain they endured melted away.
Then he went for the danger zone of any woman. First he pulled her closer not wanting to let go and then he moved his hand down her abs. Her hands dug into his dark brown locks, his chiseled jawline that defined the Batman costume and then his well defined chest.
Selina grabbed his hand and placed it onto her abs. "Well what are you waiting for?"
Bruce looked breathless.
He looked at her and saw the innocence and the youth.
"I... can't.." He hesitated and pulled away. His lips gently touched hers. "I can't give everything to you Selina. Not yet."
Selina was slightly disappointed but understood his hesitation as she understood him. Bruce pulled away from her arms and arose. He moved to the computer desk and sat down.
"I have patrol to do tonight." He looked at her for a brief moment.
"Time to suit up." He moved to the glass cased armory and pulled out the graphite cowl.
Selina arose from floor and sat into the computer desk chair.
A few minutes later Bruce Wayne was transformed into Batman. He clicked his belt into place and checked his grappling hook.
"I should be gone most of the night." He rasped. "Don't wait up."
Selina nodded. "Don't worry I won't."
Batman moved to the desk and typed on the keyboard. He looked at the files on the screen and then shifted his dark eyes to Selina. He gave her a small kiss on the lips and then moved to the platform of the Batpod. He slid his body onto the saddle and started up the throttle.
Selina watched him exit through the waterfall and then she sat there in the empty cave thinking.