Chapter 19 : The Cats Nightmare

There were no words - no comforting thoughts or ideas to fill the ever growing pit inside Bruce's stomach that had formed a long time ago. He had been careless, oblivious and ignorant to all signs of danger and suspect and now he, his city and those he loved we're paying the price. He had failed in his mission and now he was being forced to watch the chaotic nightmare as a result of it.

The streets of Gotham were a blood bath. In the streets, civilians and criminals were running; some in panic and others in malicious pursuit while buildings and homes burned brightly in the background - coloring the dark red sky with blood and chaos. Some small gunfire took place between mercenaries and what remained of the GCPD.

Screams and explosions came in the distance where the chaos had spread anew. Here he sat on the sidewalk of a large street that offered a full view of the surrounding nightmare. He could do nothing as he surveyed the cage he found himself confined in.

"What?," his thoughts were a haze but he knew given the size of his body he shouldn't be able to fit in such an enclosed space.

He tried to move towards the steel bars only to feel a tremor of pain at the base of his neck. It reminded him too much of his recent captivity where Joker forced him to watch as he tortured Selina - his love. His useless efforts caused him to growl which caught the attention of a mercenary standing nearby who struck the cage with the butt of his rifle, "Shut it, little beast," he snarled.

Before he could retort, he could hear muffled voices beside him. Looking to his right he could see to his horror: Alfred, Lucius, Selina and Jim Gordon all lined up beside his cage - on their knees, gagged and hands bound behind them while armed mercenaries stood behind them on guard. It was Alfred and Selina who tried to voice their protest to the mercenary's cold treatment. He met their concerned eyes and Alfred shook his head at him as though imploring him not to struggle while Selina looked beaten and tearful and Gordon and Fox looked visibly shattered.

Bruce felt angry and desperate to help them but he could do nothing but growl. It was as if his body was frozen or paralyzed with some sort of drug or magic. His friends, like him, we're being subjected to this nightmare but their gazes we're all focused on the sight just across from their position.

Bruce sneered at the gruesome sight ahead of him. Over a dozen young children laid in the streets - cut open, filling the street with blood. Some of them were already turned into cats. As disturbing as the sight of this was, what made it worse were the two monsters at the center of the massacre, waltzing to the tune of destruction around them.

The Joker and Vedette. Both of them moved in close - seductive movements, their feet soaked in the blood beneath them. Both of them were grinning evilly as they basked in their victory. Gotham had fallen to their machinations. Their sworn enemies were defeated and now being forced to watch their celebration and wait for whatever fate they would conjure for them. The Joker was humming the tune "I Put a Spell on You" while he and Vedette moved fluidly; hands stroking and caressing the other suggestively with each sway. Bruce struggled further against his bounds to break free of the cage and bash their heads together.

He noticed then why his body was so weak and was failing him. His body wasn't the large and muscular shape he worked years to perfect. It had been taken from him leaving in its place a small sickly thin cat. His vision cracked for a second like static on a television screen giving him pause and confusion.

On the street, Joker dipped Vedette and felt mesmerized by her beauty hovering above the crimson mess below them. Vedette reached up and wiped clean a stain of blood off Joker's face and brought it to her lips - sucking it with dark eyes. Joker smacked his lips and kissed her hungrily before they resumed their dance. Bruce tried to close his eyes to the repulsive monsters but found he couldn't. "This can't be real," he thought to himself as he took in his surroundings.

Gazing into the dull-lifeless eyes of the children he swore to protect, Bruce felt deep sorrow and regret. His vision shifted to the sight of the dead cats. How many innocents lost their lives to fuel the power and youth of this evil woman? His inner rage brought fuel to his skinny limbs and he could feel strength returning to him. The Joker's laughs filled his ears and Bruce saw the clown and the witch part from their dance and observe his struggle with sick amusement.

"Tsk tsk, what's wrong Batsy? Cat got your tongue?"

As the Joker closed in on him, stepping over the bodies of the children as he went, Bruce felt his blood boiling to critical levels he began to feel his vision blurring. "This is a dream - a nightmare," he tried to convince himself desperately, especially as he saw Vedette pull the unmasked Selina Kyle off the sidewalk with a handful of hair and into the street.

Selina resisted as much as she was able to, but Vedette kicked the back of her knees, and forced her into the the pool of blood helplessly. Bruce wanted to scream - to yell with fury but his voice failed him. All he could do was make a strange attempt at a growl. His voice sounded thin. Joker crouched beside his cage and looked at Bruce sidelong.

"Ya know. I wish I could see the look on your face when we redecorate the rest of this city in red," he licked his teeth, "but you never could take joke. Its a pity, but maybe you still need that little push," Joker gestured over his shoulder at Vedette who is now holding a knife beneath Selina's throat. Bruce started shaking violently inside his cage. Joker watched as Bruce gave him a pointed glare causing the clown's smile to widen to his eyes.

"That's the look I wanted to see! Hehahahaha!"

Joker gave the cage a smack and walked to the side and grabbed Alfred off the floor by his neck and brought him to his feet. Fox and Gordon begin to make struggle only to have the mercenaries force them back to their knees. Bruce's vision began to shake uncontrollably as bright flashes of light began to flicker around him.

"Time to roll curtains on this flick Batsy. Gotham is our playground and sweetness and I want you to get one last look at your favorite kitty and your not-dad."

Joker forced Alfred to his knees in the puddle of blood beside Selina. Both of them yelled in defiance and gazed at Bruce with helpless eyes. Bruce felt life return to his limbs and his voice as he thrashed against his cell door. Joker and Vedette smiled evilly.

"Don't forget to smile!" He flicked his switchblade and held it beneath the butler's throat.

"NO!" Bruce growled as he sprung from the cage and into a bright light.

Batman awoke and felt soothing light rain drops coming over his dreary face. It had been a nightmare, that much he had deduced and though as grateful as he was to the fact he knew that it could also become a grim reality if he could do nothing to help himself here.

Taking the moment to assess his surroundings, his blurred vision adjusted and he discovered, much to his dismay, that he was now in the one place he loathed more than the people who dumped him here: Crime Alley - the place his parents we're taken from this world.

His throat was too sore to even ask himself anything aloud but if he had learned one thing about his enemies - they had a sick sense of humor.

"So this is where they want me to die?" he thought - feeling teary-eyed as he sat back against the alley wall. A dumpster stood to his left leading to the outside street and to his right is where the abyss of grief grew. He tried to cynically laugh at the irony of this situation, but he felt so drained - so devoid of bodily nutrients that he just coughed roughly with one arm resting on his chest.

He could feel his cowl hang on his head as if it no longer fit. He could still feel the scratches where Vedette had slapped him before he'd fainted. Any excessive movement would cause the cowl to spill over off his head leaving him exposed. His thoughts turned to Alfred and Selina. If they were alive and safe, he knew they'd be tracking his position right now. He wasn't sure how long he'd been out here or if any passing civilians had noticed him here long enough to call GCPD.

He might've felt apprehension towards the thought any other day, but as of now he felt it didn't matter as Vedette's last words came back to his mind.

"Now you're free to enjoy your new life Batman," he recalled her holding the vial, "Don't forget to screech at the moon." and the horror on his face when he'd been shown his reflection. Casting his cat-like irises upwards, he could see the pale moonlight creeping through the shifting clouds above him. He closed his eyelids with a look of dismay.

He felt the cool drizzle provide a small comfort to him before he tried to pull himself to his feet. As soon as he found his footing, his knees failed him and Batman fell to the cold wet pavement - face-first with a thud. He groaned aloud as he felt his cowl bash against his skull on the inside, leaving him with no further qualms towards removing it and letting his face rest against the ground.

His bones felt brittle and his muscles felt restricted that it made him feel worse than after a long night of patrol.

He couldn't move - couldn't speak as he set himself only to stare off towards the alley wall at his left where a very old, withered but visible, poster was taped against the wall advertising a play at the closed opera house not far from here. The play he and his parents saw the night they were murdered in this very alley.

The faces of the fallen all surfaced in his mind and Bruce felt his eyes become wet whether they were with tears or the rain drops coming over him, he wasn't sure. What he was sure of though was that all of this - what he was going through now, "I deserve it." He thought to himself dismally.

This was his punishment for the many he'd failed and those who died because of him. Lifting his head off the ground, he felt his his innards shifting slowly and his bones twist. Bruce didn't care if anyone heard as he allowed himself to moan loudly in pain. It was beginning. He'd never felt this defeated, this pathetic... not since that night. Bruce knew what Vedette had done to him; he could feel it in his bones.

While part of him was frightened at the prospect, he believed that whatever happened would leave nothing left of Bruce Wayne or Batman but a new entity entirely driven only by animal instinct. It would be his end.

As he gazed far ahead, he could see the very sight that had haunted his dreams since that night twenty-years ago. A street light cast a single ray down on the spot his parents had fallen beneath his very eyes. His piercing eyes stared with distress.

"If I'm going to die... at least its close to my parents," he thought. Any sense of sick irony flew out of Bruce's mind as he found some resolve and set himself to crawl towards his intended destination.

He couldn't bring himself to rise to his feet. His lower limbs felt devoid of all feeling and life and he could only use whatever strength was left in his hands to crawl across the wet and messy pavement. Each pull and movement forward left him grunting in pain until he was forced to pause involuntarily to soothe his condition.

It did no good as his attempt to grab a hold of a crack in the ground was met with a stinging pain in his hands as if a door had smashed them in its wake. His gloves didn't seem to fit anymore as he could see the tips of the fingers hang loosely off the edges of his own. The further he aggravated himself, the worse the pain became. Vedette's curse moved through all points of his body while it gathered into the pit of his stomach as if it were trying to claim his very soul. It was harrowing.

His body might be betraying him, but his mind was still his own. His tortured and guilty mind that had so convinced himself that he'd failed and Gotham would fall to his enemy's mercy. The enemy he'd been so blind and careless to see in plain sight. A tremor worked its way down his spine causing him to release an anguished cry as his bones continued to bend.

With watery eyes he resigned himself to his task and reached out to take a hold of the ground below him. Just as his thin shrinking fingers formed into a claw on the ground, he was alarmed to see the fabric of his gloves tear as his boney digits came through with longer sharper nails.

"No..." He thought to himself. He dragged himself further towards the spot where he would succumb to eternal slumber all the while feeling his body twist and contort with each movement. His pale and sickly thin fingers had by now torn free from his gloves while the lower part of his armor and his boots fell free from his shortening limbs. He watched as the back of his hairy hands began to grow furry beyond human proportions.

His hair was spreading and growing rapidly throughout his body. His small stubble had began to stretch down his neck and further up his cheeks. His chest hair that he had kept at bay for years began to make the inside of his suit sweaty and suffocating.

He was within a few feet of the beam of light now. He reached out a withered deranged hand and let the light caress his pale skin. It provided no comfort to his tortured body but his mind felt a small semblance of peace. With one last agonizing pull, he collapsed onto the spotlight with a cry of pain.

He panted for breath as he gazed at the two stiff white shapes that were traced into the ground many years ago. Bruce traced the indentation of his parents' bodies with a long fingernail allowing his tears to fall freely from his clouded eyes and into the expanse of fur still streaking across his face.

"Mom... Dad... this is all my fault... I'm sorry," he choked out with a strangled sob.

For years he believed that he should've died here with his parents the night they were killed. He believed it was his fault they were dead, his fault Rachel had been blown to ashes, his fault Harvey Dent went insane with his grief, his fault all those children were killed and turned to cats all because he was ignorant and not smart enough to make the right choices and see hidden truths.

He was taken suddenly by a jolt of piercing pain. He gasped aloud as he felt his body involuntarily start to convulse, causing him to fall back beside the indentations of his parents - eyes wide with unrelenting force. He watched his clawed hand absently as the once rough and subtle flesh began to shrink until he could see skin cling to skeletal bones and growing fur.

Groans of pain came out frantically as he felt whatever resistance he had left fall to the witch's curse. He felt himself spasm on his back and clutched his aching chest violently. The sounds of his own pain drowned out the noise of a screeching car outside the alley way. His wistful mind ached for a reprieve, anything to relieve the pain from this curse he now hoped would finish its torment over him.

Gazing helplessly at the light shining down on his body and the visible rain drops that wept over him, Bruce felt his thoughts slipping as if he were fading to dream. The pain itself almost felt natural now as it continued its torment on him. Ragged groans still escaped his throat while the rest of his limbs began to shrink. "Please..."

He wasn't sure what his mind was asking. For help? For an end to his pain? For a shroud of comfort? Or for forgiveness? As his mind began to slip further into his own sanctuary, his blurred visions took in the shapes of two prominently familiar people standing over him in an almost ethereal light.

You must fight Bruce..."

"Gotham needs you."

The voices sounded distant and otherworldly but they were unmistakably familiar. His vision cleared long enough to see the shapes of his mother and father standing over him. Reaching his shrunken, boney hand out, Bruce ached for their comforting embrace even if they were a vision or some figment of his imagination conjured up to help him through this ordeal.

He blinked away tears and tried to form words to speak, but his strength was failing him. Whatever he carried left he horsed out into a reply, "I-I can't... They've taken everything from me... I can't even stand." Bruce could hear distant yells outside the alley.

"Master Wayne!"

Alfred's voice sounded as if it were miles from him. Martha and Thomas knelt beside Bruce who continued to twist and transform beneath the pale light.

"No they haven't," Martha soothed him.

"They'll win only if you let them..." Thomas said.

As if being struck by bolt of lightning, Bruce's vision cleared sharply enough to see his parents had disappeared and he was still in the dark alley, under the spotlight with rain drops coming down on him.

"Master Wayne!" Bruce's hearing could pick up the sound of Alfred's distraught voice a lot closer now. Amidst his trembling and shaking, he coulds see his loyal friend rushing into the dark alley and he wasn't alone. Selina trailed ahead of him dressed in her polyurethane-coated spandex cat outfit, night vision goggles flipped up. They'd come and as grateful as he might've felt to not have to go through this ordeal alone, he still didn't want them here to see this.

"Oh dear God!"

Alfred cried in horror at the twisted shape his master had taken. Selina paused only a few feet from Bruce's spot and felt as if all breath had ceased from her lungs and her heart was being ripped to pieces. "No..."

She wanted to close her eyes and turn away from the horrifying sight of Bruce's deformed body shrinking and withering before her, but her resolve failed her and she could do nothing but fall to her knees and stare into a trance - gazing into his once beautiful ginger-forest green eyes that had become copper gold with the irises of a cat. She put a hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming in distress.

Alfred seemed to be coping much the same except more visibly. He fell to his knees beside his trembling master with tears falling freely down his face.

"No... I-What do I do sir? What can I do?"

He almost sobbed. Alfred didn't know what else he could say. What could he possibly say or do to make this okay? Bruce's unwavering, unblinking gaze left Selina's and looked at Alfred hoping to tell him something with his eyes but they were no longer the ones he'd been able to decipher.

Selina fell into position beside him with watery eyes, her crimson lips quivering. She looked over the grim sight with hesitation. Bruce's muscle mass had all but vanished entirely leaving him to look like a skeleton with skin thrown over it. His hair had grown vastly all over his visible skin except his face. His hands were claw-like fingernails. His bones and limbs had shortened to the point he looked like a boy with the face of a grown man. Sweat and water ran all over his fur and what was left of his armor. Here lied the shroud remains of the man she loved.

She loathed to say it but there was nothing they could do about this. Vedette's curse was near to completing its hold over Bruce and they could do nothing to stop it. Alfred tried to reach out and touch the armor to his master's chest that now seemed to cover him like a blanket rather than a skin. The transformation continued in front of them and Bruce said nothing but continued to shake and cry out it in agony.

This was harder for her to endure than the Joker's grueling torture. And she wasn't aware of all the things she wished she could've done or said to him until she felt her warm tears sliding down her cheeks. She did what little she could do and decided to say words of comfort.

"Its okay Bruce. I'm here - we're here."

She placed a hand on Alfred's wrist and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Alfred said nothing but stared with an empty look as his master; the boy he'd raised from misery and solitude and into the man who would save Gotham, as he twisted and changed before his eyes.

Selina knew she could say nothing to make him feel better especially since he was Bruce's only remote family member and what he was seeing now was his own failure to protect the man he viewed as a surrogate son.

As she reached out to touch Bruce's face one more time, his voice came out in a startling hiss and his teeth began to shift along with the rest of his bones. "Oh dear," Alfred closed his eyes and looked away while Selina did her best to remain strong for both of them. Bruce's skull began to shrink with the rest of his body, his fingers began to merge until they formed paws with razor sharp nails. Below his back, a crude shape began to protrude from flesh with fur surrounding it - a tail. His nose sank into the confines of fur that now completely consumed his skin, and sprouts of whiskers emerged from the tip of it.

The rest of his armor that was supported by his upper limbs and neck fell to scatter pieces without anything to fill them. His limbs began to dangle in mid-air as his bones had constricted painfully until all that remained was a screeching animal amidst piles of armor.

A piercing screech filled the air and both Alfred and Selina gaped in terror at the animal in front of them that used to be Bruce Wayne - the Batman. They were met with his copper eyes and the two of them searched, prayed that some part of the man they knew and cared for still resided in this new vessel.

A thick silence filled the area and they watched, breaths held as the black American Bombay cat looked at them with a curious look, head cocked to the side as if in question.

"Master Bruce?"

Alfred was afraid to ask but knew it was necessary. Even now he refused to give up on his master. The cat looked between he and Selina with a blank look before it narrowed to the point it resembled a "Batglare."

"Oh handsome,"

Selina, still teary-eyed, reached out and placed a comforting hand on the cat's head. The cat leaned into the touch with comfort until its eyes gazed long and hard at its reflection in the rainwater on the ground. An uncomfortable silence followed before it lashed its paw out against the water, splashing it. It screeched loudly in what seemed like anger. Alfred and Selina withdrew slightly in surprise. The cat looked to be panicking and distressed. Before Alfred or Selina could offer any comfort, the cat hissed and took off running down the alley.

"No! Master Bruce!"

"Come back!"

They both yelled and immediately came to their feet and rushed after the retreating cat. Neither of them knew and could only imagine what Bruce must be feeling but if they lost track of him now he could be lost forever to this nefarious curse that had taken over him. They both skid to a stop outside the alley and searched frantically trying to spot him. They both skid to a stop outside the alley and searched frantically, trying to spot his small shape.

"Bloody hell! We can't lose him."

"We won't! Listen to me. I will find him. Whatever evidence he left back in the alley you want to collect before the cops get here."

Alfred was hesitant to leave his master but could see the logic in Ms. Kyle's words. No matter his master's situation, a low-profile would still be needed.

"Very well. Call me once you've located him."

Selina nodded as Alfred rushed back to the car that he intended to drive into the alley and recover the pieces of the Batsuit.

This was the last thing he wanted. Part of him had be willing to accept death as a suitable end to this curse but here he found himself still painfully aware and conscious of his own thoughts and memories. Bruce chided himself for thinking Vedette would be so merciful. She wanted him to suffer - to feel caged and helpless inside this new shape while he watched Gotham burn all around him. He felt anger where before all there was was pain and anguish.

His anger and his distress of being confined to this new body led him to turn and flee from those he loved and cared for and race off into the night to an unknown destination. Though his physical strength was gone, he ran with a speed and agility he never felt before in his capable human body.

He needed to get away; far from Alfred and Selina's pitiful stares and somewhere he could get his mind together and figure out a way out of this if it was at all possible. As he ran, his senses were alerted towards all immediate and distant sounds. It was difficult to distinguish between them until he stopped with fear at the sight of a speeding SUV coming his way. He hissed loudly as he heard its honks of warning and just as it seemed he was going to be crushed, he was swept off the ground and into black leather covered arms.

"Bad kitty, Bruce. If I had been a second too late you would've been roadkill," Selina berated him. Bruce squirmed in her arms and hissed, ready to dig his sharp fangs into her gloved hand.

"Put me down Selina! I don't want your pity." The cat screeched.

Selina paused and gazed into Bruce's sneered eyes with bemusement.

"This might be easier than I thought."

She tightened her hold on him as Alfred pulled up his car around the corner. She opened the door and ushered Bruce inside then climbed into the passenger's seat next to Alfred. The butler looked in the backseat at Bruce will relief. Bruce narrowed his cat eyes at Alfred. "What are you looking at?" he growled.

Alfred blinked in surprise and looked from the amused Selina Kyle then back to his master in the backseat. "Don't worry, Master Wayne..." He set the car in drive and took off down the street heading for the highway, "we'll figure this out."