Joker: Chapter 2

"H-he's to arrive five days from now, by land. H-he's bringing a host of five hundred, maybe more…" The guard whimpered as Joker held the knife to his throat, and winced when he pressed it further. A small line of blood trickled down the blade.

"Ohh thank you for being oh so very helpful! I do hate when I don't get invited to these galas, I truly do. And to think, they invited Lord Lion himself, and weren't going to give poor little ole' me an invitation. Oh by the gods it is just cruel!" Joker cried as he pretended to pity himself. He turned from the guard and wandered around the small room they were in. Two brutish thugs each held one of the guard's arms. It was a dark room, with only four candles standing on a table at its center. The light flickered off the guard's armor, and danced in the Joker's bright green eyes.

"What does the old cat want anyways?" Joker asked as he as he flipped the knife from hand to hand as he paced.

"U-Uh I'm not sure, ser, h-he said he was going to deal with the rodents of the city in the message! That's all I know, I swear it!" The man pleaded, tears now running down his cheeks steadily.

"The rodent problem! Well that just simply will not do! And if that is the case, then you have lasted your usefulness to our merry cause. I thank you ser, it was, eye opening! Hahhehehaha!"

Joker stabbed his knife into one of the man's eyes making him scream in agony until he was suddenly silenced as the blade hit the soft inners within his skull, killing him. As Joker withdrew the knife with a quick jerk, the man's eye clung to the knife, skewered. "Ugh I do hate it when they do that," Joker tossed the knife to one of his henchmen. "Jacen be a dear and clean that off will you? I have a celebration to plan for!"

Joker walked out of the room and into the large hall beyond it. The hall housed upwards eighty scoundrels, deviants and criminals. There were smugglers, rapers, murderers, thieves, even a few trained assassins. He was slowly working his way through the entire criminal network of Gotham. Only a few more pieces to put into place and then BAM! Joker's ready for the show!

Now that the lord of Casterly Rock was coming to Gotham, Joker needed to refine his plan. If the lion bites the head off the bat that will be no fun at all! Leave it to the lords of Westoros to try and ruin my enjoyment, what do they have against fun? Joker heard that Tywin Lannister had not laughed or even smiled since his wife died, a few decades ago. Well I'll give the old lion something to smile about, and oh how I do love spreading laughter! Hehehe!

A second voice emerged from the darkness of his mind. But what of the Bat? He has not been seen in over a week now, what if he's…

NO! He cannot be dead, Slade was not worthy enough to kill him! He is ours, and no one else shall kill him but us! Now speak no more of this folly!

The other voice said nothing more. Joker hated arguing with his own self, but he could entertain himself more than any of the humorless sheep he was surrounded with. Sure the thieves knew some decent stories, the rapers had some entertaining enough jokes, but none of them had the way with humor he did. I wonder if Bats will find me funny. If not, I'll cut a smile across his face till he's smiling like the rest of us! Hahaha!

"Pilo!" Joker shouted as he walked through the hall. A large man slowly parted from the crowd of street-filth. He had a square jaw, a stern face, and a nasty glare. He was made of stone it seemed, and never laughed at any of Joker's jests. But he followed any order he was given, and never questioned it. He would have killed a babe at his mother's breast if Joker asked him to. Ha, maybe I should just to try it.

"Pilo, I have need of something…special. A desire, an itch if you will." They turned to walk up the stairway leading to the roof.

"What would that be Joker, ser?"

Joker pulled out a small glass bottle from his pocket. It was capped with a cork, and filled with a bright green liquid that was lighter a shade than jade in the sunlight.

"W-wildfire ser?" Wildfire scared many lesser men, Joker knew, people often feared that which they could not understand.

"Close Pilo, but no. Even I'm not mad enough to carry vials of wildfire around. No this is a mixture of my own design, but I will have a great need of those pots that wildfire is typically held in. At least half a century or so I would say."

"Wh-what is it Joker, ser…?"

Joker twirled the jar in his hand around and around, watching the green liquid splash around behind the glass. They reached the roof, and Joker stared out into the city as the moon shone down upon the dark stones of Gotham. "Something that will bring a smile to good ole' Tywin Lannister's face Hehe…HAHAHA!"

Selina: Chapter 10

It was the night before Tywin Lannister was expected to arrive in Gotham, and Selina ran like the wind. She had stolen two vases, three necklaces, a crown, a gold inlaid dagger, some assorted gemstones and golden ornaments, and upwards twenty gold pieces. Selina figured she should plunder and maraud as much as she could in the week before the lion landed. And then everything changes, Selina reminded herself. The Lord of Casterly Rock's arrival could only mean dark things were on the horizon for Gotham and any criminals in it. Unless he has eyes set solely on Batman.

Batman had still not been seen, and now the city began to buzz with words that he truly did succumb to his wounds. What a sad thing that would be, the first man to interest me and he dies. Well maybe not the first…

Selina thought of Bruce Wayne again; the confusing, attractive, wealthy lord of Gotham. He had not called on her since the night before Batman and his armored assailant's public duel. The vase he gave her actually sold for thirty gold pieces, but it was how he acted that was on her mind most about that night. He acted like he knew me, who I was, that I wasn't a highborn lady. As if he knew I were nothing but a street whore…and perhaps Catwoman as well.

Over the last few nights Selina had become more convinced that Bruce Wayne was Batman. She's faked being a dumb whore, why couldn't Batman fake being crippled? Not that it mattered much now, since one or both of them could be dead. Selina almost wished they were the same person. Bruce was nice enough, but a crippled lord would be so dull to fall for.

Selina caught herself, no, I'm not falling for either of them. I've only seen Bruce a few times and he seems more walled up than King's Landing…and I've only seen Batman once. She remembered how terrifying he looked that night he saved her, but how awe-stricken she was laying eyes on him for the first time as well. The way the moonlight palely reflected off of his armor and helm, how mysterious and vexing he was, and his eyes. Those eyes, and the way they made her spine shiver. How it felt as if he were somehow shedding ice from those dark blue islands amongst the seas of white.

She rounded the corner atop the rooftops, heading past the rows of nefarious hideouts for the thieves, gangs, killers, sellswords, and other devious scum. She reached the Lion's Den and vaulted down through the window into her chambers. She heard the familiar mews and purrs of her babies as she walked in and took her mask off. She poured some milk into a few bowls, some bits of chicken in others. Her children darted in and out between her legs, all wanting to be the first to eat or drink. Isis sat still on her bed however, not moving his little gems of eyes from the corner. Before she could turn to see what the kitten was looking at, she heard that gravelly voice that turned her insides cold but her skin warmer than a flame.

"Lady Kyle, I would suggest you stop these late night adventures before the cat has an unfortunate run in with a lion," Batman said stepping into the moonlight cascading into the room from the window.

Selina swallowed, hesitant and full of worry, before turning to meet her unexpected visitor. "I think the cat worries more about the ghosts of bats than an old lion. I had heard you were dead."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I felt I should warn you before Lannister arrives and tries to change things," Batman bluntly replied. Always straight to business with this one.

"So you know who I am? How?"

Batman looked around the room, inspecting it. "You seem wealthier than the common street girl, the mud I found in your footprint at the Drakes' castle was the reddish clay only found around the blacksmith in the Narrows, and this place is the closest whorehouse to it. It was you that I saved from those thugs a month ago was it not? You have the same height and lips and a similar voice."

Selina was shocked, how could she have been figured out so quickly…unless. "Yes that was me, but it was you that night right outside of here more than a month ago, wasn't it? The one that saved Holly, fought my girls, and me…"

His silence was enough to confirm it, him turning to face the window to look down at the street even more so. He was tall, taller by a head than Selina, and taller than Lord Wayne to be sure. But Wayne was hunched over every time I saw him due to that damn cane.

"You had a beard then, but I hear Bruce Wayne did as well. You two showed up at the same time in this city, you wear his sigil across your chest, you disappear when he does, you appear when he doesn't…you are him aren't you? You're Bruce Wayne," Selina said resolutely. She watched for a reaction, but was disappointed as Batman did nothing but continue looking out the window. After a few agonizing minutes of quiet, he turned to face her. His head no longer tilted forward as it was when he first fought those thugs to strike fear into them, but instead he stood up straight. They met gazes, Selina hopelessly trying to read his eyes for a reaction or shimmer of emotion.

He inhaled slowly, and then spoke, "Bruce Wayne does nothing but sit in his castle and throw gold at the city hoping to solve its problems with his wealth. He is selfish, arrogant, but above all, he is afraid. I won't even speak of how he is crippled and I am clearly not…but what separates that man from me is that he hides behind his walls letting fear rule him. While I wage my war on the streets, I wager my life to protect these people, and will until-"

Selina cut him off, "until you lose your life in the wager."

Batman grew silent, "If that is what it takes."

This man was not Bruce Wayne, it couldn't be him. Batman had the right of it, or so Selina believed. Lord Wayne had done nothing for the city but give gold to Gordon and then proceeded to hide in his castle. This man however, he truly was ready to give his life to this city. She could hear the resolution in his voice. "But why…why give these people your life? What do you owe them? Why sacrifice your life for people you don't even know? Why stand against all of this alone?" She had so many questions, but felt as if she would get little to no answers.

Batman stood in between her and the window, the light from outside lighting up his menacing outline, turning the dark metal a pale silver in the moonlight. He never looked away from her eyes, "Because if I do not stand, no one else will. I will die for those people because they have suffered more hardships than need counting, and not for a king, or war, or to get through to a time of peace and prosperity. They simply suffer, and continue to without an end in sight. They need a symbol to lift them up, to show them that they do not need to be afraid like Bruce Wayne. They can stand and fight, and they can have hope again."

Selina just looked on in awe at this masked stranger who was more ready to throw his life down for people he had never met than a knight was for a king he bent the knee to. If he isn't Bruce Wayne…then who is he…? Selina was about to ask, but then she heard Isis mew behind her. She turned to pick up her little kitten that was as black as night. "What happens if you die? No one will know who you are, or what you tried to do for this city."

She did not turn, but heard his voice say from behind her, "They will not know what I tried to do, but what I did do for this city. Whatever that may be."

Selina itched her finger under Isis' neck, and slowly turned. "And people say the life of a whore is lonely…you must be…"

The spot where Batman once stood in front of the window was now vacant, with no signs showing he was ever there in the first place. She walked over to the window and looked out into the street below. Looking at the street illuminated by the torchlight, thinking of everything her guest had said. Whoever he is, he's a fool.

Alfred: Chapter 10

Alfred could see the procession of shimmering crimson enter the city from his place high up on the hill on which Wayne Castle resided. It must be upwards six centuries of men. Alfred had become well practiced at guessing an enemy's numbers from his years on the battlefield in his youth. Tywin Lannister had arrived, and with a sizeable armada at his back.

It was a rather pleasant day, the sun was shining down upon the city and its guests, the sky had but a few clouds in it. The town all looked on in awe from the street sides and windows as the waves of Lannister men proceeded through the city. Gotham was always far away from the fighting and destruction of war, so both boys and even some men had likely never seen an army such as this. Six centuries of men would not be much on the battlefield to be certain, but in a city such as this they were a rather large spectacle to behold.

Master Bruce stood to Alfred's left, leaning his weight on his best black-stained oak cane. He wore a solid black doublet with gold trim sewn to appear as vines climbing up the center of his chest. His family's sigil was flapping its wings on his breast, golden and slightly unnerving to look at. Alfred's uneasiness of bats still spawned from that night in Thomas Wayne's study, where he gazed into the creature's black, all-consuming eyes from atop his former master's marble head.

Bruce still wore bandages and wrappings under his garments for he had torn some of his stitches when he decided to return to the city as Batman the night before. His thigh wound and the other cuts had healed rather finely, but he had reopened the gash in his side last night. Every breath most likely sent waves of pain through Bruce, but if it did he did not show it.

Master Richard was to his right, and looked almost as uneasy as Bruce. He wore black breeches with a pale gold doublet, the flying robin of house Grayson stitched onto it. Dick knew little of the happenings of the lords of Westoros, but even he knew of Lord Tywin Lannister.

Tywin Lannister was as powerful a man as he was rich. He was the pinnacle of renown and sovereignty. Even in Alfred's day the name Tywin Lannister made people weary and cautious. The man had a mind for strategy, battle, and surviving. Alfred agreed with most of Gotham, that the lord of lions' unexpected visit was not something that would bring good tidings to the city.

As was custom, the visiting lord was to stay in the residing lord's castle, where he would eat and drink to his heart's content under his host's roof. This made Alfred, Lucius, but most of all Bruce, very uneasy. With everything that had transpired over the past month, and with the hidden lair of the Batman laid directly beneath the castle, hosting Lord Tywin would make things difficult. Alfred could only hope Casterly Rock would have too many matters of its own that needed settling, and the lion lord would leave Gotham to its own ends.

After near half an hour of standing still and waiting, the parade of Lannisters finally rose over the crest of the hill heading towards the castle. Lord Tywin was at the crimson river's front, wearing his crimson and gold armor with his lion's head helm in his hand. His scalp was completely bald. Golden side-whiskers sprouted from his jawline, streaks of gray running through them. His eyes were stern and piercing, his mouth tightened into an apathetic straight line. The old lion's skin was crinkled around his eyes and mouth; his eyes were sunken with age. He looked older, but not decrepit in the slightest. He rode a strong white destrier with a gray mane that looked as noble as its rider. When they were near two dozen paces from where the three residents of Wayne Castle stood waiting, the procession came to a halt.

Lord Tywin looked down upon Alfred and his two masters from atop his white horse, before shouting with a great level of authority in his voice. "Good day Lord Wayne. I thank you for giving us the pleasure of visiting this fine city, giving roofs over our heads to stay the rain, and food and mead in our stomachs as a sign of your graciousness."

Alfred listened to the words, but knew the whole time what it truly was, a display of power. Lord Tywin had something planned, and may the Seven help them when they learnt what it was. Bruce bowed as best he could, the wound in his side undoubtedly searing with pain at the movement.

"My thanks my lord, your men are welcomed to make camp here, outside my castle walls, if it please you. I shall have servants bring food to them, they must be starved. You and your officers may share my castle with me. I would be very pleased to sup with you tonight," Bruce said calmly, not letting the pain be seen through his voice.

Lord Tywin did not dismount to shake hands or embrace his host as was custom, but slowly trotted forward. "Lord Wayne, I would prefer if I could speak to the people of the city this evening. I believe there are words that need to be said to calm them in these despairing times, and that is something that cannot wait. We will sup tomorrow evening to be sure, but may I ask if you could dispatch word to your people that I wish to address them this evening at nightfall?"

And there it is, Lord Tywin planned to usurp Bruce as the beacon of the city. He wanted to be the one for the smallfolk to look to, since Bruce had done so little in the city by day. By night however, Batman gives them hope, and assuredly Tywin plans to take that away too.

Bruce smiled and nodded, "At once my lord. Would you like to rest before you speak? I have several guest chambers prepared for you to choose from."

Tywin gave a small shake of his head. "No, my servants will move my things into my temporary quarters, but I will stay among my men until it is time for me to speak to Gotham. Ser Borsan, stay here and see that the servants don't drop any of my belongings. Thank you for your hospitality my lord."

The man to his right dismounted with a simple "Aye my lord," and set about directing the servants. Ser Borsan was a scrawny bone of a man, lacking any of the muscle or girth that still clung to his lord's old bones. Tywin watched for a few moments, and then nodded to his lieutenant. With that, Tywin Lannister turned his horse and led his men back down the hill from whence they came. Alfred was shocked at how Lord Tywin had practically spit upon the common etiquette of being a guest, and looked to Bruce to see if he was offended. Bruce's face said nothing, no emotion leaked, and the man silently turned and limped back into the castle.

Bruce would be expected to attend Lord Tywin's speech no doubt, and would most likely sit behind him as the lord of the city should when his guest wishes to speak. Alfred was still bothered though. The lord of Casterly Rock comes with only a week's notice, brings more than half a thousand men at arms, and then spits in the face of his host. Grim things were on the horizon, and Alfred was weary of the type of dawn the horizon would bring.

Dick quickly went to his room quietly, as Alfred followed the lord of the castle up to his chambers. Once inside Bruce immediately stripped off his garments, revealing a reddened bandage clinging to his side. "Hurts like a bitch it does. Alfred, be a saint and change the damn bandages for me, and pour whatever that mixture you concocted over it again as well," Bruce said laying his cane on the bed and walking over to the fireplace opposite it.

Alfred did as his master bid, while Bruce stood with his arms raised, staring into the fire crackling in the marble hearth. Alfred cleared his throat, "Master Bruce, be weary of this man. He is as cunning as Rha's Al Ghul and just as dangerous to you when in your family's castle. There is a reason he has become the wealthiest and most powerful lord in Westoros and has sat atop Casterly Rock for longer than I've been serving your family."

Bruce smiled. "I'm well aware that Tywin Lannister is a threat Alfred, but he is a shadow compared to Rha's. We are beyond the spider's eyes now that you've sent the remaining servants we had home. Did you take on the new ones the way I asked?"

Alfred nodded, "Yes Master Bruce, a hundred capable hands straight off the ships that landed this past week. A gold piece a mouth so long as they stay shut."

Bruce lowered his arms once Alfred had finished wrapping the new bandages around his stomach. "Good. As for this lion of Casterly Rock, I know why he is here, and it is more than giving Gotham hope or trying to show he wields more power. He's here because of the Half-Mask."

Alfred was confused. "Why? Because he was from Casterly Rock?"

Bruce began changing into a new, more comfortable black tunic with red trim and buttons. "Because Deathstroke, or Slade, was Tywin's best assassin. If he ever needed a man whether he was a peasant or a lord killed, Tywin called on him. Deathstroke was much quieter than the Mountain or any of Tywin's other creatures, and that is something he is greatly wanting of I imagine. Slade also trained Jaime Lannister, or so he said. I have not heard of what became of him since the night of our duel."

It was true, this Deathstroke had seemingly vanished without a trace. The guards that were tasked with bringing him back to the city's jail were found dead in an alley the next morning. Alfred hoped he was dead, for if he was alive he would only become an even deadlier threat should Bruce and him cross paths again.

"So if Tywin is here to see what happened to his prized assassin, what are you going to do, ser?"

Bruce looked out the window as the sun grew closer to touching the watery horizon of the sea. "I wait Alfred. I cannot do much else on the matter. I lay in wait, and plan. When Tywin Lannister plays his hand, I will play mine."

So there you have it, the second character from Game of Thrones comes to Gotham! I appreciate and will respond to any and all reviews whether it's how I handle my portrayals of the Batman characters or the Game of Thrones ones, things I could do better or clarify, or even if it's just to say you like or hate the story! Next week, Gordon adapts to Tywin's arrival and Lord Tywin delivers his speech to Gotham!