Richard: Chapter 22
"He...he doesn't have a face. What happened to your face?" Dick exhaled in shock.
The mysterious stranger raised a hand to his face, gently stroking the fingers down across his cheek.
"A necessary sacrifice."
"For what?" Dick breathed slowly, trying to wrap his mind around what his eyes were seeing.
"Truth," the faceless man replied.
"Who are you?" Bruce questioned.
The stranger turned his face to the armored Bruce. "A man, Batman. A man that has come so very far, to speak with you."
Bruce stood, staring at the stranger. Dick remained at the ready, should the stranger move a muscle Dick would be on top of him within two breaths.
"Come, we are alone here. There is no need for lies and masks. I know who you are," the stranger stated flatly.
Dick's eyes widened. "We're Batman and Robin, and if you don't loosen your tongue and tell us who you are, your face is about to be even more disfigured," he threatened, striving to imitate the danger of Bruce's threats.
The stranger turned his vacant face towards Dick. A cold shiver rose up his spine, feeling watched by eyes that were not there. "You have come very far since your parents' deaths."
Dick froze. How does he...
"You question how I know your identity? Good, you are beginning to ask the right questions." The stranger turned to Bruce. "Can you, Lord Wayne?"
"You've been to the castle," Bruce stated.
"Yes, twice in fact, but that is not a question. First I visited weeks past, a night just like any other, when Batman and Robin rode about the city of Gotham defending the innocent. I walked around your castle, I took a look at your cave. I searched the entire castle from top to bottom."
"Why? What were you searching for?" Bruce asked.
The stranger raised a finger, "Now, you're asking the right questions. I was there to see what sort of man you are, Bruce, and if you are ready for what is to come."
"You said you went to the castle twice, when was the second time?" Dick asked, lowering his poles slightly.
The stranger turned his gaze back to Dick. "And your protege is an agile mind as well, good, very good. The second time was the night of Lord Tywin's invasion. I stopped the assassin sent to kill you," he said pointing to Bruce.
"Tywin sent an assassin to kill Bruce Wayne?"
The stranger began to pace along the step he was standing upon. His figure outlined by the dim light of the candles. "Yes, not knowing you and Batman were one in the same. The assassin's name is Floyd Lawson, taking the title Deadshot as his own little namesake. He wields twin crossbows attached to his forearms, with mechanisms to fire with a flick of his wrist. Impeccable craftsmanship, taken from the higher minds of the greatest maesters in Oldtown. Maesters, such odd folk. They study their entire life away for pursuit of knowledge, but in the end, what does it do them? They waste away in a castle, serving one lord. And all of them must study the same topics over and over, history, ravenry, economics, the only truly inspiring one, is magic and the occult."
"Maesters study magic? But magic isn't real?" Dick posed.
The stranger chuckled again. "Magic's not real? Boy I took you to be smart. Magic isn't real you say? Then where did dragons come? Or the children of the forest? The dark witchcraft that lies beneath Asshai?"
Dick scoffed, "There are no more dragons."
"Not yet," the stranger replied. He continued, "Lord Wayne, maesters' chains are forged of many different metals yes? Each ring a different metal for a different skill. Bronze for astronomy, black iron for ravenry, do you happen to know what metal is used for the study of magic?"
Bruce replied slowly, "Valyrian steel."
"Ah yes, Valyrian. A magical alloy, used only in the greatest of weapons. Forged from the earth of Valyria before the Great Doom. It's a curious thing, your friend, Clark Kent, what did he say was the only thing known to hurt him whether under the light of the sun or the moon?"
Bruce's eyes widened beneath the slits in his helm. "How did you know-"
The stranger cut him off. "How did I know that Clark Kent can be injured only by the magical steel from Old Valyria? How do I know who the two of you are? How do I know of the secret and lies the maesters hid behind their towers in Old Town? How do I know the reason Jon Arryn was murdered those many months ago?"
Bruce's face was frozen, his eyes staring blankly at the stranger's. "Who are you?"
"There is that question once more, 'Who are you? Who are you?' Who am I? It appears a mystery. A man with no face or name, that knows so very much about all of these things. How did the last of the dragons die? How do the faceless men shed their faces to grow a new one as if a serpent's skin? What truths have been lost to time about how the Lannisters took Casterly Rock from its previous residents? How do lizard lions live beneath King's Landing?"
Dick cocked his brow. "There are no lizard-lions beneath King's Landing."
The stranger tittered and wagged his finger. "So says you boy, have you ever even been to the capital? I've seen them, they're twice as long as Lord Wayne here is tall. Ferocious beasts. But all points aside, it is merely another myth in the world. Another stitch in the massive tapestry that is over looked. You ask who I am, Bruce Wayne? I am the collector of those passed over stitches. I am the man that looks at the tapestry of the world and does not question my place in it, but questions the other side, the edges, the holes and gaps. How they fit together. People call them conspiracies, no, it is a single conspiracy. The dragons, the Targaryens, the Starks, Clark Kent, the Amazons, even you, it is all connected. I question it all Batman. I question what other men dare not even bring to mind, I question what children believe to be only myth, for I know it to be true. All I live for is asking questions Bruce Wayne, and so you may call me the Question."
"Question..."Bruce paused, "What do you want from me?"
"I want you to tell me your purpose, as I asked previously."
"My purpose is to defend Gotham, and ensure that no one is ripped from their lover's arms, or their parents' from their life, or any form of cruelty or injustice that live within these walls again," Bruce growled.
"You think this to be your great life's purpose? Oh my, I know not whether to pity you or mourn for you. You think your fate lies within these walls alone? Defending only the people of Gotham? And here I was told you were the sharpest mind in Westoros," the stranger said, his shoulders slowly slumping. Despite no features upon his face, the stranger appeared almost, sorrowful.
"You said you knew of the nature of Jon Arryn's death. Who killed him?" Bruce pressed on.
"You still do not know? Think, Lord Wayne. You have all the pieces, all the facts, simply put them together. The Stark boy's fall, Jon Arryn's death, then King Robert's death, Ned Stark's supposed betrayal of the crown and arrest, put it all together in that sharp little mind of yours."
Dick thought on the Question's words. Ned wouldn't betray the king, he's his friend, but now Joffrey sits on the throne. He tried piecing the puzzle together but it proved useless. He did not even know what the King looked like, or his son Joffrey, he barely knew of Jon Arryn as well. Ugh I feel so useless, why can't I be smart like Bruce, why can't I see things the way he does.
Bruce's face remained calm, but behind it a turbulent storm raged as his mind raced to put all the pieces together. Dick could see it in his eyes, the way Bruce's pupils flickered as if shaking with cold. Then, in an instant, his expression changed. His eyes widened, his jaw dropped slightly, he looked upon the Question with revelation.
"Prince Joffrey..."
The Question nodded. "I knew you would be able to piece it together, you simply needed the proper push."
Dick looked to his mentor. "What about Joffrey? How did Jon Arryn die?"
Bruce continued to stare at the faceless stranger. "Joffrey isn't King Robert's son, none of them are. They're children Queen Cersei had with...Jaime."
Dick's face contorted in disgust. "Well...I suppose I'm glad I couldn't piece that together..."
Bruce continued, "So that means..."
"Yes, Joffrey is not the rightful heir to the throne. Robert's brother Stannis is. Ned figured out the mystery using an old tome about the histories of the great families. No Baratheon children had blonde hair. Quite a simple deduction in truth. Rather charming and amusing how Lord Stark pieced it together. He gave Queen Cersei a warning of benevolence to flee for the children's sake, but he placed his faith in the wrong people and wound up arrested and a traitor to the crown. His life hangs in the balance now, for figuring out the greatest lie in Westoros, well...one of them."
"What are the other ones?" Dick asked.
The stranger turned back to Dick. "You may not have your master's intellect, but you have his curiosity. Those will have to wait for another time child, your lord is about to speak." The Question turned back to Bruce. An air of what could be called, pleasure, permeating about him.
"I must ride for King's Landing, tonight, I must save Ned. I will help him bring the truth to light, and bring every damned Lannister to their knees," Bruce growled.
"There is one thing more I must tell you," the Question stated. "I freed Jaime Lannister that night."
"Why?" Bruce questioned with grizzled voice.
"If he remained within these walls, Tywin would have thrown all of his forces at Gotham. Sixty thousand men bearing down on your city, not even the Amazons would have been enough to save you. Jaime had to go free, so he can walk the path fate has dictated for him."
Bruce tilted his head slightly. "You question everything, but lay trust in fate?"
"Each entity that exists has a specific nature. Each entity exists as something in particular and has characteristics that are part of what it is. What's A is A, and shall always be A. Bruce Wayne is Batman, and Batman is Bruce Wayne. Fate is the ultimate question most of us will never have answered Batman, to what purpose is our life for? Of that, we will never fully know, only fate shall. Until we meet again Batman."
With that, the stranger stepped back into the shadows of the chamber. Bruce rushed forward to stop him, but when he reached where the Question stood but moments before, he was gone.
"Dick, we need to return to the castle. I have a long journey ahead of me, with too many lives in the balance."
Joker: Chapter 11
"To our right gents, is the famed Harpy's Wings brothel. Twice a week they halve the prices and every night they double their guests' cocks in size! But don't tell Tywin, any whores found under his gaze get a most unpleasant fate indeed. Hehehe..." Joker snickered as the wagon rode past the stone building. Two women stood at its entrance waving their skirts and gesturing to any man that walked by.
As the wagon pulled on through the streets under the dark of night, Joker looked around to study the strange people they passed. There was an old man with a limp, undoubtedly a veteran from a war past, a few homeless bums sitting against walls begging for coins, a man chasing a girl through the street with his finger streaking up under her dress to touch the gems that lay beneath. Beasts, all of them, take away their gold, take away their hope, and they all become mindless animals hunting and killing each other for the higher place on the food chain.
As they finally reached the crest of the long slope upward, Joker gleamed and gazed upon the den of the highest member of the food chain in this city. Rising high up above the city the mountain rose into the sky. The ocean lapped at its base like a wolf at a deer's heels. In the moonlight, the golden towers glowed like gemstones. Casterly Rock stood above all surrounding lands, the perfect den for a pride of lions gazing out in search of prey.
Joker had made the journey from the cave of bats to the den of lions for one purpose and one purpose only, treasure, a treasure of such immeasurable wealth that even Lord Tywin Lannister had yet to possess it.
Casterly Rock was a vastly different city from Gotham despite both sitting upon the coast where the sea kissed the land. Lord Wayne's castle rose up on high cliffs to the south of the city along the bay, while the Lannisters' rose up at the bay's heart, overlooking any who would visit land on either side. The streets of the city were a lighter shade, and most of the noble steads were of pale yellow bricks in place of the dark ones of Gotham. Even in the lowly parts of the city it seemed people were less fearful of crime and more willing to venture out into the night to converse with one another, or other intents. Fools, with your lord and master gone, if I had the care, I could burn this city to dust with a thousand times the ease I could with Gotham.
During his departure he had left Cobblepot in charge, or Penguin as the little lord preferred to be called now. With Falcone and his stooges dead, Gotham's criminal underworld was crippled. It still had teeth of course, other crime families that would struggle to take the turf that Falcone had left, but it was dwindling. The beast was wounded, and slowly Joker would bleed it until it collapsed to the earth dead, and he could cut out its heart, victorious.
But Joker had another beast he must deal with this night. The old silk map laid within a pocket on the inside of his tunic. The map of King's Landing, the first part he needed. The second required piece lay within Lord Tywin's bedchamber. Lord Tywin kept his most precious possessions in a small vault behind a painting in his room. Joker had tortured a captain of the castle guard for many hours last night to get the information. When the man finally let his tongue loose with the desired secret, between missing teeth and bloodied mouth, Joker finally gave the man the gift of death.
A blotted brown cloak was thrown over his figure to shroud his identity. If the people feared the Lord of Casterly Rock, as they would revere one of their own gods, then to them Joker must be a godslayer. A being to be feared by god and mortal alike. As they passed through one of the more populated streets reaching up towards the castle, Joker figured that all he need do was throw down his hood and cape and the people would flee from the area like mice before a dragon. But like a dragon, I have a hunger for something far greater in reward and taste than plain mice.
They had reached the castle walls by nightfall. Ajax and another of Joker's men scaled the wall with knives and threw down a rope for Joker to follow. While Mol and Kol's brute strength would have been formidable to any guards they found, Joker needed stealth and cunning.
A new recruit had been brought along. He swore he was the estranged cousin of Tywin Lannister, a bastard of a brother, but bloodlines didn't matter here. The man, named Tytos, was so skilled with his hands that he could break two men's necks at once without either making a final groan as death over took them. Tytos took the front of their party, with Ajax and Ace behind him, and two others behind Joker.
They wandered from corridor to corridor, making their way up the floors until they arrived at the floor Lord Tywin's chambers lay on. They needed only to kill three guards on the way up, and to sneak past another two. It would seem the all-powerful Lord Tywin thought his castle untouchable, or perhaps he needed every man he could muster for his war with the Stark child.
Ha, that's a pip. A man feared across the Seven Kingdoms marches to war with a boy of five-and-ten. First a clown bests him, then Batman and some women, and soon a wolf boy.
Will you focus? We need the second piece…His second voice began before Joker cut it off.
Yes, yes I know, and we shall have it. Then only one more piece need be found and we will find our reward beneath King Landing's belly Hehehehe….
"Here, this is where the bastard sleeps," Tytos whispered to the party. His face was stout and stern, with a chiseled jaw and glaring dark green eyes. He was strong, but also sleek, not built like an ox.
One of Ace's knives found its way to the guard's neck at the door and collapsed into Tytos' arms before he could hit the floor. The door opened and in their group slid.
Joker had them lay the body out on Lord Tywin's bed, thinking it would be a nice touch of imagery when the other guards found the corpse.
There on the far wall in front of the bed was a large painting in a golden frame. It was twice as tall as Joker stood, and depicted a likeness of dragons raining fire down upon a castle and its armies. Harrenhal, sure have a touch for the dramatic heroes don't you Tywin…
"Tear it down."
The men cut through the painting with their knives until the wall behind it came into sight. There was a small square of metal, no more than a foot to each side. Only Lord Tywin held the key to the vault, but Joker knew another way to acquire his reward. He snickered as he took a thin vial filled with a glowing green liquid from his pocket.
"What's that then?" Tytos questioned.
"The same poison I used to kill Tywin's men all those months ago. When combined with another liquid, this poison becomes harmless to anything but the fragile insides of a man. Raw however…" Joker chimed as he emptied the mixture onto the vault's handle. "It burns through anything as if it were Wildfire."
The poison began to bubble on the metal's surface, small hazes of smoke rising from its writhing surface. Within a minute it had eaten its way through the handle, making the door loosen its grip from the wall. Using a knife, Joker pried open the door with ease, and reached a hand in to claim his prize.
The only item in the vault was a lone piece of parchment. As Joker held it up into the light in wonder, one of the men stared at it and questioned, "Uh, there's nothing there?"
Joker's smile vanished as he turned on the man. "It's invisible ink you fool," he growled as he slit the man's throat. Tytos grasped the body and slid it to the floor.
Joker moved to a lit candle on a nearby table and held the parchment over it. Lines burst forth on the page, combing across the surface in a mixture of angles and straights.
"What is it ser?" Ajax posed.
"A map, my boy," he giggled as he took the silk cloth from his pocket. Holding the silk behind the parchment, he held it back up to the candle's light. This time, the lines of the parchment ran beneath the symbols on the silk. A line stopping under the large rock, turning left under the large cross, going left under the lion's head, and finally, ending at the sleeping dragon. That's where it lies, ohhh the clever fools.
Joker was smiling so unforgivingly that it never left his lips for the entire ride back to Gotham. The trip was even a blur to him, as his mind raced with what treasures could possibly be buried beneath King's Landing that such an intricate map would be necessary to hide it.
They had slipped back through the city walls just as easily as they had left them. Joker's face was covered in bloody bandages, a victim of Lannister raids to the north. Surely any Gotham resident would at once feel pity for a soul wronged by the Lannisters. They continued on from the higher end of Gotham into the broken, skeleton of place known as the Narrows.
Joker was put off however when the carriage came to an unexpected stop.
"What are you doing you bloody oaf. Move!" He shouted.
When no sound was made, Joker groaned and jumped out of the carriage to kill his driver. He was met with a party of a few dozen armed guards of the City Watch, all pointing their blades at Joker's chest.
James Gordon stood at their center, a flat expression across his face as he sternly stated, "Joker, you're under arrest."
Hmmmm, I wonder what the food will taste like…
Note: Well it's been a year since I first uploaded the first three chapters of the Prologue! Thanks to everyone whose favorited and followed over the last year, but anyways...Sooo the Question, I have to say he may just be my favorite non Bat family character to write yet. You can definitely expect more of him in the future. Next week, Bruce travels to King's Landing, and a familiar face returns!