Disclaimer: I do not own Batman. All rights belong to Detective Comics.
A/N: Shout-outs:
anonymous1397: Thank you! I know it took a while, but I'm back! I also think I may have more time to work on this story, as well. :)
Bonnie never felt so exposed in her entire life. She never felt so many unblinking eyes stare at her until now. The light above her was no help, unveiling the pure terror clenching her figure. And that cameraman focusing the lens on her just made it even worse.
Blinded by the audience members' contorting faces, the girl was only able to hear the circus unravel around her. It was insanity; their screaming gasps vibrated in her ears and into the boss' pure, unbridled laughter.
"See, everyone? It was only a matter of time before you would all find out," said the Joker, pointing at his accomplice. "Your latest headline wasn't all that she was presented to be! She's not just some mere girl who gets kidnapped one day and thrown into a body bag the next! No, that wasn't it at all. She serves a point."
He slyly chuckled, eyeing at the crowd for a reaction. Most of it was the expected outrage, cursing out the Joker and crying out for the girl's release. The audience sincerely seemed to believe that Bonnie was just a child being manipulated by a madman and wanted to hear nothing of her apparent criminal past. With the roars getting louder, the Joker had to give them credit for being more rambunctious and less fearful than other Gotham citizens, yet that was cancelled out by their sheer stupidity.
"So, as I was saying, Bonnie here has been corrupted, and she has been that way for a very long time now," the Joker continued. "So before you all point your torches and pitchforks at me, I am not at fault here. I mean, really, haven't you all heard about those random arson attacks that have been popping up for the past couple of years?"
Suddenly, the crowd's chanting anger lost its momentum, and a new wave of whispers and fragile denial washed over it. Hushed panic heaved within the grandstands, and it made Bonnie's throat burn.
The Joker went on, "I know that it must be hard to see the truth, but look no further than this fire-starter right here! Everything innocent that your puny minds have thought of the world is all false! It doesn't matter who you are. Madness to blind to whom it affects! It does not care whether its victim is young or old, and it certainly didn't care when it came to the little Ringmaster."
He probed his eyes at the still girl again. Her eyes lowered down to the whip wrapped around her side.
"She only needed one bad day to make her bitter and unstable, and that applies to the rest of us," the man said, projecting his voice with every word. "Insanity doesn't need to take a long time to kick in, and we all have the potential to break. And it only leaves behind the darkness and the chaos in the world that we thought we could hide, making all of those fragments of innocence hollow and useless."
Many of the audience members were overwhelmed by the unhinged potency of his words, even though they didn't try to make sense of it. The only person that fully understood what he was getting across was Bonnie, yet even she felt a little unnerved at how the Joker described her. The way he spat out her persona made her feel as if he hated her.
"And you know what the best part is, everyone? Young Bonnie broke down because she just wanted to protect herself from a crime being committed against her! And nobody around her, not even the orphans that lived with her, realized that there was a monstrosity in the making!"
The audience finally roared at the laughing psychopath, and they wrenched through the barriers created by the henchmen. The goons used all of the brute force that they could, but the swarms of civilians were relentless.
It didn't last long, though.
The Joker's hand slid into his pocket, and he seemingly rolled something into his fist inside. Quickly pulling his hand out, a strain of striking color became evident in his knuckle.
The girl's eyes flashed when her boss relaxed his hand, revealing a red button with silver wiring on the bottom.
What...w-what is that? Bonnie thought. Is...is that a part of the plan? I don't remember that being a part of the plan...
"Don't leave just yet, folks!" the Joker exclaimed, wagging his free finger at the slowing audience. "You all haven't even gotten your surprise yet! And I want you..."
He suddenly looked at Bonnie, and he bowed down to give her the button.
"...To do the honors!"
An ugly expression wiped over Bonnie's face, making her eyes dart down at the button and up at her boss again.
The Joker didn't move. If anything, his smile broadened.
"Come on, now, Ringmaster!" he said gleefully, cupping the button in Bonnie's shaky palm. The audience members sucked in all of the oxygen from the tent.
Bonnie's chest surged to terrifying heights with the icy wiring underneath her fingers, and her fears finally crashed into her ears when the Joker leaned near the ringmaster stand.
What am I supposed to do? thought Bonnie. This wasn't a part of the plan!
The boss didn't seem to think so, though.
"You know, you're going to be famous tonight, kid," he whispered. "All you got to do is press this button. And then, you'll make everyone in here real happy."
His last words hid a craftily hidden edge in them, yet Bonnie didn't question his words. She grasped onto the button, heart jumping and diving.
Bonnie looked at the Joker, and they both turned to the staring camera simultaneously. They had both nearly forgotten about it, even though all of Gotham was watching.
The girl nearly felt obliged to display the button to the world, just like how the boss would have wanted her to.
Twirling his flag gun, the Joker stood up with an over-the-top flourish. He shot another flag dart into the air when he saw more people trying to flee.
"I TOLD you that the night wasn't over!" the Joker snapped. He pointed his gun at the squirming audience.
Everybody finally shut up.
"Now, then," he said, satisfied. "Bonnie-Girl's been waiting for this moment all night! And now, she finally gets to do it. She simply wants to thank all of you for being such an entertained audience. You've all really made her night very special, and she has something to give to all of you."
He glanced at the girl, and the tent became very, very cold.
"Press the button, Ringmaster!"
The tent's last lights turned to darkness. Screams cranked up the circus' volume.
A pulsing sound swung above Bonnie, and a shiver of cloth ran against her hand. It took the button with it.
Feeling like she had been stung by something, Bonnie stumbled back. She suddenly felt weightless, and her sudden loss of her eye coordination made her panic, despite herself.
As her ears rang through the wild crowd, her back abruptly hit something in the chaos. Bonnie leaped forward in shock, and she heard the loud, distinct grunts and pants of the henchmen.
Bonnie's ears were finally overpowered in the confusion by the prickling, yet reassuring laughter of her boss. She sighed, relieved.
That all ended very quickly when a rough hand seized and pulled hers.
A familiar sort of bile clotted her breathing as she was dragged in near mid-flight. The laughter rebounded once again, and it swam in and out of her ears.
Bonnie looked up. There was something dark, darker than the tent's current condition, right above her. It reminded her of some kind of animal, and Bonnie was eerily certain on what kind of animal it was.
"OH, BATSY!"
Gunshots rang above her, chasing its target with yellow bullets. The figure swiftly dodged them by the tent's ceiling, and he lunged at Bonnie. At the brink of time, Bonnie was yanked to the opposite direction by her captor, but she could barely keep up with him.
They finally stopped running at a point in the circus ring where the crowd's screams were at their loudest. Even then, her boss' laughter was so deafening that it must have been right beside her...
The Joker's grip on Bonnie tightened, and the gun in his hand clicked.
"Now this party's really getting started, eh, kid?" said the Joker.
A small bubble of silence rose in the air, waiting to be popped by the girl. Nevertheless, Bonnie said nothing, mainly because she had no idea whether his gun was being pointed at the figure or at her.
The dark figure edged closer, and then it jumped down, near where the duo stood. Bonnie's eyes strained to see the man in the cape, and they immediately dropped into her chest at the unmistakable sight of the Bat.
"Batsy, I'm so happy that you could make it!" the Joker exclaimed. "And you finally get to meet the kid while she's conscious!"
Bonnie's ribs clenched.
C-conscious? she thought. What does he mean by that?
"Say, why don't we get to introductions now?" The Joker cleared his throat with some type of regal refinement. "Bats, meet Rings. Rings, meet Bats. Say hello, Ringmaster!"
He nudged her in the back, urging Bonnie to greet Batman. Once Bonnie looked more into him, she saw that the Batman's eyes glowered with the rest of his face.
"I...you...erm..." Bonnie stuttered, stiffening. "...Hello?"
The Joker laughed, "See! That wasn't so hard, wasn't it?"
The girl looked up, and she easily detected her boss' bared teeth as a light source. His face, even, was a light in the circus' blackness, yet it gave everything else a new, nightmarish glow.
Bonnie looked ahead, jumping when she noticed that the increasingly visible Batman was coming closer.
"This ends now, Joker," spat the Batman, startling Bonnie with the deep force in his voice. "I won't let you take another innocent life like this."
The Joker stepped back.
"Innocent?" he said, his shrill falsetto chiming. "Innocent? I just made an entire monologue on Bonnie-Girl's presumed 'innocence'! And it doesn't exist!"
The Joker laughed. Batman didn't.
"You know what I mean."
The Joker stopped, suddenly frowning. Then, he broke into another freakish grin, and the gadgets in his coat's pockets bounced with merry mischief.
"Oh, do you mean when it comes to being a criminal?" asked the Joker. "Because, well, that is kind of true, what with how inexperienced she is. Did you know that she didn't know what a reckless driver was until today?"
Bonnie blushed a little. I know what a reckless driver is, boss...
"...And to think that our city's orphanages give their children the proper education they need! I mean, think about it, what kind of kid in this day and age doesn't know what road rage–"
Before the Joker could finish his sentence, the Batman swiped a Batarang out of his belt and threw it. It collided with the Joker's forehead.
"Oomph!"
"Boss!"
Her voice just a hair short of being loud, Bonnie faltered when the Joker collided with the sandy ground.
She immediately knelt down by him. Seeing his unmoving face, it became immediately clear to Bonnie that he wasn't going to be getting up any time soon.
Stunned, she couldn't take a second glance at the Bat. Her attention rather flickered to the large boomerang coming back to his hand.
Automatically digging her hand into her whip, she fastened her hold onto it, and Bonnie lashed it against the blurry object.
The collision with Bonnie's thin whip crashed the Batarang off its course. It went off sideways and into the tent itself. Bonnie's eyes widened.
Did I just do that? she thought. I actually just did that!
Feeling like the luckiest person alive to get that shot, Bonnie flung a glare at the Batman. He looked like he was about to say something, yet Bonnie felt so alive and inane that she swung the whip around Batman's arm.
His rigid hand grabbed it in his fist. Bonnie's heart stopped.
Batman looked at her, his emotions in his face indiscernible through his cowl.
"Bonnie."
The girl couldn't help but look a little terrified when the Batman addressed her. However, his voice sounded a little different when he addressed her, almost like how an angry parent would talk to a child.
"Bonnie," he repeated. "You don't have to do this anymore."
Bonnie's pupils expanded into two large saucers as she held onto her whip's handle for dear life. She definitely didn't expect him to say that.
"I..." she hesitated, feeling her legs tense up. "I...but I don't..."
Bonnie suddenly yelped, feeling something happen to her feet. She looked down, and she saw her heels dig closer to the Batman. Bonnie's eyes darted up again, and she then saw the Batman slowly tug on the whip's end. The situation immediately dawned on her.
He was pulling her in with her own weapon.
Horrified, Bonnie darted her eyes to the Bat. He seemed to acknowledge her struggle, yet he ignored it when he began to talk again.
"You know what's going to happen, Bonnie," he said. "The Joker is taking advantage of you, and it'll be sooner than later that he'll try to hurt you."
Bonnie already felt it, the paranoia that the Batman knew all of her secrets, that he was intruding her thoughts as he was speaking. She tried not to pay attention to what he was truly saying, yet it was difficult to plug his voice out.
"He will try to kill you. I wouldn't be surprised if he already tried."
Bonnie shivered, her head downcast as her feet were dragged closer. She closed her eyes tightly, yet the Batman wouldn't have her shut him out.
"You have to listen to me, Bonnie," the man heaved, his tone brimming with frustration. "It can only get worse from here on, if you stay with him. I can help you get out of this. You just need to come with me."
Bonnie gazed up at him again. The Batman held his other hand out to her, yet his other hand easily had control over her whip's movement. Other than that, the rest of his body language was stoic. It didn't reveal any ill intentions to Bonnie, but it didn't reveal any benevolent ones, either.
She opened her mouth, hesitant to say anything. She understood what the Batman was saying, that she was going to die on the job at some point. Still, there was really no going back, and she was going to have to surrender to Batman in mere minutes–maybe moments.
Then, a flame of a memory ran past her vision. Then, she remembered something else, and it finally dawned on her. When it did, Bonnie's light, scared gaze suddenly strengthened into a glare. It was like something evil spat into her eye.
"You...you didn't help me the last time."
Images of a gaunt woman pinning her against the flames flashed into Bonnie's brain.
Forgetting herself for a moment, Bonnie quickly bent and twisted the whip in Batman's grasp, and she yanked.
Outside of her knowledge, the Joker's green irises gleamed demonically.
The cracking whip awkwardly flopped out of Batman's hand and into Bonnie's control. She twirled it into the air, trying to keep it above the Batman's reach. For a moment, however, Bonnie had almost forgotten what she was doing, and she was getting absorbed into a type of passion that she had never felt before. She felt like she could have done anything, and she seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.
That moment burned out once she finally stepped back from her awkward position, for a hand clawed at her ankle.
Bonnie jumped as more pressure shot into her heel, and she turned. Her eyes met the Joker's suddenly awake ones, and they were regarding her with conflicted pride.
The Joker looked at Bonnie for a long moment, but he eventually let his eyes focus onto the Batman. Smirking, he released the girl, and he slid his hand into one of his pockets.
"Did you seriously think that she would listen to you, Bats?" the Joker hissed, revealing a slimy poison in his teeth. "Because she works for me, now."
He removed his closed hand out of his coat, grinning dementedly.
"And we're going to have so much FUN together destroying YOU!"
He threw his hidden bag of marbles at Batman. The exploding marbles hit his stomach.
Batman fumbled backwards, hastening for the gas mask in his utility belt. He got it before the leaking Joker toxin ate at his face.
He coughed into the mask and held onto the damaged part of his suit. Running through the green vapor surrounding him, the Batman looked ahead. They were gone.
Growling, Batman rushed through the dust and nearby the stampede. The people were still clogging the entry way.
They couldn't have escaped from that way, he deduced, checking his background for some insight. They would have easily been taken apart. They could still be hiding in here, but it's more likely that they found a way out. So where could he have taken her...?
His eyes flitted to the hole in the tent. The hole was much bigger than it was before, and his Batarang that was once there was nowhere to be seen.
Typical.
With a fling of his cape, the Batman headed straight towards the tent's opening. He bent down and dove through.
Entering into the night, Batman looked in all directions before he spotted a worn purple car and another conspicuous one drive off into the distance. The Joker's sick laughter was not far behind.
Batman took off for his motorcycle, and he stopped when it was finally underneath his feet. It lay on the grassy earth.
Setting it upwards again, the man examined it. It wasn't completely tampered with, yet one of those goons probably attempted to bang it up.
But Batman had no time to fix the scratches or the possible kinks. Shaking his head coolly, he strapped himself into the motorcycle and started it up.
The tires instantaneously screeched against the surface, and the motorcycle sped off into the Joker's path.