Gotham Knight: Dying of Laughter

Chapters 1-14

Chapter 1: Vigilantes

Gotham City, 2012

The city was in turmoil. The GCPD radio channel was filled with chatter.

Attention, all units, the dangerous criminal known as The Joker is on the loose. I repeat, the Joker has escaped from Arkham.

An ice cream truck sped away from Arkham Island and was being followed by a black vehicle. The car resembled an altered version of a sportscar. The black car opened hatches on the headlights and turrets came out which began to open fire at the truck, but to little effect. As the black car was about to catch up to the truck, the backdoors of the truck were opened and a man wearing a clown mask leaned out with a rocket launcher. The black car swerved to avoid the missile but the missile hit an oil tanker instead which caused a massive explosion and for a second, the driver could only see the flash of the explosion and the smoke that came from it as he drove through. Unfortunately, as the smoke finally cleared enough for the driver to see, the truck was gone.

The driver of the black car sighed. He pressed a button on the dashboard and the image of a young man on a motorbike came up. The young driver wore a black and yellow cape and a red vest with the letter R on it.

"Robin, we lost him."

"I'll get them," Robin said but Batman shook his head.

"No. Let's head back to the Cave."

"But Bruce-" Robin began.

"Now, Dick!"

Bruce sounded frustrated. Dick sighed and headed back home.

After they got back to the Batcave, Bruce pulled off his mask and stepped over to the Batcomputer, ignoring the warm dinner Alfred had prepared for him. All the screens were reporting the prison break from Arkham. Bruce pounded his fist on the table. "Damn it!"

Alfred looked at him. "Master Bruce, is everything okay?"

Bruce sighed and sat down. "Two years. For two goddamn years has this endless cycle been going on. He causes trouble, people die, I show up to stop him and throw him into Arkham. And he just breaks out and more people die. I can't take it. It's like the clown is mocking me."

Dick sighed and hit the shower. His double life as Robin had a really bad impact on his grades at the Gotham Academy. But then again, he wasn't like the other 16 year old kids from rich families. They didn't have to worry about homework, school and getting shot at by violent criminals night after night. After the shower, he let himself drop on the couch in Wayne Manor's main living room, looked at the clock, sighed and turned on the TV.

There was nothing on but another talk show with Jack Ryder and Vicki Vale, who were discussing the rise of vigilantism in the city and the escalation of criminal activity.

"But it's a matter of fact that Dr Crane and this Joker, those kinds of criminals didn't exist before the Batman showed up."

Jack looked at her. "Vicki, how could you possibly think the Batman has anything to do with those lunatics? If anything, Batman and Robin have made this city a better place."

Vicki frowned. "And what about those copycat vigilantes? What about this Bat-Girl? Word is, those people have done more harm than good."

Jack sighed. "Vicki, you can't blame the actions of extremists on the person who unknowingly inspired them. A lot of people have dressed as policemen and caused problems before."

Vicki smirked. "And most of them were GCPD employees."

Jack shook his head. "Look, that's not the point. We need to look at the numbers. Street crime has dropped significantly in the last four years and that is in no small part thanks to Batman. I believe he has paved the way for true heroes like the new district attorney."

To this, Vicki nodded. "On that, we can most definitely agree. I first met Harvey back when he was only assistant district attorney and I knew then that he was honorable and the perfect man to clean up Gotham."

Bruce went to check on Dick and found him sleeping in front of the TV. The talk show was still going on. He couldn't help smiling at all the praise Harvey Dent was getting. Dent was the closest thing to an older brother he'd ever had. Sure, Tommy Elliot had been his best friend in his younger years but during high school, Harvey had always been there for him. And in a lot of ways, Bruce had been there for Harvey. Harvey's mother had divorced his father and taken custody of Harvey's twin sister Evelyn, but Harvey had been left with his father, who had turned to alcohol to deal with his anger, which in turn only made him worse. Harvey had therefore spent many a night sleeping over at Wayne Manor before his father died from a heart attack one night. Harvey had been the first to welcome Bruce back after all the years Bruce had spent abroad and Bruce had funded his campaign for district attorney several times. Bruce smiled a little to himself and turned the TV off.

-

A woman dressed in black leather ran across the rooftops of Park Row. She wore a cowl with cat-like ears and wore infrared goggles. As she was about to reach her apartment, she was met by a tall dark man in a cape with tall and pointy ears.

"Well, would ya look what the Bat dragged in?" She gave him a sly smirk. "You're not here to arrest me, are you?"

She made a cute innocent face at him. The man's scowl did not change. "I'm here because I need your help, Selina."

She chuckled. "Really? I'm flattered."

He looked at her with his usual brooding look. "Batgirl. What do you know about her?"

Selina sighed. "Can't it just be a date for once? I don't know much about her, except she's somewhere between 15 and 25, and she has some martial arts training. Oh, and she has red hair, if that counts for something."

Batman nodded a little and pointed at her bag of stolen goods. "Give those back to whoever you took them from."

She sighed. "Okaaay, not like I have a kid to look after or anything."

He didn't look back. "If your lead pans out, I'll make sure you and Holly receive a reward. Just don't steal anything else."

He jumped off the roof and glided away, his cape spreading out into a parachute resembling wings. She smirked as she looked at him leave. "That bastard sure knows how to make an exit, I'll give him that."

-

Aside from being a fancy school for rich kids, Gotham Academy was just like any other high school. Dick didn't have that many friends there. Sure, there was Bette Kane, but he wasn't sure he trusted her. She was and would always be trouble.

Not long after he'd started his career as Robin, a Bat-Girl had appeared on the streets of Gotham. She was lucky that he was able to save her life the first night she appeared. Then she went out again and he had to save her again, this time from something far worse. It was then that Dick had talked her into unmasking and after a long and stern talk, he'd managed to convince her to give it up.

When he heard the news about the new Batgirl, he'd immediately assumed it was Bette again, but this one seemed much better at her job, much more professional. And Bruce had just told him she had red hair, so it obviously wasn't Bette unless she wore a wig, something he ruled out fairly quickly.

The thing was, life at Gotham Academy was just boring so Dick just did what he could to get through his day so he could do something useful during the night. But this day was different and it was about to change his life forever.

A new girl had started in class. From his half-interested eavesdropping on student conversations, he'd deduced that she was the daughter of some cop, but nothing much more than that. She had hair as red as fire, eyes as blue as the sky and she was 5'11, much taller than most of the girls in his class. Dick stared at her and felt something unusual. During lunch, he was sitting by himself when she came up to him.

"Mind if I sit next to you?"

He smiled awkwardly. "No, of course not."

She smiled back and sat down next to him.

"You're Grayson, right?"

Dick blushed. "Yeah. I'm Dick. Dick Grayson."

Barbara smiled at his blush. "I'm Barbara. Barbara Gordon. Everyone calls me Babs."

Chapter 2: "I Believe in Harvey Dent"

"I believe in Harvey Dent," Bruce said as he raised his glass."I believe he is exactly what Gotham needs. Without him, we would still be living in Carmine Falcone's shadow. So here's to Harvey Dent, the new face of Gotham!"

The fundraiser for Harvey Dent's campaign for district attourney had gone well. All of Gotham's wealthiest citizens had shown up and donated quite handsomely. The Zelbachers, Oswald Cobblepot, Tommy Elliot, Mayor Hamilton Hill, even Bruce's estranged uncle Cpt. Jacob Kane and his daughter Kate.

Harvey smirked a little and addressed the room. "Bruce, you're too kind. I only did what I had to. And if you all want to know what inspired me, it was the Batman. If it wasn't for him, criminals like Carmine Falcone would still be running the city. But after the terrorist attack two years ago, Falcone was weak. It only took us 18 months to catch him. Now, all we need is to take Sal 'the Boss' Maroni's empire down as well."

Vicki Vale stepped forward. "And what will be done about the Joker's escape from Arkham? Is the Batman going to bring him in, and if so, what guarantee do we have that he won't escape yet again?"

Harvey smiled at her. "I can assure you, Ms Vale, that all that can be done is being done. Commissioner Gordon assures me that the GCPD is putting together a task force to catch him as we speak."

Vicki couldn't hold back anymore. "And when are you going to bring the vigilantes known as Batman and Robin in?"

That caused a stir in the room. For the past two years, most had started to think of Batman and Robin as heroes. They'd even started making licensed merchandise based on them, much some people's dismay.

Harvey looked at her gravely as he replied. "Vigilantism. Taking the laws into one's own hands. Though it is technically breaking the law, considering how Gotham was before the Batman, I think he ultimately is a force for good in the city. The city was dying, overrun with crime. To save it, a man had to go to extreme lengths. I plan to make the city a better place, a place where a man shouldn't have to take the law into his own hands."

The crowd applauded. Bruce smiled and looked out the window. The Bat signal shone on the clouds and he sighed. It was time to leave the party.

-

The Joker's gang tore its way through the bank, randomly gunning down the heavily armed guards as if they'd been expecting them. It was clear to the few security guards left standing after the initial assault that this wasn't a random late-night bank robbery. This had been planned. The Joker knew this bank was owned by Maroni.

One of the clown-faced goons stepped up towards the vault and turned around to face his companions.

"Alright guys, here's the deal. The boss wants us to take enough for them to miss it. Now, all we have to do-"

Before he could finish, a dark and shadowy figure in a cape appeared from the shadows and knocked him out. The others panicked and tried the shoot the person, but someone else, a boy dressed in shades of red and green, came down from the ceiling. He moved like a blur. A fist hit one in the throat, a foot kicked the shin of another with a loud CRACK. The third man finally sobered enough to take aim but was hit with razor sharp blades in the shape of an R that stuck to his hand and shoulders.

Batman smirked and noticed the final goon who was running to the roof. Batman ran after him. The goon shot at him but the bullets simply passed through the cape, missing him entirely. The goon had a head-start, though. He was about to escape to a helicopter parked on the roof when someone kicked him in the nuts.

"Going somewhere, Bozo?" A teenage girl's voice said.

A fist hit him in the face and knocked him out. As Batman and Robin got to the roof, the goon lay out cold on the roof and they saw a caped, shadowy figure with long red hair running across the rooftops before disappearing.

"She looked familiar," Robin said. "I'm sure I've seen her somewhere before."

-

Batgirl sneaked over the rooftops and crawled inside a small apartment through an open window. She took off her mask and sipped from a bottle of water. She quickly took off her costume and threw it in the closet before she got into bed. Just after she turned off the light, there was a knock on her door.

"Barbara? Are you up?"

The door opened and Jim Gordon walked in.

"I woke up because I was thirsty, Dad," she said, faking a tired voice.

Her father smiled. "Okay. Go back to sleep, Babs. You've got school in the morning."

She smiled back and closed her eyes as she slowly fell asleep, her fatigue from the night's events finally taking hold.

-

Gordon arrived at the top of the GCPD building about an hour later to find Harvey Dent and Batman waiting for him.

"Sorry I'm late. Had some stuff to do at home."

Harvey nodded. "I understand."

Gordon lit a cigarette. "So what've we got?"

Batman handed him a taped interrogation from a Joker goon.

"The Joker seems to be really stepping up his game. Attacking places and people related to the Maroni Crime Family. And then, there is the Batgirl. From what we know, she's a woman between the ages 15 and 23 and has red hair."

Harvey chuckled a little. "So that narrows it down to...at least a few hundred women in New Gotham alone."

"Including my daughter." Gordon puffed out smoke and sighed. "Well, it's a start, at least. I'm more worried about the Joker."

Batman frowned in determination. Weeks and still no sign of him, just his gang performing random acts of violence, always targeted at businesses related to Maroni. Was it coincidental or was he trying to send a message? Either way, it was making him angry.

"We'll get him. I swear it."

Chapter 3: The Boss, The Clown and The Snowman

It was mid-December and yet, neither Batman nor the GCPD were any closer to finding the Joker. It was like the ground had swallowed him. Harvey, Gordon and Bruce spent most of their time trying to look for clues of the Joker while catching new criminals along the way. Strangely, the criminals seemed to be getting more and more twisted. Most were now going to Arkham Asylum instead of Blackgate Penitentiary.

Now, Gordon stood in one such inmate's cell as a silent figure waited in the shadows. The inmate, a short, balding man with large front teeth and graying red hair sat there, twitching. Patient notes said his name was Jervis Tetch, a neurologist who'd recently had a nervous breakdown and began obsessing over the character of the Mad Hatter from the children's book Alice In Wonderland. Batman had recently caught him at the scene of a murder of a kidnapped girl. Witnesses claimed they'd spotted Tetch interacting with someone who looked like the Joker earlier that night.

"We know you've been in contact with the Joker. We would appreciate your help," Gordon said calmly. The man looked up at him and spoke, his voice silky and sly.

"Ah, you want him to join your tea party? Oh, I'm afraid there's not much I can do about that, Commissioner. Oh, I wish I could offer you some tea, but all I get to drink around here is water. Why, they won't even let me wear my hats. Oh, poor Alice must be missing me terribly."

"Focus! Where did you meet the Joker? Where did he drop off the girl and what did you give him in return?"

"Ah, now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Now, I know Alice won't say anything, so I won't either. But I want you to know that Alice and I had a lot of fun that night. Why, I do believe it was her fir- Ugh!"

Batman slammed Tetch's head into the table. "You disgusting son of a bitch! After you had her way with her, you slit her throat. She was 16 years old!"

"Wh-What? Oh, yes, I suppose she wasn't really Alice after all. She wouldn't stop crying. She did what I wanted for most of the night but suddenly she dropped her hat and seemed to have second thoughts."

Batman's hand locked around Tetch's throat. One of the guards reached for his gun but Gordon waved them away. Tetch laughed nervously and then relented.

"Hehe, okay! I'll tell you, I'll tell you! I didn't give him anything. He wanted to know if my mind controlling hats were working but my research hasn't gotten far enough yet so he just told me to work on it and gave me Alice, telling me she'd make a good test subject. That's everything, I swear!"

Batman sighed and tossed Jervis away, walking out. As he walked away, he passed the cells he'd recently filled personally. Magpie, Jane Doe, and the special Metahuman containment cell for Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy.

Dr Jonathan Crane's cell was near the exit. It was still strange to see the former head of this institute in a cell. Then again, Amadeus Arkham himself had gone mad and ended up a patient in his old age. Maybe it was just what this place did to people. After all, the plaque on the wall in the warden's office did say, "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps."

-

Another day, another problem. This was a minor one, though. A young man who called himself Anarky. As his name suggested, he was the leader of an anarchist movement hellbent on tearing down several of the more corrupt corporations in the city. Corporations like AmerTek and GothCorp. GothCorp's CEO, Ferris Boyle, had lately been accused of embezzlement and illegal weapons manufacturing but he'd always evaded those accusations expertly, though Bruce wasn't entirely sure of his innocence.

Rounding up Anarky hadn't been hard, the boy was a bit of an amateur, thankfully, though he'd fought back like a madman. Eventually, he'd been unmasked as Lonnie Machin, an 18 year old orphan who'd grown up on the streets for much of his childhood after his mother took her own life in a fit of madness. Bruce actually felt sorry for him and hoped that the five year minimum sentence he'd gotten at Blackgate would serve to make him see where he'd gone wrong.

Another week went by and Batman found himself standing on the roof of the GCPD with Harvey Dent.

"So tell me, Bats, how can you bring a kid into all this?" Harvey asked.

Batman looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Robin. He's the same age as my niece."

Batman looked away and didn't say anything. Harvey was right. How could he bring a boy, his own adopted son, into all this? But Dick was trained. The question was, did Batgirl have the same training?

Gordon walked up to them. "Go home. Both of you. Gilda must be worried sick, and I'm sure you need some rest, Batman."

Batman was already gone as Gordon looked in his direction.

"Just once, I wish he'd let me finish a sentence."

-

Salvatore 'The Boss' Maroni was sitting in his penthouse, sipping on a glass of champagne, talking to a few of his lieutenants and his lawyer.

"No, I don't think that idiot Dent can touch me, and even if he gets close, I have you to protect me."

"With all due respect, Don Maroni, we really ought to at least think this through-"

BANG! Out of nowhere, a bullet hit the lieutenant in the head. As he fell to the ground, Maroni heard an insane laughter coming from behind him.

"Sally, Sally, if you really want to take on Dent, you need to think big."

Maroni sighed. "What do you want, clown?"

"Oh, didn't I say? You want to off Dent, I wanna screw with Batman. So I would suggest we join forces, at least for the time being."

Maroni looked at the madman. He was wearing a purple suit and a yellow shirt with a green bow tie. His skin was white as snow and his hair was toxic green. His lips were bright red and formed a large grin.

"Very well. For now."

The Joker laughed. "Good. Shake on it?"

He extended his hand, but Maroni looked the other way.

"Aw. Well, it was worth a try."

The Joker disabled the joy buzzer in his palm and sat down. "So, Sally, how are things? How's the girlfriend?"

Maroni growled. "I made a deal with you. Now please leave."

Joker cackled as he stood up and walked out. "See ya around, Sally."

Maroni frowned as the Joker blew a raspberry before slamming the door behind him. "I hate that fucking clown."

-

A few days after the last meeting of the trinity (as Dent called them), Batman went out again, this time leaving Robin with Alfred, thinking about what Dent had said. The Gotham City Bank was being robbed by a gang led by a man wearing a suit of mechanical armor and using a special freeze-ray gun. The CCTV had caught a glimpse of the assailant's face.

After running it through facial recognition in the Batcomputer, Batman had found out that the man was Dr Victor Fries, a former employee at GothCorp and an expert on cryogenics. Apparently, he was supposed to have died in a lab accident two days ago.

Batman stepped on the gas pedal and drove the Batmobile as fast as he could, but all the snow made it hard.

Inside the bank, the vault was all frozen. A few thugs grabbed the money as Fries and the others aimed their guns at the customers.

"I want the money out of here as soon as possible," said the tall, armored Fries.

"You got it, Mr Freeze."

Fries' eyes narrowed behind the red, menacing goggles and he shot the man, turning him into a block of ice.

"That's Doctor Fries to you."

A woman looked up and glared angrily at Fries. The tightening of her facial muscles made the burn scars running from her left temple to her chin stand out even more.

"Stay quiet," she whispered to her fourteen year old daughter. "I'll distract them while you get out of here."

The woman stood up and reached for two pistols she kept in her coat pockets. Suddenly, Batman burst into the room through the roof window and knocked out a few of the thugs in the time it took for the other thugs to bring their weapons to bear, not that it did them much good.

As the hostages attempted to leave, one goon tried to stop them, only to be shot by the woman. Fries noticed and was about to shoot them with his ice beam when Batman threw a batarang at his helmet, severing a cable on his suit. Fries started coughing and fell on the floor as escaping gas hissed from the cable. It was as if he was choking. Batman hurried to kick the gun away and reconnect the cable. He then tied up Fries, who looked up at him with a pleading look on his face.

"You don't understand, Batman. I need the money. I need it to fund my research-"

"...so you can find a cure for your wife's illness, I know. I did my research on you on the way here. And don't worry, we'll make sure you have access to the equipment you need for your research at your cell in Arkham."

"But Boyle, I can't let him get away with what he did to me!"

"I saw the security recording of what he did. Rest assured, the GCPD will, too."

-

As the hostages left the building, the woman and her daughter were met by Harvey Dent.

"Evelyn! Are you two okay? When I heard you were among the hostages-"

Evelyn smiled. "Don't worry, big brother. Duela and I are fine."

Chapter 4: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve. Gotham was surprisingly quiet. After only three hours of patrolling the streets, Bruce and Dick finally listened to Alfred and called it a night. But around 3 in the morning, a helicopter landed on the roof of the GCN building.

A man in a long dark overcoat with a purple Santa hat climbed out of the chopper along with a few men in clown masks. A grin spread across the man's porcelain face as the men in the clown masks took a large device from the helicopter and planted it on the roof.

" 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a flying mouse. Or his friend, the bird."

He laughed as the men set a timer on the bomb and walked back towards the helicopter. Suddenly, he heard sirens.

"What?!"

Something hit one of the goons and knocked him out. Joker looked up only to see the shape of a woman quickly taking out each one of his men, punching them in the throat and bashing their heads against the walls. She then turned and looked at him. She reached for a gun but a batarang knocked it out of her hand. She sighed and jumped out of the way, briefly revealing her face to a CCTV camera.

Joker ran back to the chopper and threw out the pilot. As Joker tried to fly away, a grappling hook hit the bottom of the chopper. Batman held onto the grapnel gun as the helicopter tried to shake him off. Joker sighed and shot at the wire, severing it. Batman fell to the ground and looked up, cursing himself yet again for failing to catch the Joker.

-

Catwoman returned to her apartment with a bit of loot and a Christmas present. She made sure to carefully open the window as quietly as possible before silently making her way inside. A teenage girl lay on the sofa, seemingly fast asleep. Selina took off her cowl and put the present under the tree. Just then, the girl opened her eyes.

"Selina? What time is it?"

Selina smiled softly. "It's 3:30 AM, Christmas Day. Merry Christmas, Holly."

Holly smiled back. "When will you let me come with you?"

Selina sighed. She should have been expecting that. Holly had been asking that for weeks.

"I promised your mother I'd keep you safe and out of trouble."

Holly looked at her with an incredulous look. "Out of trouble? Look, no offense, but with the life you lead, that's a bit hard. Besides, I'm 17, I can take care of myself."

"I didn't say you couldn't-"

"You're not my mom so I wish you'd stop pretending to be!"

Selina didn't answer. That stung. Holly seemed to realize that, too, and seemed to immediately regret saying that.

"I'm sorry. I just miss her so much," Holly finally said in a sad tone, lowering her head. Selina could understand that. Her and Maggie had lost their mother at a very young age, too. They'd been taken to foster care and had been forcefully split up, but even after that, Selina had found her sister again eventually. Maggie's foster family had been nice and supportive and had helped her achieve a pretty decent life, one Selina had been very jealous off at first, but Selina had been supportive as well and had never asked for anything from her sister or her husband. But then, Zsasz happened. Now, Holly was an orphan, too, with no one but her cat burglar aunt to take care of her.

Selina hugged her. "I know. I miss Maggie, too."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a black-clad bat creature outside, who left after he spotted her, leaving behind an envelope. She went outside to get it.

"What is it?" Holly asked. Selina opened it and found a note and five thousand dollars in cash. She smirked.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Mr Bat."

-

Bruce sat in the Batcave, looking at the screens of the Batcomputer. His plate of Christmas ham lay on the desk, still uneaten. He didn't care, he needed to find out who the mystery woman was. As he went over the recording of the CCTV footage one more time, he noticed something. For a second, the woman showed her face. It was Evelyn Dent. What was she doing there? What did she have to do with the Joker? He spent hours going through information on her without any results. It was 7 in the morning when he realized. Evelyn's daughter, Duela, had the exact same green eyes as the Joker did.

Chapter 5: A New Year, A New Era

School had started again and Dick was once again in trouble for falling asleep in class. But surprisingly, Barbara Gordon had been having the same problem. Curious, Dick decided to talk to her about it.

"So... Barbara, is it?"

Barbara chuckled. "Please, Dick, call me Babs. We've been in the same class for months."

He chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah. It's just... I dunno. I'm just not very good at this. Talking to girls, I mean."

She smiled softly at him. "You're not doing too bad right now."

He smiled back, though he couldn't stop himself from blushing like mad, and thought about something. "Hey, are you busy Friday night?"

She stopped and thought for a second. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to, I dunno, go out or something?"

She smiled. "Sure, I'd love to."

Again, Dick found himself blushing like mad.

-

Weeks went by and Batman spent more and more time looking for the Joker every night. The search that started in September was now entering its fifth month as February came along. He even considered calling in some help, but decided against it. Star City still had its fair share of trouble and he didn't want to bother the hooded vigilante. Besides, his attitude got on Bruce's nerves. As for Metropolis... No, the last thing Gotham needed was a visit from the Man of Steel.

"Master Bruce?"

Batman sighed. "What is it, Alfred?"

"I was just calling to remind you that your charity ball starts in 30 minutes. I hope you're not planning on canceling it."

Dammit! How could he have forgotten? Bruce had been so deep into his studies that he'd forgotten all about his annual charity ball.

"No, of course not. I'll be right back."

As Bruce came up the stairs, dressed in black tie, Dick walked up to him.

"Bruce, there's someone you must meet."

Holding Dick's hand was a beautiful red-haired girl. "This is my friend, Barbara Gordon."

Bruce smiled and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Barbara."

She returned his smile. "Nice to meet you too, Mr Wayne."

"Please, call me Bruce."

He smiled and gave Dick a thumbs-up. Dick smirked and took Barbara on a tour of the manor, but stayed away from the piano and the bookshelf in the south-east corner.

After the party was finally over, Bruce went back to the cave and suited up. He had some unfinished business that needed some closure.

-

Evelyn Dent sat in her apartment reading a book when the lights suddenly went out. A shadowy figure stood by the window. Without looking up from her book, Evelyn smiled a little.

"I'm surprised it took you so long to come after me. But I guess someone like Bruce Wayne has a lot on his plate."

The fact that she knew who he was caught Batman off guard. Nevertheless, he tried to ignore her statement.

"You're not Evelyn Dent. The real Evelyn Dent died almost 15 years ago."

Evelyn sighed. "I know. I was there. I held her hand as she died."

"Who are you?"

She smirked. "You'd never believe me if I told you."

"There's a man in Metropolis who can fly and move faster than a speeding bullet, so I'm more open minded than I used to be."

Her smirk widened. "If you say so."

She turned around and faced him. She had a large scar from her left temple down to her cheek.

"Are you familiar with the multiverse theory, Mr Wayne? It's the theory that your reality is just one of many, of infinite Earths of infinite possibilities. Some are identical and yet others are more different than you can imagine."

She stopped to let that statement sink in. Bruce was silent, so she went on.

"Of course, it's more than just a theory, it's a fact. Let me tell you a story.

"Once upon a time, there was a woman who ended up on the wrong side of the law. She worked for a crime lord called Owlman. What the public didn't know was that Owlman's true identity was the billionaire Thomas Wayne Jr. For a time, his enterprise seemed to be running well, until the woman was caught feeding the police information. Owlman was enraged and put a blowtorch to the woman's face, making sure she survived so she could learn from her mistakes. The woman escaped but was hunted down by Owlman's business partners, the Crime Syndicate of America. She was hiding in a STAR Labs building when she found a device she believed to be a teleporter. Thinking that wherever she'd end up would be better than Gotham, she activated it, not realizing that this experimental tech was essentially a one-way ticket to another universe.

"She ended up on a road in front of a car. The driver lost control and crashed and the woman was shocked when she discovered that the driver, who had been killed in the crash, had her face. In a panic, the woman took the dead driver and made sure to hide the body and get her bearings. It took a while but eventually she realized that whatever had sent her to this new dimension had de-aged her by five years and she now looked identical to the dead woman, the woman that she learned was actually her doppelganger from another dimension, another Earth.

"And so, the woman decided that she might as well try to live the life she had stolen from her doppelganger. She went through all the information she could find on her doppelganger and tried to tell her other self's brother that she suffered from amnesia because of the car crash, letting him fill in the blanks."

"That's...an interesting story," Batman said. "Not the most plausible but I've heard stranger stories. But that doesn't explain-"

"Let me finish!" Evelyn interrupted rather angrily. "I felt guilty, but it had to be done. Shortly after I got used to this world, I met a man who called himself Jack Napier. I suspected that it wasn't his real name, but I fell in love with him nonetheless. He was just so different from Thomas in every way. Eventually, however, I discovered his criminal past and he left me. But he left something behind."

Batman sighed, beginning to understand where she was going with this.

"Duela. She's the Joker's daughter, isn't she?"

Evelyn looked down. "Yes, she is."

Batman sighed and pulled down his cowl, exposing his face to her. She already knew who he was so what was the point of hiding?

"Does she know?"

She shook her head. "She can never know."

Bruce put his hand on her shoulder. "I know what it's like, to keep a secret that big from someone. But you'll have to tell her eventually."

She looked up into his deep, blue eyes. Without thinking, he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.

Chapter 6: The Courtroom

A truck stopped in front of an old abandoned warehouse. Men in suits waited inside as the driver and a few other men exited the vehicle, each of them wearing a luchadore mask. They were carrying a small box.

"Is that what we asked for?"

The luchadore leader smirked.

"Of course."

He had a Latino accent accent. Santa Priscan.

"We wouldn't want to go back on a deal."

Sal Maroni himself walked forward. "And what guarantee do we have that you won't just blow our brains out as soon as our backs are turned?"

The luchadores laughed. "Hermano, a deal is a deal."

Maroni handed the man a suitcase. "I think you'll find everything's in order."

The luchadore leader smirked and ordered his men to leave the box behind as they walked back to the truck. Maroni opened it and picked up one of its contents, a vial of green liquid labeled Venom.

-

Bruce was happier than usual. He had finally found someone he could share his past with without having to lie. "So who is she?" Dick asked one night.

"Evelyn Dent. She's amazing."

Dick smirked. "Your friend Harvey's sister? Nice job, Bruce."

Bruce looked at Dick with seriousness in his eyes. "She knows."

Dick let his words sink in and then sighed. "I see. And you think that makes her hard to trust?"

Bruce shook his head. "No, but... She's a mystery to me. Still, I suppose I needed someone to share my secret with. Maybe you do too."

Dick leaned back in the chair. "So are you saying I should tell Barbara?"

Bruce smiled a little. "Maybe. If you're sure she won't tell anyone."

Dick chuckled and smiled. "She won't. I know she won't."

-

Detective Renee Montoya ran into Commissioner Gordon's office. She had an unusual smile on her face.

"What is it, Montoya?"

Detective Bullock walked in after her. "We got him, Commish. Evidence and all. We got Maroni!"

Harvey Dent sat in his office when his phone rang. He recognised the voice on the phone instantly.

"Yes, Gordon?"

"Harvey, we got him. We finally caught the son of a bitch."

Harvey smiled and looked at the photo of his girlfriend who had just agreed to marry him. "This day just keeps getting better and better," he said and smirked as he flipped with his lucky coin. A double-headed trick coin.

-

Meanwhile, in a dark basement, a man was strapped to a chair. He had a tube connected to the back of his head. His eyes were filled with fear, but he was too scared to even make a sound. Two men guarded the door.

"Well then, Mr Helzinger, let's see how much that tiny brain of yours can take. Pump his amygdala full, guys."

The Joker laughed as he turned a valve on the machine the tube was hooked up to. A green liquid flowed through it into Helzinger's brain and he screamed with pain. The Joker watched and giggled as Helzinger's eyes started bleeding.

-

Dick met Babs at the Gotham Park. It was practically abandoned, so they could talk about whatever they wanted without anyone listening in. Dick looked at her with a serious look in his eyes.

"Barbara, ever since I've met you I sensed there was something different about you. You're smart, you're funny, you're into so many things I like..."

She smiled her beautiful, intoxicating smile and he found himself blushing and chuckled awkwardly.

"What I'm saying is, we've been doing things together, as friends, for about a month and... I feel different when I'm around you. What I'm trying to say is..."

Before he could finish, she pulled him into a deep kiss. Dick had never felt anything like it before. "I know," she whispered in his ear. "I love you too."

-

Maroni's trial was held the next day. Harvey spent a long time going over the evidence and the charges, while Maroni couldn't take his eyes off the clock. When the clock struck 3 PM, he reached for his coat pocket. Inside was the bottle that security had attempted to take away from him but he'd claimed it was simply medicine for his ulcer.

"Excuse me, councellor, a word?"

Harvey sighed. "What is it?"

Maroni smirked. "You look like you could use a drink. Have some!"

He opened the bottle and threw its contents over Harvey's face. Harvey screamed as the acid burned his face. As the police attempted to restrain Maroni, the door was blown open and a tall man stood in the door. The police tried to shoot him, but the bullets seemed to barely faze him as he grabbed a policeman by the neck and threw him across the room. The strength, the ferocity, it was as if he wasn't even human. Maroni smirked as he left the courtroom while the man tore through the police. After the monster had gone, Dent was rushed to the hospital.

-

The Joker grinned as he watched the news. Dent was in the hospital and Maroni had been saved from incarceration. The superhuman returned to the basement, completely exhausted.

After examining him, the Joker's medical expert sighed.

"Even with the extreme amount we gave him, we will need to give him regular injections every few days to keep up his strength. The stuff's not meant to be permanent."

The Joker grinned. "So? Give him his injections, then. I'm not gonna send a complaint letter. We really wouldn't wanna piss of the seller."

Maroni walked into the room. "You never revealed to us who the seller was."

Joker chuckled. "Heh. Well, like me, he doesn't seem to have a normal name. But his followers call him...Bane."

-

Harvey woke up in the hospital. His vision in his right eye was very blurry. The left eye was completely blind. After blinking a few times, he could finally see Bruce Wayne standing in front of him.

"Morning, Dent."

Harvey looked up, confused. What was going on?

"Bruce? What are you doing here? Where am I? Why can't I see with my left eye?"

Bruce sighed. "You're in Gotham General. Maroni escaped after he threw that acid in your face."

As the memory of the events in the courtroom returned, Harvey felt a severe burning pain in the left side of his face. Forcing himself to stay calm through the pain, he managed a simple question.

"Can you get me a mirror?"

Bruce looked at him with worry in his eyes. "Harvey... I don't think..."

"Get me a fucking mirror, Wayne!"

Bruce sighed and handed him a mirror. The left side was covered by a bandage which Harvey carefully removed and the face he saw in the mirror was a nightmare. The entire left half of Harvey's face was covered by a 3rd degree burn. His lips, ear and eye-lid were missing on his left side and his left eye was pale and blind. It was like something out of a horror movie. Harvey looked closely into the mirror.

"Where's Gilda?"

Bruce looked at him.

"I'm sorry, Harvey. When Maroni escaped, his bodyguard attacked half the people in the courtroom. She didn't make it."

"She didn't-"

Harvey felt the pain give way to rage. Rage he hadn't felt since he was a boy, when his father would beat him or his mother.

"Get out. GET OUT!"

Bruce sighed and left the room. A nurse walked in.

"Is everything okay, Mr Dent?"

Harvey looked into the mirror again. Suddenly, he understood. All the names people had called him when he worked for Internal Affairs, the names bullies he'd successfully reported had been calling him since grade school. Harvey Two-Face. And then he understood, the voice that would plague his childhood nightmares, the demon in him that would cause him to fight and severely injure his bullies, it was part of him. It had always been part of him. Now it had just made it to the surface. Suddenly, he started smirking.

"Harvey Dent is dead," the gruff voice that came out of his mouth said. "You can call us...Two-Face."

Chapter 7: Venom

Batman and Robin spent the next days looking for Maroni and the brute who broke him out. Bruce would've been surprised at the man's strength if he hadn't been to Metropolis a few months earlier. It seemed that superpowered people were popping up more and more recently. First the man in Metropolis, then the appearance of mutants born with supernatural abilities. There were even rumours about the twin cities of Central City and Keystone being guarded by someone so fast he could appear and disappear in a flash. Bruce wondered if he'd be able to keep up with the growing superhuman society. But Gotham was his city, and right now, one of those superhumans had attacked his friend.

"Don't you have a date with Evelyn tonight, Bruce?" Dick asked as they patrolled the rooftops

"She's visiting Harvey in the hospital. She said we couldn't take any chances with these guys. What about Barbara?"

Dick sighed. "She said her dad wouldn't let her go out tonight."

The bat-shaped light shone in the night sky. Commissioner Gordon stood on the roof of the GCPD building, waiting for the Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder to appear.

"What is it, Gordon?" Batman asked as he appeared from the shadows.

"We've identified the assailant," Gordon said as he shut off the floodlight and handed Batman a printout of his file. "His name is Aaron Helzinger, a former patient at Arkham. He was locked up in there after he murdered his whole family with an axe. But I never would have dreamed he was this strong. It's like he isn't even human."

Batman sighed. "I know. Someone must have done something to him."

Gordon lit a cigar. "I'm sure you'll find out who-" Batman was gone and Gordon scoffed. "Every time."

Batman looked around Helzinger's old apartment. There didn't seem to be anything unusual there, except... A broken syringe on the table with a few drops of some green liquid. He picked it up and took samples of the liquid. As he was just about to leave, he heard a voice.

"You! Get out of my house!"

Batman turned around and a fist hit him in the face. It was like being hit with a brick. Even with the plating in the cowl, the hit still broke his nose. Before he could recover from the punch, Helzinger picked him up and threw him through a wall before jumping out the window. Batman struggled to get up, but when he looked outside, Helzinger was gone.

-

Back at the Batcave, Alfred analyzed the sample he had taken from Helzinger's apartment.

"Master Bruce, I think I know where this originated from."

Bruce walked up to him. "What is it?"

Alfred sighed. "It seems to bear some resemblance to a chemical compound called Venom. It's an experimental 'super-steroid' created on the island of Santa Prisca that temporarily increases the user's strength. This looks like an exceptionally strong variation of the drug. Now, there are rumours of a mercenary group having taken over the Venom manufacturing plant. A group led by a masked man known simply as Bane."

Bruce frowned. "If the Joker's men get their hands on more of those, I may have to ask Robin Hood for back-up."

Alfred sighed and shook his head. "You're not seriously considering calling Mr Q-?"

"Do I look like an idiot?" Bruce asked a bit frustrated. "Of course I won't call him. This is my city, and my problem."

"Now, that's not entirely what I meant. You could always ask Su-"

"My city, my problem!" Bruce reiterated angrily.

-

In Gotham General Hospital's west wing, everything was quiet. A lone nurse went from room to room to check on the patients for the night. But when she got to room 22, she became worried. The bed was empty and the window was open. Harvey Dent was gone.

Chapter 8: A New Family Member

Robin was out looking for more clues while Bruce was busy on a date with Evelyn. Suddenly, he saw the silhouette of the mysterious Batgirl standing on a rooftop. He readied his grapnel gun and prepared to fire at the nearby gargoyle hanging from the building between them.

She started running, probably having spotted him. Dick cursed himself for not wearing the stealth suit and fired the grapple, swinging from the gargoyle to the roof and then ran after her. "Stop!" He said, using a voice scrambler hidden in his belt. She turned around and grinned before running off again. "Catch me if you can, Bird-Boy." Her voice sounded familiar. He ran after her and threw bolas at her feet, causing her to trip.

"You and I need to talk," Robin said as he walked up to her. She was covering her face as her mask lay on the ground beside her.

"Fine," she said and turned around to face him. "You win."

Robin stared at her. The fiery red hair, the freckles and the icy blue eyes...

"Barbara?"

-

Bruce and Evelyn sat in the living room of Wayne Manor. Evelyn was worried sick for Harvey and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't hide it.

"Don't worry," Bruce said calmly as she lay in his arms. "I'm sure he'll slip up soon."

She took a sip of her wine and looked at him with a worried expression in her eyes.

"But you don't understand," she began. "Joker's out there, and the patient notes said Harvey was starting to show signs of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and a split personality." She sighed. Bruce held her tighter to comfort her and kissed her forehead.

Suddenly, Duela ran into the room.

"Sorry for interrupting but Bruce, I think there's something you should see!"

She calmed down and blushed when she realized she'd just interrupted an intimate moment.

"I was, um... I was down in your cave..."

Bruce felt shocked and a little angry. How the hell did she know about it?

"You found the Batcave?"

Duela gave an innocent smirk. "It wasn't hard to find, especially since I kinda overheard you and mom when you first met. Anyway, your sexy son, Dick..." She blushed as she mentioned his name. "Is he allowed to bring his girlfriend to the Cave?"

Bruce sighed. "Stay with your mother, Duela. I'll go talk to him."

Duela smirked but when her green eyes met Evelyn's, she frowned. "Am I grounded?"

Evelyn nodded.

"Fuck," Duela muttered and sat down with a frown on her face.

-

Bruce ran down into the Batcave. Dick stood there with his mask off and was talking to someone tied to a chair. It was Barbara. She was wearing the same outfit they'd seen Batgirl wear.

Bruce sighed and stayed in the shadows, making sure she could hear but not see him.

"Barbara Gordon. Your father must be worried sick. What's there to stop me from calling him?"

Barbara sighed. "I've been doing this for months. And you're one to talk, dragging Dick along on your crusade. Look, you keep my secrets, I'll keep yours, okay?"

Bruce smirked a little. "Can I trust you to keep my secret?"

She smiled. "Yes, you can."

Bruce chuckled and stepped from the shadows. "Very well. Welcome to the Batcave, Barbara."

Babs didn't seem too shocked to see him, instead just staring at him with a relieved look.

"Your reaction is a bit different than I expected," Bruce mused and she smiled.

"I figured if Dick was Robin, then his father must be Batman, and as you're the closest thing Dick has to a father..."

Bruce returned her smile. "Indeed."

Barbara looked around. "So who was that girl who was watching us?"

Dick chuckled. "That's Duela. She's Bruce's soon-to-be stepdaughter. Harvey Dent's niece. To be honest, it sometimes feels like she's stalking me."

Bruce laughed. "Oh, she's just a 14 year old girl with a crush, nothing more."

-

Vinnie Maroni sat alone in a bar. His phone went off again and he glanced at it. 'The Boss' was calling. Vincent ignored it, he didn't want to talk to his big brother. He'd promised he'd do him that one favor and then he was out of the game for good. It had been all well and good as long as Falcone was running things, but without him and with freaks like the Joker popping up all over town... Vinnie knew better than to go down with a sinking ship.

As he took a sip of his beer, a man walked up to him.

"Vincent Maroni?"

He looked up. "Yes, who is- Dent?!"

Maroni looked scared, but not half as scared as he felt. Half of Harvey's face was covered in a 3rd degree burn and his blind left eye looked like it would pop out of its lidless socket at any moment.

"You smuggled that bottle of acid through security, didn't you?" Dent asked. "Didn't you?!" he repeated, slamming the table.

Maroni shakily nodded.

Dent smirked. He was wearing a dual coloured jacket, white on the right side and black on the left.

"Well, I suppose there's only one thing that can decide your fate now."

He held up his double-headed coin, now scarred on one side.

"Heads, we'll let you go with only a few bruises and a dislocated jaw. Tails, well..."

Maroni knew how that sentence would end. But one thing confused him.

"W-We?"

Dent smirked and flipped his coin. The scarred side came up.

"Sorry."

He smirked and took a bottle of acid from his pocket, pouring it over Maroni's face. Vinnie screamed as his face melted.

"DENT, PLEASE!!!"

Harvey smirked.

"That's not our name anymore. We go by Two-Face now."

Chapter 9: Duela

The Batsignal shone through the night as Gordon waited for the Batman. He'd gone through two cigarettes since he'd lit it and was about to light his third when he finally heard the flutter of a cape behind him.

"What is it, Commissioner?" a voice asked behind him.

Gordon gave a short sigh and turned around.

"Sal Maroni's younger brother's body was recovered from an old bar in the East End. His face had been melted with acid, and we found this on the scene."

Gordon held up a coin with the tails-side burnt off.

"We recently had a potential schizophrenic escape from the hospital, and as much as I hope it isn't true..."

Batman didn't flinch. "You believe Harvey Dent murdered Maroni."

Gordon nodded. "It appears so. According to his psychologist, Dr Leslie Tompkins, ever since he met that Poison Ivy two years ago, he's shown signs of his childhood schizophrenia resurfacing. It seems losing his fiancée and half his face has finally driven him over the edge."

Gordon looked around but as always, Batman was already gone.

Bruce didn't know what to say to Evelyn. The idea that her brother was a murderer...

"Alfred... Get Evelyn a drink. A strong one. She's going to need it."

Alfred nodded and ten minutes later, Bruce and Evelyn sat on the couch, Evelyn with a drink in her hand.

"What is it?" Evelyn asked him as she sipped on a glass of Scotch. Bruce sighed and tried to say something.

"Evey... It's about Harvey. He murdered Vincent Maroni last night."

Her eyes widened. "God...! I should've realized... If I was a criminal who tried to turn over a new leaf, then Harvey had to..."

She started sobbing silently. "I'll help you catch him, but please, don't tell Duela. It would destroy her. Almost as much as the truth about her father would. If she knew about Joker..."

Bruce nodded and took a sip of his glass. "Joker and Maroni will pay for what they did."

They could hear glass shattering and Bruce noticed Duela standing by the door before quickly turning away and running out.

-

Dick was just coming home from school when Duela ran past him.

"Duela? Are you okay?"

She didn't answer and kept walking.

Dick frowned. Duela usually kept to herself, but he'd never seen her in a bad mood before. In fact, he'd randomly catch her throwing a bad joke his way whenever he was on his way to or from the Batcave or school. For her to be upset and silent now... He decided to follow her and see what was bothering her. Maybe he could help her with it. After all, everyone needed a friend.

"What's wrong?" Dick asked as he caught up with her.

She sighed and stopped, turning around to face him. Her eyes were red and it was obvious that she'd been crying.

"How would you feel if you found out your father was a mass-murdering psychopath?!"

He stared at her, confused.

"What are you talking about?"

She looked down and took a deep breath.

"I just found out... That the Joker...is my father. And Uncle Harvey's accident has sent him over the edge. Isn't that just fucking perfect? Both my father and my uncle are murderers, just like my mother used to be back in the day!"

Dick sighed and hugged her. "It's okay, Duela. Come on. I'm heading over to Babs' for a trip to the movies, you should come with us."

She looked up at him through her tears. "Really?"

He nodded. "Sure, anything to cheer you up."

She sighed and drooped her head. "I don't wanna ruin your date..."

He smiled softly at her. "You're like a sister to me now. You won't ruin our date. It'll be fun."

She smiled back and wiped away her tears. He was relieved when she finally nodded. She needed a bit of fun with some friends to take her mind off all her problems.

-

Bruce had to take the alcohol from Evelyn by force. She was a complete mess. Putting the bottle back on the table, Bruce shook his head and held Evelyn close.

"She'll be fine. She has Dick."

Evelyn wiped the tears from her face. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But... She has a problem. She has a genetic psychological illness. And I'm just scared she'll snap."

He nodded. "I'll tell Dick and Barbara to keep an eye on her."

-

Later that night, Batman went to look for the Joker. He spent the whole night searching for clues, interrogating low-life after low-life, but no one seemed to know anything about where he or Maroni were, nor did they know anything about Dent's whereabouts. Frustrated, Batman returned to Crime Alley where he had parked the Batmobile. What he saw surprised him more than anything had ever done before. A teenage boy around Duela's age was trying to steal the Batmobile's tires. When he noticed Batman, he stopped and stared at him.

Chapter 10: Sins of the Past

"I'm not sure about this," Barbara said and looked at Duela, who had put on one of Robin's spare domino masks and was wearing a purple hoodie over the prototype armor Alfred had designed for Dick years ago.

"Come on, Batgirl, it'll be fun. Mom taught me how to fight, so I can take care of myself."

Babs looked at Dick, who shrugged.

"I'll watch both your backs," said Dick and smirked.

Batgirl, Robin and Duela spent the rest of the night patrolling the rooftops of Gotham. It was a Friday night and Gordon was busy trying to catch Joker, so they could be out all night without anyone asking questions. Duela proved to be quite skilled at martial arts, managing to take down two muggers and a would-be rapist all by herself. She and Babs also seemed to get along just fine.

Eventually, they came across a few of Maroni's men smuggling drugs from the docks.

"I'll take them," Duela said cockily and before Dick and Babs could stop her, she had already jumped into the fray. The mobsters tried to shoot her but she managed to dodge every bullet by doing cartwheels, flips and other gymnastic tricks that rivaled Dick's.

But of course, she was still just an amateur and it wasn't long until the last guy standing caught her by the collar and held a gun to her head.

"I can see you, boy! You and your girlfriend better get the hell out of here or this little girl loses her head!"

Before Dick could do anything, he heard a swooshing sound in the air as a red arrow hit the guy in the shoulder, causing him to grunt in pain and drop the gun, giving Duela a chance to knock him out. The shooter walked from the shadows, smirking. He had red hair and wore a red vest with a tall hood and had red and black wrist guards on his arms, complete with a red domino mask.

"Well, well, well," the newcomer said, smirking. "It seems the Boy Wonder got himself a girlfriend. Two of them."

Dick walked up to him, looking into his eyes.

"Speedy. You're a bit far from Star City, aren't you?"

The vigilante chuckled. "I go by Arsenal now, and I'm done working for Arrow. I'm my own man now."

Dick looked at him with a serious look on his face before smiling and giving him a one-arm hug.

"It's been too long. How have you been, Roy?"

Roy returned his smile. "Oh, you know, the usual. Kicking ass in Star City alongside Green Asshole, until I finally got enough of that. I decided I don't want to be a sidekick anymore. So I've basically been traveling from place to place, trying to do good where I can. Between you and me, I think you should do the same."

Dick raised a brow. "Give up being Batman's sidekick? Come on, you know Bruce is like a father to me. Besides, I got a girlfriend now."

He nodded towards Babs and Roy smirked.

"Have it your way. If Daddy Bat doesn't mind, I think I might stay in Gotham for a while. Pop by whenever you feel like it, Dicky bird." Roy chuckled and fired a grappling hook-arrow, swinging away. Duela stared at Roy as he left, grinning.

The three of them returned to the Batcave and found a 15 year old boy tied up to a chair. He wore an old black leather jacket and his hair was almost completely black except for a single lock of hair that was white. He couldn't help smiling at Babs and Duela.

"Who's that?" Babs asked.

"His name is Jason Todd," Bruce said as he walked into the room, unmasked. "I caught him trying to steal the Batmobile's tires."

Jason looked annoyed. "Could you at least untie me? I promise I won't run off and tell the world your secret...Bruce."

Bruce didn't even look at him and looked at Alfred, who was working on the Batcomputer.

"Did you find his parents?"

Alfred sighed and shook his head. "I'm afraid not. His mother's deceased and his father... He was an enforcer for Maroni. His body was found in a dumpster this morning with two bullets in the chest. Bullets fired from a .22 caliber pistol."

Bruce looked down and sighed. "Dent."

He looked at Jason. "Does he have any other relatives?"

Alfred shook his head.

"Fine. Jason, I know who killed your father. I promise you, I will catch him. And if you want, I can let you stay here."

Jason smirked. "Thanks, Bruce. I'd love to."

-

Evelyn was returning to Wayne Manor. She had discovered something way bigger than Maroni or Joker. Something involving a man called Jeremiah Sharp. But as she entered the shortcut through Crime Alley, something hit her car and caused it to break down.

Annoyed, she got out and saw something moving on the rooftops. Suddenly, a ninja-like figure jumped from the shadows and pounced at her with a sword. She dodged and threw the assassin into a wall. As she did, three more of those assassins appeared. They each had ceremonial decorations on their masks.

She tried her best to fight the four of them, eventually coming to the conclusion that lethal force was the only option, and snapped the neck of one of the assassins. To her horror, he simply stood back up and reset the bone.

She threw a quick punch at another assassin but he ducked quickly and jammed some kind of needle into her arm. She felt her arm go limp and suddenly, she was too exhausted to keep on fighting.

But they did not kill her. Instead, they waited as an expensive car drove up and a man in a suit walked out. A man she knew.

"T-Thomas? But it can't be..."

The man smirked.

"You poor fool, Evey. You thought you could escape. How long has it been? 10 years? 15? Too long. You gave me enough time to make new friends. And I'm sorry, I truly am..."

He reached for his coat pocket, pulling out a gun.

"But the Court of Owls has sentenced you to death."

There wasn't a single emotion in Thomas Wayne Jr's eyes when he pulled the trigger and killed the only woman he had ever loved. The woman who had betrayed him years before. The woman he crossed universes to pursue.

He left, leaving the gun and a joker card behind, knowing this would never be traced back to him. At least not for a while.

As the life left her eyes, Evelyn's final thoughts were of Duela and how much danger she would be in if Thomas learned about her.

Chapter 11: A Two-Faced Dilemma

"So..." Jason said as he watched Dick and Babs sparring in the training module.

"I get why Grayson is here, but how did a lovely girl like you end up as a vigilante?"

Dick detected a slight flirty tone in Jason's voice, which annoyed him. Babs smirked and used Dick's momentary distraction to pin him down.

"Well... My biological parents died in Chicago four years ago. Commissioner Jim Gordon, the man I call "dad", is actually my uncle. But he raised me to believe in justice, and that's something Gotham hasn't truly seen in a long time. Batman and Robin inspired me to try to do some good on my own."

Jason smiled. "I see."

Dick chuckled humorlessly. "You know, Todd, why don't you step in and show us what you can do?"

Smirking, Jason stepped into the module. In a few moments, Babs had both of them pinned down.

"Nice moves, Jay. You'd make a great ally out there."

As she said those words, Bruce walked in with a frown on his face. Dick looked at him with a hint of worry in his eyes, knowing all too well which frown that was. You learned to read Bruce's frowns after a while. This was the 'something is very wrong' frown that no one wanted to see.

"What's wrong, Bruce?"

Bruce sighed but didn't answer. Instead, he asked "Where's Duela?"

Dick pointed at Duela, who was reading a book in the corner. Bruce took a deep breath before walking up to her.

"Duela... I need to tell you something."

She looked up, fully alert. "What is it, Bruce?"

He looked down. "I'm sorry, but... Commissioner Gordon just called. They found a body in Crime Alley. It's... It's your mom."

Her eyes widened.

"No...NO! You're lying!"

He slowly shook his head. She screamed out and punched him hard.

"Why?! Why didn't you protect her?!"

He looked at her with sadness in his eyes. Sadness and guilt.

"I had no idea where she was. I didn't even know she'd left the Manor while I was away."

Duela looked down and tried to hide her tears as she let the truth of his words sink in.

"He did it, didn't he? My father."

"I... I don't know."

Her eyes flared up with rage. "No, I know he did it! He must have!"

With these words, she ran up to her room and slammed the door.

Dick, Babs and Jason looked at Bruce.

"What now?"

Bruce sighed, burying his hands in his face, taking a deep breath.

"First things first, we need to stop the Joker, but with Two-Face out there, we're faced with a dilemma."

Dick looked at him, spreading his hands wide, gesturing at Babs and Jason.

"Bruce, there's four of us. You and Jason take Dent, Babs and I will go after leads on the Joker. Don't worry, we won't get too close. We'll just get information for you. And if things do go south, we'll call Arsenal for help."

Bruce stayed quiet before nodding. "Fine."

Jason looked around the Batcave until he found a spare Robin suit that fit him and suited up. Batman looked at him with seriousness in his eyes.

"Jason... Be careful."

Jason looked back and smirked. "I will."

-

Batgirl and Robin waited outside a nightclub called the Iceberg Lounge, having followed a few of Maroni's men. It was owned by a Brit called Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot. Officially, Oswald Cobblepot was one of Gotham's elite. Henry Cobblepot and his son Stanley had been instrumental in the expansion of the city in the late 1800's, but following Henry's mysterious death, his son had left the country and moved to England. A century later, Oswald Cobblepot had returned to his ancestral home and while the police had never been able to pin anything on him, there had been a rise in black market arms dealing since his arrival.

"You sure this guy is legit, Dick?" Batgirl asked curiously. Robin shook his head.

"Almost definitely not, but he's too good. He never leaves any evidence that sticks. But everyone knows that Cobblepot is the main importer of weapons in this city."

The backdoors opened and a short, lanky man in a black suit walked out, flanked by two bodyguards, and lit a cigarette. He had short and wavy black hair and wore circular, thick-rimmed glasses.

"Is that...Alberto Falcone?" Batgirl leaned in to get a closer look. "What's he doing with Maroni's men? The Maronis and the Falcones have always been enemies."

Dick tried to listen in on what they said.

"Something's going on at the docks. Pier 40. We could go stop it, but we promised Bruce we'd only gather info."

Babs smirked. "I have an idea."

She activated a voice scrambler and called her father's private line via the Batcomputer link on her wrist.

"Commissioner Gordon, this is Batgirl. There's something going on at the Gotham Docks. I repeat, Maroni's up to something at the docks. Pier 40."

-

Meanwhile, Batman and Jason heard about a Maroni-owned Casino being robbed by a man fitting Two-Face's description and two thugs. After interrogating enough people, Batman finally had a location.

-

It didn't take long for the GCPD to show up at the docks and stop the latest shipment of Venom from Santa Prisca. The mobsters all surrendered without a fight, but the mercenaries all took cyanide pills and killed themselves before they could be brought in.

Sitting in his chair in Maroni's office, the Joker sighed as he heard the news about his latest batch of Venom.

"Oh, it's a shame old Jimbo had to get involved. I suppose now I'll have to punish him somehow."

He glanced at the poor henchman who'd been unlucky enough to bring him the news.

"But how should I do that?"

The man, lying dead on the floor with five holes in his face expertly placed to draw up the image of a smiley face, said nothing.

"Oh right, you're still on about that. I know, I know, they say 'don't shoot the messenger'. But sometimes the messenger is just too boring to deserve to live."

He clapped his hands, an idea forming in his mind.

"That's it! Hah! He just needs to learn to liven up a little."

The Joker began chuckling. A chuckle that turned into hysterical, maniacal laughter.

Chapter 12: A Killing Joke

Two-Face sat at a desk, flipping his coin. His two henchmen looked at him with a scared look on their faces, but he paid them no mind as he continued flipping his coin, his good eye staring off into nothingness.

"Sir," one of them finally asked, "wh...what's the next move?"

Dent looked up. His face, the right, good side of it, looked blank and uninterested. Still, he replied in a rather tired voice.

"We need to find Maroni and kill him for what he did to me."

His voice then suddenly changed and became raspier.

"But then again, I hear the bank on the 22nd Avenue is begging for someone to make a withdrawal. We could still do with another two million dollars. Then we could hire men for our jury for Maroni's true trial."

He chuckled softly and his voice returned to normal.

"How to decide?"

He flipped his coin once again and when he caught it, he had made a decision.

-

Robin and Batgirl were still staking out the Iceberg Lounge when Robin received a call on his comms. It was Alfred.

"Master Dick, Master Bruce and Jason have found Mr Dent. He's gathered a gang of 20 men and is currently robbing the bank on the 22nd Avenue. He suggested that you come back to the Manor to take care of Duela, and that Miss Barbara returned home."

Dick nodded. "Got it."

His look told Babs everything, and she immediately headed home.

Babs snuck through the window and barely managed to take off the suit before hearing the front door opening, signifying her father returning home.

"Babs, are you up?"

She sighed and put on her pajamas. "Yes, dad."

She walked out of her room and smiled. "I'm glad you're home, daddy."

-

Batman and Jason arrived at the bank, just in time to stop Two-Face's men from loading bags of money onto a truck. Defeating them wasn't difficult and after only five minutes, all but one had been knocked out.

"I underestimated you, Jason," Batman said and smirked before grabbing the last henchman by the collar.

"Where's Dent?"

The thug laughed. "Two-Face knew you'd track him. He sent us as a decoy."

Batman punched him hard in the gut. "The next punch will go in your throat. Now, WHERE IS HE?!"

The henchman shivered. "He's...He's...Sal Maroni's penthouse! He said Maroni had to pay for what he did to his face! Please, that's all I know."

Batman smirked.

"Thank you," he said and punched him in the face, knocking the man out.

"Come on, Jason. Let's hope we're not too late."

-

Babs and Jim sat in the living room of their apartment, drinking hot chocolate. She listened with half an ear as Jim tried apologizing for his near-constant absence.

"I'm sorry I've been away for so long, Babs. It's just... Work has been hell these last few months. And with the divorce between me and your mother..."

She smiled softly and nodded. "It's okay, I understand. The Joker is still out there and you can't catch a breath until you catch him. But I know you and Batman will catch him soon."

He nodded and sighed before she embraced him in a long hug. She understood how he was feeling. In a way, Bruce and Dick were feeling exactly the same way and so was she, come to think of it. She really wished her namesake, Barbara Kean-Gordon, hadn't made it more difficult by divorcing Jim and taking James Jr with her. But she supposed she understood Barbara's point of view. After all, the city was still only marginally better than the hellscape it had been just a few years earlier. Not the right environment to raise a kid in. But she still felt like Barbara was betraying them by leaving.

The doorbell ringing snapped her out of her thoughts and she frowned.

"Isn't it 1 in the morning? I'll get it," Babs said, getting up and walking towards the door with a sigh. The doorbell rang again.

"I'm coming! Who is it?"

"Joe," a man's voice said on the other side of the door.

"Joe who?" Babs asked as she opened the door, before staring in shock at the sight before her. Standing there was the Joker, dressed in his usual purple suit with a camera around his neck. In his right hand, aiming at her waist, was a revolver.

"Joe Kerr. Now smile!"

Joker shot her, laughing maniacally as she fell to the floor. As she lay there, she felt all feeling below the waist fade. He'd shot her through the spine.

"Jimbo, Jimbo, we need to talk."

Chapter 13: Vengeance

Two-Face looked out the window in Maroni's office and sighed, holding a smoking gun in his hand. The view of the city was really beautiful this time of night. He actually felt his good eye beginning to tear up.

"I didn't want it to come to this. I didn't want any of this to happen."

He turned around and sighed. "You may as well come out, Batman, I know you're there. I heard about what the clown did to my sister."

"I'm sorry, Harvey...," said Batman as he walked from the shadows and it was obvious from his tone that he really meant it. Two-Face frowned.

"I trusted you. You said that we could beat them if we played fair. But Maroni and the Joker have proven otherwise. Gilda, Evelyn, MY FACE!"

Batman stepped forward but Dent pointed the gun at him.

"Don't! Don't."

Batman stepped back and Harvey went on.

"It's all your fault. Everything! If it hadn't been for you, those freaks wouldn't have shown up! The mob would've been tough, sure, but we could have beaten it eventually. But you suggested we work outside the system and guess what. It failed. You failed."

His voice turned raspy. "So it's now up to fate what we do with you. Heads, you get to keep yours. Tails, I do what Dent should have done a long time ago."

As he flipped the coin in the air, Jason leaped from the ceiling and pinned him to the ground before brutally starting to beat him.

"Jason," Batman said with a hint of warning in his voice. "Jason, that's enough!"

Jason pretended he didn't hear him and kept beating Two-Face. Batman pulled Jason off him by the cape and pushed him against the wall.

"Enough! He's down and he's going to Arkham."

Jason growled angrily and then sighed. "Fine."

Batman tied Harvey up and walked towards the window.

"Let's go back to the Batcave. You and I need to talk."

Duela sat in the Batcave and just stared at the dark, bat-infested ceiling. Alfred had given her a cup of tea, but even so, she still felt numb. She hadn't heard from Bruce, Dick, Jason or Babs for hours. She heard the Batmobile return, but it didn't make her any happier. It probably meant that they'd found Harvey.

"Welcome back," she said dryly as Bruce and Jason exited the vehicle. Jason didn't say anything and walked towards the changing room.

"Did you get him?" she asked and looked at Bruce, her still dry and tired.

Bruce nodded and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Duela. I tried to help him."

She shrugged. "It's fine."

Of course, it wasn't fine, but she could live with it. Just like she was slowly coming to terms with her true parentage. The Joker was just a sperm donor, really, it wasn't like he actually shared any relations with her. But what he had done was murder her mother, and that was unforgivable.

Her phone suddenly vibrated and she picked it up.

"Hello?"

It was Dick.

"Duela, is Bruce there?" He sounded both worried and exhausted.

"Yeah?"

"Tell him to meet me, out of costume, at Gotham General. In fact, I think it would be best if both of you could come."

She looked at Bruce. "He wants us to meet him at Gotham General. Something bad has happened."

Duela later found out that her words had been an understatement. Babs lay in a hospital ward at Gotham General as police detectives Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock stood watch over her ward. Bruce and Duela were met by Dick in the waiting room. His eyes were red. He'd been crying. Duela had never seen him cry before, so this upset her.

"What is it?" Bruce asked him.

"It's Joker. He broke into Commissioner Gordon's apartment and kidnapped him. He... He shot Barbara. But that's not the worst thing."

Duela's eyes widened at his statement and she felt her heartbeat quickening.

"What's the worst thing?" She almost didn't want to know the answer, but she had to know. Dick looked down before looking back up with tears in his eyes.

"I spoke to the head surgeon, Dr Elliot. He said she'll live, but the bullet fractured her spine. She'll never walk again."

Duela took a step back as she let the news sink in. Barbara and Dick had been her first and only real friends. The fact that her father had paralyzed Barbara and killed her mother was just too much to take in.

Bruce and Dick entered the ward and found Barbara awake. She weakly smiled at them, tears dripping down her cheeks.

"Bruce, Dick, I... I want you to know, this wasn't the fault of either of you. It was my decision to join you. Besides..." She groaned from the pain. "He probably didn't know about us."

Dick walked closer to her with tears in his eyes and took her hand, looking into her eyes. "Babs, I don't know what to do..."

She pulled him into a soft kiss and smiled weakly. "Yes, you do. Catch him, and give him hell. Get my dad back."

Later, back at Wayne Manor, Duela felt more alone than ever. Dick had retreated into the Batcave and Bruce was as distant as ever, so she had no one to talk to. As she sat on her bed, she noticed a box sitting in the corner of her room. She remembered her mother taking it with them when they moved out of their small apartment and into the Manor, but she wasn't sure what was in it, nor what it was doing in her room. Perhaps Alfred had mistakenly placed there.

Opening it up, the first thing she found was a picture of herself as a baby and a tear formed in her eye. She then found her mom's twin .45 automatics. Clearly, her mother had taken Bruce's aversion to guns to heart. There was also a box of ammunition in there.

Picking up one of the empty guns, Duela looked in the mirror and saw herself. Not as a reflection, but as another her standing right at the edge of the mirror, looking at her, eyes wide and grin wider.

"What are you waiting for?" her reflection said. "He did this. To mommy, to Uncle Harvey, to our best friend Babs. It's time for daddy dearest to pay the ultimate price."

Duela found herself grinning as well and finally made up her mind about what to do.

Chapter 14: "One. Bad. Day."

They finally had a viable lead. The Joker's men were receiving another shipment of Venom at the docks. Bruce also had a lead on the Joker's position, but elected not to tell Dick and Jason, noticing how Dick's head wasn't in the game.

"Dick, Jason, I need you two at the Docks. There's a good chance Helzinger will be there, so I advise caution."

Dick nodded and got on his motorcycle, driving off, Jason following him.

Alfred looked at Bruce, a questioning look on his face.

"You didn't tell Dick about the break-in at the old amusement park?"

"His head isn't in the game. If he were to face Joker alone, he might snap." Bruce said, shaking his head and sighing. "Helzinger is dangerous, but he's just a dumb brute. Easy enough for Dick to handle if he doesn't get taken by surprise."

"I see. But I can't see why you insist on bringing Master Todd along. Unlike Master Grayson, he has very minimal training and he's even more headstrong than Dick was when he first started."

"Where's Duela?" Bruce asked abruptly, changing the subject. He hated that Alfred was right. Bruce was dragging another child into his war on crime. Worse, Jason had already proven to be undisciplined and as dangerous to himself as he was to others.

"Upstairs in her room, I think. Going through her mother's old things."

Bruce decided to check on her and walked upstairs, knocking on the door to her room. No answer. He knocked again. "Duela? You there?"

When no answer came, he opened the door and found the room empty and the window open. "Alfred! She's gone!"

-

At the amusement park, Joker smirked as Gordon was dragged into a cage. The rain made the man -still wearing casual pajamas- seem even more miserable.

"Tell me, Jimbo, have you ever had a really bad day?"

Gordon simply frowned at the clown, who continued.

"You see, you people seem to believe that I'm special, that I'm one of a kind. But the truth is, all it takes is one bad day to turn the most ordinary man into a lunatic. That's how close the world is to how I am. Just one. Bad. Day."

He grinned as he drew his gun and pulled back the hammer.

"If you're gonna do it, just do it and get it over with, Joker," Gordon said defiantly.

The Joker laughed and pulled the trigger, only for a flag with the word bang to pop out of the barrel.

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you. I need you in order to draw Batman out. I've got something very special for him." Then his green eyes widened along with his grin and he looked at the Commissioner with a wild fire in his eyes.

"I'm not going to kill you, but that doesn't mean I can't hurt you. Badly."

-

At the Dixon Docks, Dick and Jason were knee-deep in Joker goons.

"You know, Jay," Dick said as he threw a thug into the wall of a crate and knocked him out. "I'm actually beginning to like you."

He threw another one to Jason, who knocked him out with his bo staff.

"Same here, Grayson. I'm almost tolerating you."

They were interrupted by an arrow hitting a goon in the back and shocking him with 2000 volts of electricity.

"Sorry I'm late, Rob. Got sidetracked."

Smirking, Arsenal jumped into the fray, just as a van arrived with reinforcements and a murderous Helzinger.

"Shit, what now?" Jason asked, trying to sound sarcastic to hide his worries. Roy smirked.

"Don't worry, I've invited a new friend to the party. Hope you don't mind."

Dick looked at him and cocked a brow. "Who?"

They could hear a thunderous sonic boom not far from where they were. Before they could turn their head, a yellow and red streak appeared and hit Helzinger so hard he fell into the river and suddenly, all the thugs were unconscious and tied up.

"Evening, guys," a voice said behind them. Dick and Jason turned to see a red-haired 17 year old boy in a yellow and red spandex suit with red lightning-shaped antennas on the ears of his mask and a red lightning bolt symbol on his chest. "I'm Kid Flash."