(NOTE: i listened to Sunshine Adagio in D minor while writing parts of this. I'll tell you when to start it if you want the full experience.)
Third pov
Jim looked in horror at the screen displaying the stage. There was five additional bodies on it.
Only one of them weren't set up in a mockery of a play.
No, she was laying face down on the floor while Joker was looking into the camera and talking.
"Commisioner, we have a location." One of the detectives told him.
"Then let's go!"
They needed to get there before there was no one to save.
"Get ambulances there to." He added before getting into a car.
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Red Hood reached his destination just in time to see the cops engaging the goons keeping watch outside.
He didn't hesitate to leap onto the roof. Right now he has to believe that they can take care of themselves.
He landed with a thud and swung into the building through a broken window, ignoring the glass ripping his clothes as he looked around, guns in his hands.
"Hood, Nightwing is on his way but it's going to be at least ten minutes." Tim informed him over the comms.
"Marinette doesn't have that time." Red Hood went still as a shuffling sound came from a under a broken bench in the corner of the room.
Slowly he went over and crouched to look. The kid hiding underneath it couldn't be more than eight.
Quietly he raised a finger to where his lips would be and made shushing noise.
The kid nodded and curled into a ball as good as he could.
When he got up he made sure the kid couldn't be seen from the outside and quietly told Tim to tell the cops that there's survivors.
Then he began moving towards the stairs.
He recognized the place where Marinette had ended up out of the cameras reach.
The broken banister told him she'd taken a serious tumble down the stairs.
He hadn't seen the whole thing but he'd caught the bit where Marinette left her hiding place, it'd been shown on the giant screens that normally showed commercials.
He just couldn't understand why she did it.
At the bottom of the stairs he could see a broken box and what used to be a vase.
He could feel dread building up.
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Batman helped the three others out of the freezer and then went to look after his son. Which was a bit harder considering he wasn't in his Robin suit, but not impossible.
"Where's Marinette?" Damian was being looked over by a paramedic.
"Red Hood and Nightwing are on their way to help her. Meanwhile you should go to the hospital and get checked over. I'm sure your father will get to you." Batman answered.
Damian glared at him but without much heat. He had no grounds to argue. "Get her out."
Batman nodded and ruffled his hair like he usually did when they went out as a team. "I promise."
He wasn't entirely sure he could keep that promise....
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(NOTE: This starts where last chapter left off)
Marinette groaned when the crowbar met one of her legs. He hand came up around her head in a pathetic attempt to protect her head and neck.
Everything hurt.
But that's better than if it didn't.
If it stops hurting then she's in deep shit.
Someone pulled her up so she came face to face with Joker.
He just laughed at her pained expression. "You're the little girlie that survived Eddie boy and ol' Scarecrow... I hit jackpot. HAHAHA~ Think you can survive me? Think your little boyfriend can survive me? I locked him in a freezer some time ago~"
No. No.nononon. Not Damian. Not Damian.
"He's already dead. Three hours in an industrial freezer-"
Marinette spit blood in his face and recieved a hit to the face by the crowbar.
"Let's get you to the stage. I need the finishing piece."
The side of her face was in agony. She couldn't open the eye on the side she was hit.
She was dragged through a few different rooms before she was drooped face down somewhere.
Someone said something but she couldn't hear it.
Then a shoe met her ribs and she had to focus on breathing
"Don't fall asleep, they're setting up the little camera so we can show this wonderful play."
Marinette just barely turns her head and glares at him.
It's a glare she knows makes other normal people shut up. Joker just narrows his eyes before swinging the crowbar down on her again.
She could feel a rib break and bit her lip so she wouldn't scream.
No way in hell she'd give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream.
She just barely had the time to cover her head when the crowbar hit her again.
Something someone said finally got his attention off of her and she laid face down wondering if they would find her in time.
She just hoped they would at least find Damian.
Please let them at least find Damian.
For a moment Joker left the stage and Marinette let her thoughts drift to her parents.
If i die here then they'll have to bury me.
An wow, that hurt to think about.
Something cut into her hand when she tried to move her arm and she remembered.
The glass.
"Ladies and gentlemen! The cast is now filled and I have a center piece."
He said something more that Marinette could vaguely hear with half her face feeling numb.
She tried to grip the piece of glass properly.
She just needed the right opportunity.
Something outside crashes. Joker doesn't care, he just continues his little speech.
Finally, he grabs her hair and forces her body up to face the camera -
The door in the back of the room slams open -
And she strikes.
She stabs the piece of glass where she can reach. The lower part of his back.
It must've hurt because he dropped her hair and tried to reach down and pull it out.
She pulled it out herself before using every last bit of energy to stab him with it again. This time so deep there would be no way for him to pull it out himself.
Joker had obviously not expected it because he stumbled and fell from the seen and into the place where the musicians are supposed to sit.
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(NOTE: start playing now)
Nightwing arrived just as GCPD stormed the building.
He barely acknowledged commissioner Gordon as he went towards where he'd seen Marinette on the scene.
From upstairs he could hear the police being called out to by a young, squeaky voice.
"We're up here!"
Nightwing knows adrenaline. He knows fear.
And both are seeping into his bones as he finally gets to the right room.
The dead bodies on the stage is set up as if they're just playing their parts.
It makes a feeling of anger and nausea twist inside him.
"N, over here!"
Red Hood is half sitting on stage holding someone's hand.
Marinette - his mind supplies, but he can't really process it.
He can hear her crying open and loud as he approaches.
Hood looks at him through the helmet and shakes his head before calling over to the police entering the room, Gordon is one of them. "Get a medic here. She's gotta go to the hospital."
Gordon nods and sends a rookie to get the ambulance personnel.
Marinette tries to say something through the sobbing and Nightwing bends down to hear her. "D-Da-Dam-"
"Damian is fine."
He can't tell if she's there enough to hear what he said but he hopes so as he holds her other hand.
"You've been so, so brave." Hood tells her.
Nightwing's head slowly turns as he hears a groan from the musicians booth.
He shares a look with Hood before walking over to see the Joker just laying there.
"Nightwing. Don't do anything rash. People can still see everything." Commissioner Gordon places a hand on his shoulder and pushes him towards Marinette, who is being carried out on a stretcher. "Go check in with the others."
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Jim Gordon watched the medics assess the state of Joker before he was carried out. It was determined that they needed to remove the piece of glass at the hospital.
He looked at the bodies on the stage.
People the ones that were supposed to protect them had failed.
And he is man enough to admit (at least to himself) that if it hadn't been for the fact that they're still trying to figure out how to disable the cameras, he would've let Nightwing whatever he damn well wanted with the damn clown.
I feel like this is a very deep chapter, at least to me. And I'm really proud of it.
There's a lot of Marinette acting like Jason in this. That's intentional, like her glaring/spitting at him, and the damn crowbar. That's because i really love Jason and i feel they're the most alike in this circumstance.
Please tell me what you think about it.
Vote and comment, it keeps me motivated :)