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This is it. The final confrontation. The Thieves are gathered in the frolicking paradise before Maruki’s Treasure room, preparing to head towards the stairs. Joker knows he should be looking at all of his teammates, but his gaze is locked onto one black clad individual, who keeps his shoulders upright and head held high, striding forwards with the same purpose he’s had since the beginning of January.
And to think that he kept up that determination while knowing that after this he would be… Joker’s train of thought derails while tears start to build up without his consent. After Goro left last night, he couldn’t fall asleep for a second. His entire night was spent staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars of his ceiling through his vision blurred by tears. He had cursed himself for not asking Goro to stay, for allowing the stubborn detective to walk off and spend his last night alone in his apartment. He imagined all of the ways he could have made the night go better: making decaf coffees for them both, playing chess matches over deep conversation, holding him close and allowing him to let down his guard, maybe finding a way to convince him not to-
His steps trail to a stop. His fists clench tightly and he stares at the ground with a mostly blank expression. Their final heist lies just up those stairs, and every single step brings him closer to his end. To a reality where those beautiful garnet eyes would never again stare at him across the billiards table, where that rare genuine smile would never again blossom on his face-
“Joker?” Panther’s words break his concentration. The sound of footsteps has ceased; he can all but feel the burn of their stares, one in particular singeing a hole in his forehead.
“Is everything alright?” Noir asks sweetly. He can hear some of the Thieves approaching him, and Mona walks into his eyeline and gives him a sympathetic look.
“I-” he begins to wheeze.
“Joker.”
He makes the mistake of looking up, and the sight of Crow’s icy look is like a nail to his heart. He can see the moment his rival identifies his expression and the look grows colder.
“Don’t.” His words sound like a decree.
“Crow-”
“Don’t you dare start this shit here,” Crow all but growls, eyes flashing dangerously. And while some of the more vocal Thieves start to rise to their leader’s defense, they quiet when Joker speaks again.
“But if we-”
“You gave me your word . Does that mean nothing?”
“That’s- That’s not… I just want more time…”
“Well guess what, Joker?” Crow snarls. “We don’t have any more time! Now is not the time to lose your fucking spine-”
“Hey!” Skull butts in, spreading his arms between the pair. “Chill out man! What the eff is going on?”
Queen chimes in, “Yes, did something happen between you two?” Neither of them speaks up for a moment, one glaring, the other trying to hold back tears. In the silence, Mona walks up and rests a paw on Joker’s knee, causing him to look down.
“Do you want me to tell them?” he asks. The cat ignores the sound of indignation from the other side of the field, as his focus is tunneled in on his companion. Joker feels a stab of guilt run through his core as he shuts his eyes and nods.
“Last night, when Maruki came for the calling card…” Mona begins, “Crow was there too.” A ripple of surprise runs through the group. “After one last attempt at convincing Joker to see his view, Maruki revealed one final piece of information. He-”
“Claimed that I died back on that ship, and that he is responsible for my presence in this reality,” Crow finishes, finally tearing his eyes from his rival to stare down the other Thieves. “I had already come to terms with this information weeks ago, and deemed it irrelevant to our current mission. I went to Leblanc last night because if life has taught me anything, it’s that men like Maruki will use any ammo at their disposal to manipulate those not under their control. The self-righteous bastard did exactly what I expected him to do: he tried to leverage my life as a last resort and thus made my already low opinion of him even lower. However,” he glares back at Joker, “I thought I had made my stance on the matter overwhelmingly clear .”
“Dude…” Skull trails off in disbelief. All of the Thieves are in varying shades of shell shocked, attentions split between the two Wild Cards.
Violet says, “You… died?” Her voice drops close to a whisper on the second word, like she can hardly stand to breathe it into existence.
“And you kept that knowledge to yourself since the beginning of this whole mess?” Oracle adds, goggles tilted up on her forehead so she can look at him more directly.
“None of this crap matters.” Crow points backwards towards the ascending staircase that stands between them and their mission. “We came here for a reason. Don’t tell me you’ve all lost your conviction, especially not over something so pointless. My circumstances are nothing compared to the fate of the world itself. Are you all really so willing to throw away the reality that you were ready to fight for just minutes ago? And you ,” he growls, pushing past those in his way, advancing on his rival.
“I can’t believe I have to spell this out for you, but for the sake of argument, let me present you with a little riddle. When Oracle realized the truth of this reality, what happened to Wakaba Isshiki?”
It takes a moment for him to respond, but eventually Joker finds his voice. “...S-She disappeared.”
“When Noir was confronted with the true fate of her father, what became of Kunikazu Okumura?”
“... He disappeared.” Some part of his mind is starting to connect the dots, beginning to piece together where his rival is going with this, and his eyes widen at the thought. He can hardly believe it. It’s hard to even hope...
“So,” Crow hisses, stalking dangerously close to Joker, the points of his mask threatening to make contact. Suddenly, a crack rings through the air and Joker reels back. A massive red mark appears on his cheek from Crow’s gauntleted slap. “Why the fuck am I still here, Joker?”
The collective gasp of the other Thieves joins the ringing in his head. A few immediate questions stick out in his mind, calling for clarification before he can even begin to allow himself a positive emotion. “But... you said you didn’t remember anything after the ship…”
Crow merely scoffs, crossing his arms. “When our enemy literally possesses the power to manipulate the mind , I find it hard to place too much stock into that. As much as I would hate to consider the fact, it is not outside the realm of possibility that there might have been memory tampering involved, especially when we look at how he tried to weaponize my status to manipulate you. I may not know what happened after our confrontation, but I would rather take a chance at survival in the real world than succumb to a madman’s utopia.”
Joker’s voice, normally forceful and commanding, sounds so small when he says, “Then why didn’t you say something last night?”
Crow speaks again with a firmness to his expression and an edge to his words. “I’ll be honest with you: I wanted to know what you’d do. Call me heartless, call me cruel, it doesn’t matter to me. I needed to know your real feelings on the matter. Your decision would mean nothing if it was made purely based on the fact that I could be alive in both realities.”
“You needed me to understand,” Joker states. “You wanted me to know that you would never be controlled again, and as your rival you wanted to challenge me, to see if I could rise above my wish to save you.” Crow doesn’t say anything in response, all crossed arms and tough exteriors. But Joker can see through it all; he knows that he is right.
And honestly, he does understand. It makes sense once he looks back at it all. All of his life, Crow lived and almost died under the control of other people; after all of the struggles that he’s been through, after finally, finally , cutting himself free from Shido’s puppet strings, the cruelest act would be to immediately hand his agency to another person, no matter how magnanimous their intentions.
“Goro,” Joker says while resting a hand on Crow's shoulder. He can feel the other stiffen, but thankfully he doesn’t move away. “I never intended to go back on my words. I stopped earlier because I just got overwhelmed by my emotions. I…” he trails off for a moment. Staring into crimson eyes, he carefully raises his other hand and gently lifts the black mask up to the detective’s forehead. He quickly mirrors the action with his own mask. “I didn’t want to walk off to the end without doing this.”
As fast as a bolt of lightning, Akira closes the distance and kisses him. It’s chaste and simple, considering their environment and company (whom they are studiously ignoring right now), and Akira pulls back to see Goro blinking in surprise.
“I care for you so much. You challenge me to be better, to push myself to new heights to ensure that I don’t fall behind. I couldn’t stand to hear you talk about yourself like that last night. You are important, not just to the team, but to me. So,” he says, puffing out his chest and regaining his classic Joker steel, “as your leader, here’s what we’re going to do. We are going to march up those stairs, put that manipulative bastard in his place, and end this fake world for good.” His heart flutters as Goro’s expression grows determined once more, the beginnings of a smile building on his flushed face.
“And, once we get back to the reality we’ve all fought for… I’ll find you. And we can carve our own paths together.”
Goro hums, tapping a finger against his chin, “You know…” In a flash, a mischievous grin flashes across his face. “You still owe me that rematch.” Claws dig into Joker’s coat as he crashes them back together for another kiss. Akira wastes no time wrapping his arms around his rival and only winces a little when metal digs along his scalp. The following few seconds are aggressive and passionate before the two are forced to stop by the indignant sounds of their fellow Thieves.
As a unit, they resume their walk towards the stairs, with the others heading the pack while the two take up the rear hand in hand. Their relative isolation from the group allows them to talk a little more before the final conflict.
“We’ll make it through this, I promise you. Once all of this supernatural shit is finally over, I’ll show you just how good life can be.”
“Oh, you sentimental, naive fool.” A sigh. “Fine. You’d better not disappoint.”
“Oh, Honey, I wouldn’t dream of it.”