Chapter Text
Sarah
When nearly an hour had passed since Bruce’s departure, Sarah took the opportunity to step outside of the movie studios for some much-needed air. There hadn’t been time to clean up the bodies before Bruce had gone off to find Tim, and the decomposition accompanied by the blood was beginning to make her nauseous.
That was how she had found herself on the roof.
Sarah had always been preferential to Gotham’s winters. It was one of the many things she and Jason had shared. Since she’d become an adult and began patrolling with her brother, she often found herself the victim of Gotham’s rain storms instead. They were often unbearable.
There was something different about this one though. This one felt… cleansing. Like it needed to fall.
The other different thing was the presence that had been following the Bats for the last couple of weeks. She hadn’t made note of it because they didn’t seem like an enemy, but Sarah had been baffled by the fact that no one had seemed to pick up on it except her. Not even Tim.
If you could avoid the Bat, then you were trained well.
“I don’t know who or what you are,” She called over her shoulder. “But I’ve noticed you following us for the last couple of weeks and I am oddly intrigued that Batman has not seen you yet. What do you want?”
Whoever it was did not grace her with a response. That was okay.
She’d show herself soon enough.
***
Cassandra
The tall girl with dark hair was nice. Kind. She wore armor that didn’t protect her nearly as well as it should’ve and a mask that hid the rest of her face from Cassandra’s view. That didn’t matter.
She was a master of reading what the body said, not the mouth.
This one’s body said to come to me and you are no threat.
She leaped backward and twisted her body as she flipped onto the roof out of sight of the girl with the dark hair. There was still information to gather. People to watch. Pieces to slot together.
Cassandra needed more time before she approached the kind girl with the truth.
The truth about him.
***
Bruce
“Are you crazy?! You give up and we’re done. Both of us! There’s no coming back.”
Bruce continued forward into the storage depot that Scarecrow had asked him to come to. The building was largely abandoned, but the screens inside the main room were still active.
“Why give up? There’s so much more fun to be had out there. Think about it! All those heads to smash, all those bones to break. It’s like the world’s greatest theme park and you’re crying to get off the ride.”
Batman didn’t dare give Scarecrow the satisfaction of a response once he appeared. He simply stared up at the screens and listened, desperately trying not to think about whether or not Tim had been hurt in the crossfire.
“Your fears got the better of you, I see. How fitting that I will win and Batman’s life will be over. Not because of what I’ve done to your precious city, but because you are scared of what I’ll do to your family. To your children. They are your weakness hiding just below the surface.
“I’m sure you’re scared of what will happen when I tear that mask from your face. What will we find? Your true identity, or proof that without your mask you are nothing? Impotent. Powerless. Afraid. Leave your equipment on the table and we can find out.”
He set it down without an argument. There was too much at stake here. Bruce couldn’t afford to put his pride before his livelihood. Before his kids. Before Alfred.
“Now, the truck.”
He opened the back doors of the truck and stepped inside. There were barely any gaps in the windows for him to tell where they were going, only that it was raining and he was defenseless.
Mostly defenseless.
“Master Bruce, can you hear me? I’m detecting someone tracking your movements through the city. I’ve asked Sarah to follow it to see what she can find.”
Bruce smiled.
“I knew he would.” He murmured. If Jason was the one coming after him, he wouldn’t argue with Alfred’s choice to send Sarah. The two of them had always been quite a pair. They’d be able to get him out of this.
“I… think I may have missed something, sir. Who are you talking about?”
Alfred’s voice began crackling. The signal must’ve been getting weaker.
For the first time in years, Batman and Bruce Wayne were truly alone.
“The die is cast, Batman, and from now on I need your undivided attention. The nightmare is almost over. Your failure is almost complete.”
Bruce barely had enough time to comprehend the magnitude of what Scarecrow was saying before another vehicle collided with the side of the truck, sending him and the truck careening down the road.
When he pushed his way out, he was standing in the bowels of a familiar alley.
No, no…. Not here. Not again.
***
“So you finally lost it, eh? Finally snapped my neck. No denying it this time. You’ve got the mind of a killer. That mind is mine. You’ve crossed the line, Bruce. And now Scarecrow is going to set me free.”
It takes a minute for Bruce to reorient himself, but he’s able to catch glimpses of enough buildings to know where he’s being taken. He hasn’t been here since he stopped the Joker and rid the world of what Titan formula he could.
Arkham.
***
Sarah
Her heart was thrumming in anticipation as she sped over the bridge and in the direction of Arkham Asylum. When Alfred had called her, she had almost denied him because Bruce was a grown man and was plenty capable of taking care of himself.
She hadn’t been counting on him giving himself up to Scarecrow.
Just inside the front gates of the Asylum, Jason Todd sat precariously poised in one of the guard towers and watched as she sped through and abandoned the bike in the overgrown brush. He had been the one to track Bruce’s movements through the city to get here. With Robin out of commission and Dick elsewhere, it would be up to the two of them to save Batman.
Sarah paused just up the main pathway at the soft sound of feet landing in the grass. When she turned around, she found herself staring at the frighteningly bright eyes of the boy she’d loved since she was a girl.
“Jason?”
Both of them slowly lowered their guns back into their holsters. Jason’s dark hair was damp from the rain, clinging to his forehead and brow bone as he raked his hair backward with a gloved hand. He had a different helmet than the Arkham Knight one she’d gotten so used to seeing tucked under his arm, and his fingers were lightly drumming nervously against his thigh. A habit he’d picked up after they’d brought him into Wayne Manor.
It was good to see some things never change.
“Sarah,” He breathed. A long moment of awed, breathless silence passed as the two of them regarded each other. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too,” She murmured. “I take it you’ve already scouted out the house?”
He nodded. “Scarecrow’s got B inside the main foyer. I can get onto the overhangs to take a sniping position, but you’re gonna need to be the one to get Gordon and Replacement.”
Sarah snorted. “You always were demanding. Are you gonna sneak me into the foyer too? I’m not exactly as stealthy as I was,” She motioned to her utility belt. “Scarecrow’s men beating the crap out of me broke the camouflage module Lucius built.”
Jason grimaced. He was still battling with himself for the very obvious handprint around her neck. How that had only been hours ago, done by his hand, he wasn’t sure.
He’d regret it every day for the rest of his life.
“You’re favoring your ankle,” He said. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
“I’m doing it for Alfred,” Sarah replied. “Because I owe it to him.”
Sarah froze as gentle fingers reached outward to brush her wet hair away from her eyes, freezing just inches away from her forehead before pulling back like he had been burned.
At least he’s trying. Give him credit.
Jason cleared his throat and slipped his helmet on just as Sarah adjusted her domino. “All right,” He murmured, removing his rifle that was slung across his back. “Time to finish this.”
***
By the time she’d made it inside - using one of Jason’s stellar new movements, which involved slinging her across his shoulders and climbing up to the gargoyle to then slowly lower her down by grapple line - Scarecrow and Bruce were already too intently focused on one another to notice she was even there.
Carefully keeping to the shadows, Sarah pressed herself against the wall and began to shuffle in the direction of her hunched-over little brother.
“It’s time,” Sarah froze as Scarecrow turned to regard Jim and Robin. “Mr. Gordon, I would like you to do the honors.”
“Never,” Jim Gordon’s voice rang out just from the other side of the TV screens aligned on the wall by the window. “I’m done taking orders from you.”
The next thing she knew, Scarecrow had drawn a gun and shot Robin in the chest.
The shock on her face could’ve been felt from miles away. She’d only ever seen him with minor injuries - cuts and burns she often had to treat herself because Tim was always insisting he was fine - and to see him so helpless to do anything to protect himself broke her heart.
She’d been protecting him for so long. So had Dick. Tim had needed someone to protect him where Jack and Janet failed to do so.
“Don’t move, Sar,” Jason murmured lowly in her ear. He’d taken the liberty to give her an earpiece before they’d come inside so he could talk her through getting to Gordon and Tim. “Move on my say so.”
She didn’t have it in her to argue. Not when so much was at stake.
Swallowing the knot in her throat, Sarah exhaled softly in an attempt to calm her pounding heart and waited for Jason’s confirmation that she could continue to move.
“Take off that mask or my next shot will kill him.”
She’d never quite been able to separate her feelings from the job. There was an ever-constant fear of losing any of them lingering in the back of her head every time they left for patrol. For being the expert on fear, Scarecrow knew what to say to truly make Sarah the most afraid she’d been since Jason had gone to Ethiopia.
Her weakness was her family. Her Achille’s heel was the one thing they could use to dig their claws into her chest and pull her heart out.
Tim. Dick. Bruce. Alfred. Jason.
“It’s okay,” Batman called.
“It’s not okay! You know what this means.”
“It’s the end.”
“When they find out who you are, there’ll be no hiding.”
“Go, Sarah,” Jason whispered. Sarah shakily nodded and dropped low to the ground to begin crawling just out of Scarecrow’s sight toward Tim. As she did that, Gordon left Robin’s side and walked up to Batman with his hands raised to remove the cowl.
The moment Tim felt the gentle pattern of his sister’s fingers tapping on his shoulder - a wonderful reminder he was still alive and would be leaving here tonight - was the same moment Gotham gazed upon the ruins of Arkham Asylum and discovered Bruce Wayne was Batman.
“Wayne? Bruce Wayne?” Sarah slowly wrapped her arms under Tim’s and began dragging him backward, her little brother’s head lolling against her shoulder as he fought to stay conscious. The chatter of the news reporters coupled with Scarecrow’s monologue was enough of a distraction to keep them both hidden. “Now the world can see you for what you truly are. A legend laid bare. Powerless. Human. Afraid.”
Scarecrow drove the syringes of fear toxin into Bruce’s chest.
Her father’s cry had her knees buckling as Sarah collapsed against the wall with Tim Drake-Wayne tucked into her arms.
***
Bruce
He knew it was over when he woke up in Joker’s body. The menace had spent nearly the entire night trying to drive himself as far into Bruce’s psyche as physically possible, desperate to break the parts of him brought upon by the blood in his system and allow his Joker to be free.
It’s difficult to watch when you have no control over what you do. When Croc, Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face all fall, when their men all fall, when the blood far outweighs everything else.
He’d been right about one thing. Joker’s presence alive in Bruce Wayne meant that, to some extent, The Joker still existed in Gotham.
And that made him hate himself even more for allowing it to continue as long as it had.
He’d been just at the main doors whenever Two-Face’s body morphed into Gordon.
“Stop-“ He begged. “Stop this madness…. please…”
The Joker pressed a finger to his lips.
“Sh……..”
When he kicked the door open, the world around him was completely engulfed in fire. It was invigorating. Intoxicating.
“Ah!” He exclaimed, proudly puffing out his chest as he watched the ruins of Gotham’s once fine city begin to crumble. “This might be my finest work yet.”
It’s funny how, even at your lowest, the people you love are always there to pull you out.
“Please, listen to me!” Alfred Pennyworth’s voice crackled through the comms as The Joker turned around to examine the GCPD sign hanging off the side of the building. Made sense why Gordon had shown up. “After all the good you’ve done for this city.. think about what you’re doing! Sir, I’m begging you… Master Bruce, Batman, you have to listen! Think of your children! Your father, what would he say if he saw you like this? Please, please stop this rampage.”
Oh, the old man’s heart is about to give out. Poor him.
“Oh, Alfred. Sweet, loyal Alfred. Bruce is gone. But don’t you worry… your new Master is coming home!”
Then he was in the Asylum. Robin was nowhere to be seen, and Scarecrow was still jabbering on in front of where he lay restrained on the rack.
“Do you know what happens now, Mr. Wayne? I’m not going to kill you… I’m going to set you free. Free to see the city you swore to defend tear itself apart. Free to see everyone you love hunted down and killed. Every scream, every death, vengeance for all the Batman has done.”
The voice that speaks is not his own.
“Good.”
“What?! Do you not understand? It’s over!”
“Get ready for the encore!”
And then he’s laughing. That loud, obnoxiously high-pitched manic laugh makes him want to crawl out of his own skin.
When he’s injected again, Bruce is back to helplessly watch The Joker run around in his body - like a puppet master to the puppet - while Bruce tugs on his strings and claws at his weak spots.
Because that’s how he wins. He will beat The Joker at his own sick, twisted game by using his fears against him.
Being forgotten. Having no grave. Being left alone to rot with no one to mourn him.
***
Sarah
“Do you understand, Gotham? You have no savior. No more hope. No more Batman.”
She buried her face in Tim’s hair to avoid having to see what happened afterward. Sarah had injected him with a painkiller that would hopefully take the edge off from the gunshot, but none of them would be able to do anything about it until they got back to Wayne Manor.
So she held him there, tucked away in an alcove near the stairs.
“I’m not afraid, Crane,” Bruce called. He sounded… oddly okay. Why was he okay?
“Impossible!” Scarecrow exclaimed, pulling the weapon from his waistline to press it to Bruce’s forehead. “Without fear, life is meaningless.”
Neither man had time to react before a red pinprick of light was upon Scarecrow’s gun, and Jason fired his rifle from the overhang above them to knock it from his grasp.
He fired again to break the lock on Bruce’s cuffs.
With him now freed, Jason leaped down and navigated his way down the wall and towards herself and Tim, throwing the younger over his shoulder as he did so. “I know first aid,’’ He grumbled. “I’ll… take care of him.”
He could not have sounded more irritated if he tried, but acknowledging what Tim meant to Sarah meant that Jason still cared about Sarah’s feelings. Her heart. And that spoke volumes.
Sarah smiled and squeezed his hand before turning to Gordon as Jason took Robin from the room and to the front door.
Jim held out an arm. “Don’t,” He warned. “He needs to finish it.”
Both of them watched as Bruce Wayne wrapped his gloved hand tightly around Scarecrow’s throat and proceeded to turn the syringes of fear toxin back onto Scarecrow, driving them deep into his neck as he did so.
“What’s wrong? Scared?”
She could’ve cheered when Gordon passed by her to knock Scarecrow unconscious.
Bruce was looking for his Robin when she turned to face him. “Robin’s with Jason, B,” She murmured softly. “He’ll be alright. So will I.”
Soft, tired blue eyes fell on her. His pride and joy. Sarah had been the one to really teach him the values of gentleness and compassion in a world where he so rarely knew it. She’d taught him, alongside her brothers, that love was one of the most important things in this world.
And nothing would ever compare to his love for his children.
“Sarah, I-” Bruce gently grabbed her shoulder and turned her back to face him. “I need you to look after Robin. After all of them. Jason too. He needs to come back to people who love him.”
Sarah rose a brow and brushed his hands off her shoulders. “Why does this sound like a goodbye?” She snapped, grimacing at the harsh tone of her words as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Because I will not accept that from you. Not after everything I’ve gone through tonight.”
“You’ve been the best daughter. The best. I could not have asked for anyone finer,” He motioned behind her to where Gordon seemed to be talking through the cracked front door, most likely to Jason who was still outside treating Tim. Doing so caused Bruce to miss the sheen of tears blurring his daughter’s eyes. “You and your brother were here at the beginning. As was Jim.”
“And?”
He bent down to pick up his cowl.
“And now you get to see how it ends.”