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Tainted Minds	By : Madame_Anarchy Category: DC Verse Movies > The Dark Knight Views: 3671 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman's Universe or any of it's characters. I'm not writing this story for money.

Chapter List
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Bruce always thought his armor made him invincible, unstoppable, indestructible… But tonight, he understood he is not. Maybe Batman can get close to that, but not Bruce Wayne. Before leaving the Batcave as Batman, he would always take some time to put his armor properly, consider his options for equipment and articulate alternative plans. He was definitely the kind of person that always had a plan and at least two back up plans. Every call is an emergency, so this would be fast, but the ritual of dressing as Batman changed his spirit from Bruce Wayne to Batman. And tonight, he was not Batman, he was just a brokenhearted Bruce Wayne dressed in Batman’s outfit. He was unfocused and impulsive, a combination that cost him the situation he was now.
There were no hostages, he was so grateful for that he couldn't even express it, however, it was a trap for him. Normally, he would have seen this coming, but he fell right into the bait they prepared for him. It was a very convincing sound of a young boy screaming for help, but when he entered the basement of that old abandoned industrial lab, he realized the sound was coming from two large speakers and the doors closed behind him.
He did everything he could to open them, but they were thick and heavy, not to mention he tried using all he had brought with him, but the metal would hardly get scratched. That’s when it all started. There was an air vent in one of the walls and a gas started to come from it and spread all over the locked room. Batman was not stupid enough to leave without an adapted gas mask he made, it was Scarecrow after all. But he was concerned since the gas was not its usual color, it was a reddish kind of smoke this time, something that made a gruesome contrast with the white paint from the walls.
He knew something was wrong in that place, he was feeling more anxious than normal, almost to the level of paranoia. Also, even with the little mask covering his nose, he could feel a scent get stronger in the room. It smelled like blood, it even had those metallic notes to the scent. He tried to see if it was coming from a wound on himself but found nothing. By now he couldn’t see anything inside of the room anymore, the red gas made it impossible for him to see much of his surroundings. He looked down and saw blood on the floor, but more disturbing than that, the level of the liquid was rising, just like when someone is trying to fill a pool. He would eventually drown there if he didn’t find a way out.
That’s when it occurred to him: the speakers. They were big and sharp on the edges. He could try to place one of them between the two doors, where the lock was, and use its weight to put pressure with the sharp corner. Not as elaborate as usual, and definitely not as eloquent as his plans normally were, but it was a desperate time.
Using all his strength he managed to drag one of the heavy speakers close to the door and leaned it, so the edge would be where it would open. He went to the other side of the room to get an impulse to jump on the top of it, level of blood still raising, covering his feet almost entirely. It took him about ten good jumps to crush the doors open.
When he was out, he went straight to the Batmobile. Gordon left a message telling him the plan was to trap him there while the mob made an operation in another location. It was all done, there was nothing left to do now. Not that it mattered, Batman knew he had to go back to the Batcave, his heart was beating too fast, he was dizzy and his head was hurting a lot.
He had plans to get there and just sleep it off, the side effects of the gas, the frustration his night had been, everything. However, as he got out of the Batmobile and tried to stand, he realized he was too dizzy for it. Whatever Scarecrow added to his conventional gas was affecting him. “What if I pass out and die?” He questioned himself looking at the door of Joker’s room. If he died tonight so would him, no one would come for him, he would just starve locked inside.
He walked to the door very slowly, trying to keep his balance and unlocked the door. He was about to turn around when he heard something terrifying.
“Bruce, what have you done?” It was a disturbingly familiar voice, it was his mother’s voice
He turned around and saw his parents staring at him with an angry and disappointed look on their faces. They were a very scary vision, their skin was abnormally pale and they were dressed the same way they were buried.
“Bruce, why did you do this?” She asked in a crying tone, both his mother and father walking closer to him but disappearing like ghosts in their way
Bruce looked where they were standing before and saw what his nightmares are made of. Joker was lying on the floor. Dead. A puddle blood around his arm, that had multiple new cuts as deep and wide as the old ones. He tried to reach for him, but fell, he was too overwhelmed and dizzy to walk. He closed his eyes while lying on the floor and heard the unmistakable sound of bats getting closer to him, the sound of their wings terrifying him as it always did.
Meanwhile, Joker was staring at that needle in his arm inside the room. Something was happening outside, he knew the door was unlocked and heard Batman falling a couple of times. When Batman woke him earlier he was frightened from the nightmare, not thinking clearly, he didn’t want to say any of those things to him. Maybe before, but not now, not anymore.
Joker heard Batman screaming in pure terror, he was familiar with people’s screams, he was the cause of them so many times. But he couldn’t remember anyone sound so tormented as Batman sounded right now.
He took a deep breath and with his anxiety reaching an extreme level for hearing screams and the idea of manipulating a needle, he managed to pull it out of his arm, cursing a lot in the prosses.
He opened the door and saw Batman on the floor, the image making him rush to him and kneel down close to him.
“Batman, what’s going on? Are you ok? Are you hurt?” He asked trying to calm him down
Batman looked at him in surprise, he seemed perplexed.
“Scarecrow… he…he…” Batman tried to answer
“Used the Fear Toxin on you” Joker completed for him “It will pass, we just have to wait”
Joker noticed Batman was staring at something only he could see and then looking back at him. He did that at least three times and he was not calming down at all.
“Batman… what are you looking at? There is nothing there, you know… Why were you screaming? What do you see?” Joker asked. He had worked with Scarecrow before, he knew the gas was designed to reveal the victim’s worst fears. All combined with strong hallucinations.
“You… you were dead… and the bats… they were so many… and they started attacking me and your corpse… it’s all my fault”
Joker widened his eyes to his response. What a bizarre scene. He didn’t know Batman’s mind could be such a dark place.
“I’m not dead, Batman… You promised not to hurt me anymore and after all this time that I’ve spent here… I believe you”
“Do you?” Batman asked
Joker answered helping him sit down on the floor and later, putting his arms around him. Batman never felt so disarmed in his life. He hugged Joker back.
“I’m sorry” Batman said loosening their embrace a little to look into Joker’s eyes, “I’m sorry for all I did”
“I’m also sorry for what I did to you” Joker said, feeling extremely light after doing so, he always wanted a chance to say it. He also noticed Batman’s pupils weren’t as dilated as before. The gas was starting to wear off.
Their faces were so close, both looking into each other’s eyes, all changing when Joker looked to Batman’s mouth for a second. Batman was unsure about the sign, so he removed one of his gloves and placed his hand on Joker’s face slowly.
“Is this ok?” Batman asked
“As long as my answer matters to you… yes” he said leaning closer to meet Batman’s lips.
The kiss started slowly, with their lips only, they were afraid of a sudden change of heart coming from each other. But as they got more intimate in their kiss, Joker introduced his tongue and it got more intense. Bruce couldn’t get enough from kissing Joker and feeling his hair and neck. Joker would love to touch Batman’s hair too, but he was wearing his mask and armor, so he figured holding him tightly was enough.
Batman broke the kiss softly, they had been kissing for some good time now, and asked: “Since when?”
“Far too long, Bats” he said, getting Batman’s hand and waiting a moment to continue “I don’t mean to scare you or anything, but your hand and face are really cold… and knowing Scarecrow, I think it might get worse”
“Do you think it could kill me?” he asked concerned
“No, Scarecrow wouldn’t kill you…”
“Why not?” Batman interrupted him, he had no idea why this was so obvious for Joker
“Well, after being exposed for so long to his own Fear Toxin he became addicted to fear and also immune to it. He told me the only one that scares him is you so… I guess you’re his favorite recreational drug”
“Doesn’t explain why he locked me in a room and tried to drown me in blood”
“Humm… You must have hallucinated that, you’re clean, there is no blood on your clothes”
That was true. Batman looked at his boots and they were clean, there was also no blood at all where he stepped since he got out of the Batmobile. His sanity was coming back fast with this shock of reality. Joker noticed it was helping him recover from the effect and continued asking him questions about that night.
“So they locked you, how did you get out?” Joker asked
“There were two big speakers in the room, I used it to force the door open” Batman answered
“Speakers? Tell me, when you touched them, were they vibrating?”
Batman was surprised. Yes, they were, but he couldn’t hear anything coming from them.
“Yes… how do you know that?”
“That fucker is doing his homework, I’ll give you that…” he said in a mocking tone, “It’s infrasound, frequencies below 20Hz, you can’t hear them, but last time I saw him he said it could cause people to feel strange things like ghost presences or make people anxious or feel like they are being observed… Congratulations Bats, you’re also his favorite guinea pig, did he leave a questionnaire for you to complete in your way out?… Hell, he was such a college nerd!”
Joker said this last part with such annoyance Batman couldn’t help himself imagining them arguing. Joker is as far as you can get from being a ‘college nerd’.
“You seem to know a lot about him, why did you stop working with him?” Batman asked
“Oh, you must be referring to the night he got pissed with my jokes and tried to use the Fear Toxin on me”
“What did you do then?”
“I broke a chair in his head and left” Joker said as if it were the most logical response to that
Joker would have laughed but he noticed Batman’s skin and lips were pale, so he touched his hand and confirmed his temperature had dropped more. He got up and helped Batman walk to the bedroom, he was still having trouble with his balance.
“I think your Batsuit is not helping” Joker pointed out after covering Batman with his blanket and seeing him shiver under it some time afterwards. He sat by his side on the bed and placed his hand on the bat’s shoulder, “I won’t tell anyone, I promise”
Batman was afraid to reveal his identity, but deep down he wanted this barrier between them gone for a long time and he was also freezing. His armor was stealing his body heat.
“One condition” The bat said, “I want to see your face too”
“Fair enough” Joker said getting up and going to the bathroom to remove his makeup
He could hear the multiple parts of the armor being removed and fall to the floor from the bathroom. He was done fast, there was no big secret on removing makeup. He returned to the room and Batman was almost done too. He was sitting in bed covered with the blanket, his mask was still there, although the rest of the batsuit was on the floor. Joker observed Batman’s back while he touched his face hesitantly for a moment before removing his mask.
“I always wondered about your hair color, you know” Joker said trying to make him feel more comfortable “Turn around, let me see”
Bruce turned around and both were very surprised with what they saw. They stared at each other for a moment, trying to process everything. Joker was the first one to speak.
“Bruce Wayne! Well, you are damn good with your alibis. I considered the possibility once or twice, but I thought you were too… shallow, maybe? Thought you didn’t care about these people”
“Hearing this is sad but also a relief” Bruce said with his normal voice, making Joker look at him as if he were an alien. “You look so different without your makeup”
“I can put it back if you want” he answered joking a little
“No! I… liked it this way too”
“Bruce Wayne finds me pretty without my makeup, that’s a compliment”
They laughed a little, unbuilding the tension between them. Joker got closer and sat by his side in bed, not waiting too much to kiss him. It wasn’t a kiss filled with urge like the first one, it was a bit slower. This time Joker could feel Bruce’s body and he certainly took advantage of that, touching his chest, back, and hair.
Neither of them knows who suggested the idea of sharing the bed, or if it was even said out loud at any point, the fact is that they both wanted to, and Bruce found himself hugging Joker from behind, bringing him closer. He had the excuse of being cold, but he was secretly grateful for this particular side effect. That night started as a nightmare, but now they were afraid to wake up from that dream of sharing their bed and feelings.
Author's Note: Hello dear readers! Took me a while but here is another chapter. Sometimes I make references to lines from the movie, already mentioned something from The Killing Joke and this time I wanted to bring something about Scarecrow. Also, I like watching interviews from the cast talking about their characters, so yeah, it's been fun!
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Tainted Minds