Detective | ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛᴍᴀɴ

𝒕 𝒘 𝒆 𝒏 𝒕 𝒚 - 𝒕 𝒘 𝒐

The sun had risen where Bruce watched the scene before him dully. It had been confirmed that Jess had gone missing right under his nose. The Riddler left a card for Batman, something Jim held onto until he could confront the shadow in the darkness of the night.

Bruce squeezed his jaw together from his bike as Martha stepped out of her rental car. Jonathan had to go back to Metropolis for apparent reasons. He was paranoid about the alien ship in their basement. This left Martha to do what she did best. Now, Jonathan was on his way back to Gotham to be there in the search for his baby.

"You all were supposed to be watching her!" She hissed. "How did this happen?"

Martinez gulped at the seething monster before him. "The last person she was with was Mr. Wayne, ma'am."

Martha narrowed her eyes at the hallmark card in Jim's hands. "No, she wasn't." She pursed her lips with her hands on her hips. "I don't care how it happens or who finds her first. I want my daughter back in my arms."

Bruce swallowed thickly before riding back to the terminal. This was all his fault, and no one to blame for her disappearance but himself. If only he had tried harder, if only he grabbed her hand and told her how much he loved her if he would've just sucked it up and pushed Selina away. Reaching the terminal, Bruce parked his bike without caution and walked over to his computer.

On the television before him, Bruce watched his father during his 2001 mayor campaign video splattered all over the news. The video began to reveal vintage photos of Bruce's family and the Arkham's as well. "The Wayne's and the Arkham's... Gotham's founding families. But what are their real legacies? Twenty years ago, one reporter set out to uncover the dark truth. He found shocking family secrets of how her mother brutally murdered her father when Martha was a child. She then committed suicide, and how the Arkham's used their power to cover it up. How Martha herself was in and out of institutions for years, and they didn't want anyone to know."

Bruce stared at the screen of the monitor with wide eyes. His mother, the woman he always saw as an angel, wasn't perfect. The black and white photo of her trying to escape the grips of the nurses, a wild look on her face, spooked Bruce to his very core. "Thomas Wayne tried to force this crusading reporter into a hush-money agreement to save his mayoral campaign, but when the reporter refused... Wayne turned to a longtime secret associate Carmine Falcone and had him murdered! Gotham's legacy of lies and murder."

Practically gripping the monitor, Bruce's world was spiraling out of control. Everything he stood for, everything he believed in, for his family's name was all a lie. Riddler's ugly brown mask appeared on the screen, a smugness clearly seen through his mask. "I hope you're listening, Bruce Wayne, for you must answer for the sins of your father. And now..." He rotated the camera to show Jess, tied up in a chair, clothes bloodied, and head hanging low. "She must pay for yours." He grabbed a fistful of dark brown hair, yanking her head up to show the camera. She was unconscious, but the slight sound of discomfort that fell from her nose made Bruce's chest tighten in anger. "Goodbye." The cave was plunged into silence after the video ended. What was he going to do?