Penance

Chapter Eight: World On Fire

The party was quickly declared over, and the guests (both invited and not) were sent home. Alfred, Bruce, and Barbara had their work cut out for them, trying to get Dick to go to bed. "But I wanna help too!" he argued, following as they made their way to the Batcave.

"Dick, we know you're worried too," Barbara soothed, "but this isn't a mission for a child, not even one as capable as you. You can hold your own against a bunch of supervillains, but ghosts play by a whole different set of rules."

"Let me tell you, this guy was a real nasty piece of work," Vitruvius continued his explanations, completely ignoring the Bat-family's dilemma.

Metalbeard rolled his eye. "Kind of gathered as much when that clown over there said he be a 'matey' of his."

"I don't have a clue where he came from, he just appeared out of the blue one day, leading a band of circus performers. Master Builders, every one of them. But he could use magic as well."

"So like an evil version of you?" Unikitty gasped.

"Never thought of it that way. I suppose he was. He seemed very charming and pleasant at first glance, but he was quite the actor. I wasn't fooled- I only met him one time, but there was something very chilling about him. And I think he was actually the cause of a lot of the unrest between Master Builders and the average citizens, in recent decades."

"And what did he stand to gain from that?" Batman asked.

"Besides what he viewed as entertainment? No idea." He glanced at Benny next, who could only shrug.

"It's coming back to me, but not all at once... All I can tell you at this point is that it wasn't anything good." He turned back to Vitruvius. "So what happened to him?"

"I can tell you that," Batman answered. "It was the only time Business and Bad Cop ever came to Gotham. This 'Ringmaster' guy brought his circus into town. I didn't go see it, dude gave me the creeps. But they came to arrest the entire troupe. It was probably the biggest disaster of a raid I'd ever heard of. A lot of people died." Vitruvius nodded.

"The fire..."

Almost as one they turned to look at Lucy. "What?" Emmet asked.

"I..." She started to tremble. "I think I was there. I knew something seemed familiar about Gotham, the first time Bruce brought me to visit. I was little- I don't remember much, what I can remember is just... flashes. Fire. Screaming. Wood splintering, cables snapping. Robots, everywhere. The most... furious green eyes I'd ever seen..." She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "I remembered hearing about it, years ago, and I was happy enough to pin the blame on Sirius and Cary, but. I don't think that was the case after all. I think- I think it was actually the Ringmaster that started the fire, that tried to bring the tent down to kill everyone. The audience. His own troupe. Men, women, children, all alike. It didn't matter, so long as he got the two who dared to stand up to him."

Dick's arguments had died down as he listened, eyes wide and watery. "He- he really killed kids?"

Lucy nodded, as Emmet wrapped her up in a tight embrace. She gratefully leaned against him. "I'd never forgive myself if that monster did something to hurt you. So please, Dick, just... stay home. Don't make us have to worry about you on top of worrying about saving those idiots."

"Okay..." the boy agreed softly. Alfred took the opportunity to usher him off to bed.

"The Batwing's not big enough to carry all of us, we'll have to build a-"

"Spaceship??" Benny asked hopefully. Everyone but Emmet rolled their eyes at him. The construction worker just looked concerned for him.

"I think a spaceship would be a good idea. It worked pretty well last time, didn't it?" Benny barely waited for him to finish that sentence before he'd zipped off in a flash, throwing parts together.