Don't Make Me Laugh - a Batman Fanfic

Prologue

Over the many years he has fought crime as a loved and hated vigilante, the Batman has faced many colorful and truly evil villains. Some just wanted money, and some waned nothing more than to watch the Batman suffer, along with everyone else that was in their path of death. For years and years, Batman fought them, brought them in to prison, watched them break out, then fight them again. It was a viscous cycle that always ended in death and destruction. Yet Batman never let himself kill any of his opponents, seeing that if he did, he would become the very monster he swore to destroy.

But one night, one cold, rainy, January night, Batman snapped. He couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to - no, he needed to kill his opponent. And on that fateful day, the man that the Dark Knight finally wiped off the face of the Earth was the crime lord Bane.

Bane had been testing Batman, slowly wearing him down every night, setting traps for him, making him fight his worst enemies, and all the while watching him. And waiting. But what he couldn't predict was how tired Batman had grown of this game. When it finally came to fighting him one on one, Bane found a new ferocity, a new viscousness and bloodlust that he had never seen the Caped Crusader have before. He was caught off guard. Relentlessly, Batman severed his Venom, then continued to beat him to a pulp and Bane laid, weak and broken, on the cold, hard ground. Batman broke his bones, crushed his spirit and mind, and drove him insane in his final moments. As Bane screamed for mercy, for any kind of relent, all he got was an icy stare and four whispered words:

"Don't make me laugh."