I Hate You, But I Love You

Chapter 5: Twisted

"You!" He closed his eyes and J smiled his crooked little smile. J pressed the detonator button and blew the room next to him sky high. Bruce screamed in agony as he realized what he'd just done. "Barbara!" He cried out, dropping to his knees. J took his cuffs off and stood up, walking over to the next room. He spun the chair around and looked to Batman. "Batsy. Look." Batman didn't want to look up but he did. What he saw next pushed him to the edge. Barbara had been a mannequin dressed up with a wig. That's why she was turned away. He then picked up a tape recorder with her screams on it. "See? No harm done. I just needed to see where your priorities lie." Bruce lunged for J and tackled him, letting him have it with no restraint whatsoever. Obscenities spewed from his mouth with venom and he punched J until J stopped defending himself. J lay on the floor, definite bones broken in his face, his lip busted and bleeding, and so much blood covering his face that he couldn't see. Batman then leaned in really close, practically growling his response. "You took it way too far. No one could love a monster like you." It was then that he got up, rubbing his bloody gloves on his cape. Harley had tried to fight back but she was no match for his rage and so she was thrown back away from the fight. He called in backup and soon the SWAT team came in to arrest the Joker and all of the other villains present. Within the morning, all of the villains had been taken care of and placed back in their cells. Joker had been sent to the medical wing to be cleaned up, stitched up, and examined. After twenty eight stitches in various areas, he was placed back into his cell with none other than Harvey Dent. He'd been captured when the scare was happening that night. The moment he saw Harvey, he wanted to rip his throat out. There was more than one way to skin a snitch, however. J took a seat on his bed, too beaten and angry to really bother with Harvey at the moment. "Looks like your crush doesn't love ya back, huh? A classic case of domestic abuse?" Harvey piped off and J launched at him, pinning him to the wall. With one eye swelled shut, he could barely see, but he could definitely see the fear in Harvey's eyes. "You! You're the reason this happened! He knew nothing about this and then you escaped and suddenly Batman knows that I care about him?" He was whisper growling so that the other inmates couldn't hear. "Do you know how many times I wanted to bite off that thing you hold so precious? I can't even tolerate you slightly and you made me your little bitch just because I told you one little thing that I wanted kept a secret. Go fuck yourself, Dent. You better sleep with one eye open." He had him in a chokehold. The guards had noticed the scuffle, but not before Joker punched him a good few times. The guards removed him and put him in the hole for fighting. He leaned against the wall, absolutely torn about what had occurred. Regardless, he needed some sleep, so he laid down and fell asleep on the cold hard bed of the isolation room.

The night before when Batman left, driving home, he had stayed in the Batcave for longer than usual. He didn't want Alfred to know he was home because he needed time to himself. All he could think about was how in a split decision, he chose to save the Joker over the woman he loved. He had no idea that Barbara was actually a mannequin the entire time, but now that he did know, he was furious. Surely the Joker wouldn't have blown himself up if he had chosen Barbara over him? Or maybe he knew that Batman would choose him all along. Either way, Bruce wanted to break stuff. He didn't want the Joker to win, now especially. At least the scumbag was locked away in prison at the moment. He wouldn't be able to give Bruce confusing thoughts there. Finally after hours of thinking, Bruce headed to bed and slept. He slept alright, all things considering.

Weeks went by after that incident. Everything was quiet, and it was quite a relief for Bruce. He liked it when they made his job easy on him. After a whopping thirty days after the incident, a call rang in on his cell from Commissioner Gordon. He explained to Bruce that Joker had one request. A request to meet with Batman. Bruce's stomach twisted as he heard that and he bit his lip as he thought about that. It was probably the most terrible idea he'd ever heard of, but he agreed to it nonetheless because he hadn't told anyone about what happened that night. Getting into his Batman garb that night after Gordon had called was especially hard. The worst part of it was wondering why the Joker wanted him to come and meet with him. Walking through the door of Arkham Asylum after a short ride in the Batmobile took everything he had.