*Krios "James", Madison Bridge Apartments, Gotham City
Looking around his apartment, he felt a certain amount of grief.
He liked his place; it was nice, comfortable, and the first place he could call his own for many years.
It also had so many happy memories with Barbara. Memories that now brought a certain level of pain to his heart.
Staring at the furniture, he could feel his muscles and bones yearn to sit down and rest. The healing of Barbara had exhausted him beyond what he had experienced in years. Not to mention his brief journey to the void as he now thought of it. The empty darkness and the deal with the entity still weighed heavily on his mind.
'I can't stay here.'
Those thoughts were also a constant on his mind, yet he found it so hard to leave. He had already gathered what things he needed, even donning his cloak robes. It had been years since he last wore them, but they still fit like a glove.
The money he had on hand, he had shoved in his various pockets along with a few mementos such as pictures of his family, Jane, and sort-of siblings, John and Nicole. And of course, he grabbed one of him and Barbara. Looking at it right now only caused him pain, so he shoved it into the deepest pocket he had.
Taking a moment to look around, he reaccessed his situation.
While it was not definitive and it would be unlikely to hold up in a court of law at the moment, he knew his identity was lost. The Bat Family and Jim Gordon would either realize at that exact moment who James really was or put it together pretty quickly.
It would only be a matter of time before the GCPD froze his public bank accounts. But thanks to training from both the mob and the League of Shadows, he already had some hidden away in foreign accounts, and if worse came to worst, he could always teleport into a bank and grab some hard cash.
All his gear was accounted for as he looked through his pockets. He had already set his personal documents, including his ID, on the stove and set it to high. He could smell the burning paper and melting plastic, causing his nose to wrinkle.
That made him raise his face mask. The small filtration unit hidden in the cloth was proving its worth as he breathed fresh air.
How the League of Shadows came up with such a lightweight and hidden filtration unit, he had yet to figure out.
'Probably some nano machinery bullshit,' he thought as he dialed Jane's number.
While he waited, his mind raced with what had happened.
His life was progressing smoothly with both work, school, and his personal life. Everything was going great as the years passed, and his lack of activity as Krios made it look more and more likely that he could have a normal life.
But fate had other plans.
From Barbara being shot and the frankly idiotic decisions he made in a panic. Blowing his carefully crafted cover, for a hero who was on the hunt for him. A woman who, if she knew his real self, would not hesitate to throw him in jail and forget all about him.
The small inner voice he had mocked him. From the very beginning, engaging with Barbara and starting a relationship was a mistake. The risk and danger involved were immense, and all because of stupid hormones, loneliness, and compatibility with Batgirl of all people.
True, his reveal came about differently, but it still was the same. Barbara had been a weak link, and now his life as James could never be. All that remained was Krios.
And now, with what he had agreed to with the entity, he was unsure if that would even be true. He had pondered that dream, or now he supposed visions, for months. Partly convinced he imagined it, but also partly terrified, believing it was real.
He still was not sure how he connected to the void in the hospital, and he was even more unsure of the consequences of his deal with that entity. Yet he could feel it, as if written on his soul, that something beyond his understanding had left its mark, and it felt heavy.
Gripping his cellphone tightly, he could feel the plastic groan from the pressure.
Why, oh why did he blow everything away for her?
Why would he throw his life away?
Perhaps even his very soul?
'Because you love her.'
That thought floated in his head. Where once it would bring a sense of excitement and happiness, now he only felt hurt.
Finally, the phone connected, and Jane answered, ceasing his convoluted thoughts..
"Hello? James?" A tired Jane said.
It was, after all, the middle of the night.
"Mom..." he hesitated before steeling himself, "I have been compromised... let John and Nicole know."
There was a momentary pause before Jane spoke. He could feel her tense up on the other end of the phone. The tiredness from her voice had all but vanished as she understood what he was saying.
Jane's voice replied quietly but firmly, "I will, just be safe, James. Promise me... promise me you will find a way to be happy."
Of all the things she could have said, that one cut him the most.
"I will try," he kept his voice from wavering as he spoke the lie.
Jane merely hummed, "I love you, son... goodbye."
"Bye... mom," he hung up quickly after that, not trusting he could stay calm talking with her much longer.
The two of them, along with his step-siblings, had planned for the possibility of his identity being revealed. Jane never judged him for his actions, and to their credit, neither did John or Nicole. But they all had agreed that if he were discovered, they needed a plan to shield them from any law enforcement wanting to pursue cases against them as co-conspirators.
The fire had started to spread from the kitchen.
With a flick of his wrist, he crushed his smoke detector and the sprinkler system. Letting the fire burn would help distract the police and Batman. There was nothing in the apartment that he thought they could use to trace him, but making them think he was worried about them finding something would sidetrack their efforts to find him.
'A little elaborate, don't you think?' he thought to himself.
That passing thought made him snort. It probably was, but it wouldn't hurt to try to buy him time before he had to flee Gotham.
Long enough, at least to deal with a clown.
---------------------------------------
*Bruce Wayne, "Batman," Gotham City
"Say that again?!?"
Batman was high up on one of the many skyscrapers of the city. He was near the Narrows following a lead on where the Joker could be hiding.
When the news came about the attack on Barbara and Jim, everyone was shocked. He sent Jason to check on Barbara and keep her safe in case the Joker tried to finish what he started. He had ordered Dick to help him in hunting down the clown, but the young man had huffed and followed Jason to the hospital to check on Barbara.
He could understand Dick's emotions even though they were inconvenient and irrational. Right now, he, too, would rather be at the hospital than out on the streets. But they needed to catch the Joker before he disappeared, a task that was proving more difficult as the minutes passed by.
For a madman, the Joker really knew how to hide.
Even with the GCPD out in force and every law enforcement agency imaginable on the streets, no one had found a hint of where the lunatic was.
His own contacts and informants were so far lacking in anything substantial. He had sent Cassandra and the recently returned Kate Kane to Amusement Mile to keep an eye on the Joker's favorite hideout.
Even the Team was on their way after they heard what happened to Barbara. He tried to order them not to come, but they would not take no for an answer. One of their own was hurt, possibly dying, and they wanted to find the clown.
It was when the League asked to send some additional support that he had to put his foot down. He knew that many of the League were extremely frustrated with his insistence on handling all things Gotham, but it was necessary. If the Joker caught wind of Superman or Wonder Woman coming to help, the man would go deep underground and hide for months before emerging to cause chaos when they least expect it. Right now, he knew Joker would be treating this as a game between them and wanted to keep playing for as long as possible. That window would allow him to catch the clown, but if other League members came, the game would be considered over, and they would never catch him.
While his mind was focused on hunting Joker, his mind would drift to the worry he felt for Barbara. Alfred had kept him apprised from the Batcomputer of the prognosis for her wounds, and it was not good. The aged butler had offered words of encouragement for the strength of Barbara, but they both knew the chances she had at surviving were low, and even if she lived, it would not be the same. The best-case scenario was that she would be paralyzed or stuck in a medical coma for an undisclosed amount of time.
So when a panicked Jason contacted him via their communication devices and told him what had happened at the hospital, he was shocked.
'James... powers... healing Barbara... Krios...'
The words went through his head as Jason recounted what had just occurred at the hospital.
"Batman?"
Jason's usual annoyed and punk tone was nowhere to be heard. He sounded confused and perhaps a little scared, not that the former street rat would admit it.
"How is Barbara?" he asked.
Jason hesitated, "The doctors are still examining her, but... It's all healed. There's not even a scar from the bullets or when they cut her open. Even the brain scans are showing repair to the cerebral cortex where there was oxygen damage."
"And her mind," his mind raced with the implications.
"She woke up briefly after he 'healed' her but said nothing and fell back asleep," Jason said, "Doctors say they won't know anything for sure till she wakes up, but at least from their initial scans everything is fine. Scarily so, you should see some of their faces. A few of them were talking about how it was like she was never shot or operated on. They can't find any evidence of damage on her."
Batman paused to consider what Jason said before shaking his head. There were so many questions and so few answers.
"How is Jim taking it?" He finally asked.
Jason scoffed, "A mixture of disbelief that his daughter is going to recover, shock at what this implies about James, and a full-blown panic attack. The hospital is now guarded better than the White House with the sheer number of cops here."
Batman hummed, "And you're sure about the assessment concerning James?"
"Based on the telekinesis and teleportation," Jason snarled, "Ya, way too many coincidences. Plus those connections to the Penguin Mob..."
"How do you know about that?" Batman asked, a mixture of annoyance and curiosity in his voice.
"Dick hacked into some of your files before he left and let slip to me a few months ago about James less then stellar parental figures," Jason said defensively.
He could feel a headache coming from that fact. Most of his sensitive files were under a heavier lock and key, but he needed to clap down on Barbara and Dick's access to his system.
"I trust your judgement and what you saw, but let's be careful of accusing Barbara's boyfriend of being one of Gotham's most wanted until we confirm it fully."
Jason snorted, "Ya... rrrrrrrright."
Ignoring Jason, he then said, "If Barbara is safe then I want you and Dick to get geared up and help patrol the Tricorner Docks. Joker usually had some resources he kept hidden there, and it may be where he will hide."
Jason gave a grumble of acceptance before hanging up.
Now, with the silence, Batman looked out into the city, his thoughts were deep, connecting pieces of the complex puzzle.
James had an adopted mother who supposedly was a retired prostitute of the Penguin Mob.
'Retired from the prostitution game, maybe, but not the mob,' he mused.
Oswald Cobblepot starts using young James as an enforcer called 'The Hound.' The arrest of the Penguin saw the young man disappear for a while, presumed dead before reemerging, robbing tech companies, and killing Officer Montoya. Then the fiasco with the Riddler, before disappearing.
What exactly he was up to, he wasn't sure, but he knew the boy spent time training with Deathstroke.
A flash of realization hit him.
James returned to Gotham briefly from 'study abroad' around the same time Krios attacked GCPD headquarters. And then he disappears again, only to show up at the League of Shadows temple in the Himalayas. Then James reappears in Gotham and starts studying medicine and dating Barbara.
So they could at least establish a timeline, but that still left so many questions. Was he working for someone? Where did Penguin find the boy? What was James' connection to the Order? Why was he dating Barbara?
He knew she was Batgirl based on their interactions, which means...
'He knows who Dick and Jason are... he knows about me.'
The thought sent a chill down his spine.
So many thoughts, so many questions.
'And how will Barbara feel?'
He was unsure of the answer for that.
"Batman."
The voice of Kate Kane sounded in his ear.
"Report," he said.
"We ran into some of Bane's men; they were moving chemicals and explosives," Batwoman said.
Batman frowned deeper, "At Amusement Mile?"
"Ya," she huffed, "Cassandra and I were just as confused until we took them out. We caught one of Bane's lieutenants, and it seems the Joker has made a lucrative deal with a lot of the rogues to cause some mayhem."
"Which ones?" he asked.
Batwoman was silent, a howl sounded in the background before she spoke, "Our new friend says he knows Ivy, Freeze, Croc, and maybe Scarecrow, plus a few others."
He could feel a migraine build.
"Not exactly ideal," he muttered.
"Oh, don't be that way," Batwoman said cheerfully, "Our friend also told us where they're all meeting..."
At that, he perked up, dealing with multiple threats all over the city would make it all but impossible to catch the Joker. And while the multiple villains added to the complexities of the fight, it was honestly the best case scenario.
"... at Tricorner docks. Both to organize, get weapons, and get their pay from the Joker."
At hearing Tricorner, Batman began moving immediately, trying to make his way to the docks.
"Head over there now!" He said firmly while he jumped through the air and began to glide.
Switching his comms to Robin and Nightwing, he said quickly, "The Joker at the Tricorner, he has other rogues with him! Do not engage until I arrive..."
Dicks remained silent while Jason gave at least a confirmation.
The lack of response from Dick was not usual, but now was not the time for their differences.
Right now, he needed everyone on the A-game as they took on Joker and a posse of Gotham's most dangerous criminals.