He needs to die.

-POV James Gordon-

It's been two weeks since the kid went missing, Marvin has tried all his channels to find where he is but he didn't get any results.

Last time i admitted that our force could use someone like him but i am regretting this already, seems like we'll need to teach him something's around here to get him upto date on gotham politics.

Marvin is asking me to arrange a proper search for him, but we don't have the resources with the mayor's ceremony so close, hell the only reason i am allowing Marvin to look for the guy is because Alex's job is on the line if he doesn't attend the mayor's security.

I feel like i am losing hope on this city, it was simple before, I take care of the corruption, The dark knight catches criminals, Harvey dent prosecutes them.

But now, it's a complete shit show. i feel the despair i used to have when the dark knight didn't exist is coming back to rear it's head, twice as strong.

We created a system with the help of the masked vigilante to keep this city stable, but the system didn't take stupid civilians into consideration and i would have paid the price on that day.

Thousands ready to kill us and we weren't supposed to use guns, Marvin would die of rage but even if the mayor allowed i wouldn't have let them use lethal force.

We are supposed to protect these dumb asses dammit, even from themselves, if we kill the very thing we swore to protect we might as well nuke Gotham and be done with it.

That day when thousands of people were swarming us, i knew batman couldn't save us, i knew that even if we had our entire police force stationed it wouldn't have mattered.

But that kid did what we thought impossible, that kid stood upto a thousand people and said fuck you and that kid didnt need backup, he didn't need any gadget's like batman all he had was a stick and the stick became a goddamn machine gun in his hands 'ugh fine kid, I'll make you the knight of Gotham you will be neither dark nor light just a knight sworn to protect his people'

-POV Batman-

I have been forced to socialize by alfred again, but it is an important event so i should attend as a Wayne, i decided to ask for Rachel but surprise surprise she moved on, I'm happy for her but at the same time the irony of the dark knights ex falling in love with the white knight.

I don't have the time for a relationship anyway. As i sit in my car and wait to reach my destination, i look out the window and see the signal high in the sky hitting the wavy clouds of gotham the shadow of bat dancing with the waves as if it's flying.

I tell the driver to turn around and we reach my home to alfred sitting on the stares with his head in his hands i tell him as i walk past him "Tell the event owners that i am not feeling well" i hear alfred's steps behind me and i slow down to let him catch up to me.

He walks briskly beside me as he says "You can't keep doing this master Wayne, i would have let you, but this was very important for your father" "So was saving the city" i Reply without missing a beat and alfred deflates a little.

"Please tell me your atleast going to attend Rachel's wedding" we reach the elevator and wait for it to reach the basement.

"I will..." he sighs in relief before i continue "...if there isn't a situation" alfred actually looks hurt now but he doesn't show it, Butler's honor he used to say about why he wouldn't.

"Just choose a life master Wayne, the life you made for yourself or the life your parents wanted you to live." alfred says as i wear my bat suit.

"I choose mine" i say before i leave to reach the signal. I see Gordan on the rooftop just like before, i land behind him and say "You called" i see a barely visible flinch but he knows it's me.

"I needed the best detective i know" I think about what might have happened as i say "What's the case?" he looks uncomfortable and guilty while he explains "Alex, has gone missing after his confrontation with joker" i fall silent as i think things through "that isn't jokers style" i say and Gordan reply's "yeah it isn't, he was last seen on the subway 69, reported to have beaten a couple of thugs, that seemed like jokers style to me and we don't have much time, he needs to be present at the mayor's ceremony."

I ask him something that doesn't make sense "Why before the mayor's ceremony?", he looks at me as he takes off his glasses and sighs "Kid'll probably lose his job if he doesn't apologize to the mayor, i don't want him mixing with the wrong sort in desperation for money and make him an enemy of us." what he says makes sense from his point of view.

But i just chuckle in my mind at the ridiculous notion, just to appease Gordan i tell him the information I learned "don't worry about his finances Gordan" as i walk away Gordan asks me "Why?" I ponder whether to tell him or not and decide it's fine to reveal it.

"Remember marvel entertainment that started 3 years back" He nods and i continue "he's the owner of it." His face goes through a mix of shock, confusion and disbelief before he asks "What how is that..." but before he completes his question the door opens and Gordan's partner Marvin walks in with sweat covering his face.

He looks at me and then looks at Gordan, Gordan just nods so Marvin says, " Alex has been spotted..." before he can continue Gordan asks "Where?" Marvin takes a breath as he says "his neighbour said that he went inside his house and left with a gun on a car" I try to search for his location with my GPS and i find him.

"Where do you think is he heading?" i see both the officers looking at me as Gordan asks the question.

"I thought you were the police here." i say as i continue to search for them, i get greeted by silence as i continued and finally found him, i look up and see Gordan with his mouth open looking at me.

"Never would have though you would joke." Gordan finally says and i force myself not to sigh at my slip up, maybe i should tighten up my mental shields i am letting the Bruce persona out more and more nowadays.

I don't reply and continue searching and i find him going towards a very special place "he's heading to Arkham" i say and start moving as i threw a comlink on gordon's desk.

I ride my bat mobile to Arkham with the fastest Speed i could ride without causing public damage as Gordan tells me through the comlink "We got information from Arkham security that, Alex has arrived and entered Arkham with a 14-15 looking girl." i wonder what he's going to do. Kill joker, many have tried until now, i stopped most of them even though it feels wrong.

I might not be able to save joker this time though, i know i can't fight my younger angry self, atleast not right now, not in this health.

I jump out of my vehicle and grapple to the top of Arkham and enter through the vent shown in my hud, i go out of the vent to see Alex dragging a teenager through the corridor with a gun in his other hand.

I jump into the middle of the corridor block his path and he skids to a halt, "Don't make me do this batman" i hear him say as he points his gun at my face.

I don't move or reply so he shoots a warning shot beside my left ear but my armour muffles the sound enough to not shatter my ear drums, i grab his hand and face before pushing him into the room next to us.

Once inside i push his hand onto the edge of a table he drops the gun in pain, i take out a dart to neutralize him with my other hand but he sees it and punches me and grabs my arm pushing it under the table and hitting my wrist onto the edge of the table making me drop the dart.

He punches me left and right before pushing me into another table, i get sprawled on the table as it hit my torso a little too hard, i get up and see him screaming as he punches towards me i role to my left and see his punch connecting on the face of a statue in the wall effectively breaking it.

I lean into a table behind me as he turns around and walks towards me before he can lift his arm to punch me i grab a wooden desk and hit him with full force resulting in him getting pushed back to the table, i go towards him as he is slowly getting up from the table with on hand on it.

I try to punch him in the face but he recovers and punches my stomach hurting me through the armour, i bend forward wheezing from the impact and as he grabs my head and pushed me into the table and starts kicking my stomach again and again with his knees.

He doesn't even give me a chance to breath as he kicks away but i push him aside and throw a bunch of files on the table at him as he shields his eyes i go upto him and start punching his face left and right before jumping up and kicking him hard with bothe my legs.

He falls down a couple of meters away, i walk towards him as he is kneeling on one knee and kick him in the face once but as i try to kick him again he punches my leg back with his right hand and punches my stomach again with his left hand.

Looks like he is going to cause as much damage to my torso as possible to get me down because as i lean forward from the impact he pushes me into a pillar and pins me to it with his left hand and punches away at my torso 'again'.

I get my right hand out of his grip and elbow his face twice to get him off of him as soon as he leaves me i shout with all i got in my lungs as i grab him by the waist and push him into a filing cabinet resulting in both of us falling down but he grabs me mid fall and turns me to be the one who takes the impact.

He guts up and stands to my left i kick him with my right leg while lying down and he get pushed into the windows as i get up i see that he looks pained as he moves towards me leaning back to decrease the pain but he suddenly rolls on the fallen cabinet and kicks my torso again.

I don't fall back but the impact has made me realise that i can't breathe might be a punctured lung or something like that. Now i am really pissed off and i need to finish this fight quickly, he looks exhausted, hanging on his breath to stay awake.

He tries to punch me with his right hand, i lean to my left and punch him in his face he goes for another punch and i push his hand aside before punching his face again.

I kick the side of his stomach before kicking his chest which pushes him into a pillar which he bounces off of and comes towards me again, i wind up my punch and hit him as hard as i can which results in him falling down.

With that last punch all the fight in me left, i didn't have the strength anymore as i fall beside him but not on the ground but leaning on a pillar.

-POV ALEX-

I open my eyes to see the ceiling of a room in Arkham, i lost to batman which isn't that big of a problem but still stings the fire in me a little bit, speaking of batman i look to my left and see him leaning on a pillar sitting beside me.

I look to my right and see Lauren sleeping beside me "She would have been implicated with you" i hear batman say "Implicated with what?" i ask in confusion "implicated with jokers murder" he scoffs as if he knows that i am acting like i don't know about it.

"She wouldn't have, i was pulling her in she could have said that i was holding her hostage, i have kill joker today no matter what" batman asks me "Why do you need to kill the joker?" we both are tired enough to chat about this so i tell him"Because... he stops you from doing what's right" batman grunts and replies "And so does every other villain i fight"

I immediately deny and tell him why i disagree "No, no jokers different because everytime he escapes...." he finishes for me like if he has heard the same thing a thousand times"the whole of Gotham turns to chaos" but I learned the truth so i tell him "Nah, he escapes right when the city is in chaos and you need to fix it"

He doesn't understand the underlying implications i am trying to tell him as he says "Not all the time." I try to give him a hint again "Not all the time but it happens enough that it warrants suspicion" He looks deep in thought before asking "How do you know this?" so i tell him.

-Flashback-

"The reason why joker can't be killed is because...he keeps batman busy" I couldn't understand what Black mask is saying as i hear Lauren ask "What?"

Seeing our confused faces he explains"Ever since the bat family came into city and commissioner gordan starting whipping up the corrupt criminals were forced to go legal and most of them did too" he stops to grit at his wound hurting.

"But the bigger ones didn't give up and tried to stay in the illegal market until joker came in. The first time joker appeared he caused enough chaos to take up all of batman and the cops time."

He smirks now as he says "He's the perfect distraction to get most things done, so the big ones stayed afloat. They want a shipment to arrive get joker to escape, they want to make a deal give joker what he wants to cause as much chaos as he wants".

I think about the implication of this, all the lives lost in gotham all the crime that seems to never end is not because we aren't competent enough, it's because we are too busy trying to catch one guy, one fucking guy. Doesn't that mean if i kill him.....

.....I can save Gotham.

-flashback end-

"There are better ways to save Gotham" batman says in resignation after listening to my story, still denying to kill another man in cold blood to save a million people "You don't have to kill him yourself, you just don't save him"

I tell him but he shakes his head "If i let you kill him, i will keep on letting someone die to make life in this city easier, until one day, one fine day when i let a good man die to protect this cities peace."

"You have to kill someone today, you either let me kill him or you'll have to kill me to stop me from killing him" I give him the ultimatum to choose between killing and killing.

"I can't" I hear the tone of defeat in batman's voice but i ignore it, ignore the silent request he shows in his voice and take my pistol and move towards joker.

"Hello Joker, i couldn't torture you but i got what i wanted Gotham doesn't need you anymore so it's time for you to go" I tell joker infront of me and for the first time since i met him he chuckles, not laugh no, not that awful laugh he just chuckles as if my attempt to kill him is actually funny.

"What's so funny?" i ask and he stops his chuckles and looks at my hand which holds the gun "Your hand is shaking." He tells me as if he knows i won't kill him "Do you think this is my first time, this is the second time i kill someone..."before i continue on my outburst he says "Third" he says and i still as he continues "I will be the third person you kill, you didn't just kill the criminal you killed your friend too remember, anyways just shoot me and be done with it"

The gun i am holding feels heavier than the world. I feel like i am back in the restaurant infront of my friend being held as a hostage, his body smaller than the criminal, his eyes looking afraid as the criminal urges me to kill him as a way of petty revenge for incapacitating his men.

The last time i objected, i denied, i tried to do anything to not kill him, i tried not to be a killer but in the end i was forced to, yes i was forced to kill him at that time but not now.

I look again and see my friend and the criminal vanishing and in their place is joker waiting for me to pull the trigger and i do.

*BOOM*

author's notes: grammar might be weird cause i tried to write in a different style from some tips i got on writing.