Chapter 5: Death in the Hands, Life in the Mind (Ch 825967944)

It’s just a cat’s eye.
The owner of the eyes was completely dead, his spine was twisted into a strange arc, and the flesh on his body was torn apart piece by piece, leaving only blood and skeleton.
John stared at it with a blank look in his eyes, and suddenly tears fell, followed by silent sobbing. His whole body was shaking, and as the rain fell, he kept crying and crying, until he even retched in the end.
Outside the window, under the rain, it was noon in Gotham.
There were a few pedestrians wading through the water with umbrellas, but the place was so deserted that it looked like a dead city.
In the -22 universe, before the Batman Who Laughs, this world has experienced “Cataclysm”, “No Man’s Land”, “Knightfall”, “War Games”, “Critical Access”… and this final madness. This city, which was already riddled with holes, is already on the verge of collapse, and most of it has sunk into gray and black. It is difficult to save it, and even the salvation itself will become the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.
…
Lucian sat on the hospital bed, looking down at the white sheets, touching the wound that was healing at an abnormal speed, and a layer of mist slowly floated through his mind. He heard laughter coming from the gaps, but there was no joy at all, which made him feel vaguely uneasy.
It’s the Joker virus again.
Thinking of this, he suddenly didn’t know what was controlling him, and he couldn’t help but look in a certain direction. Hidden under layers of obstacles, he seemed to see the clown smiling at him.
He saw Batman push the door open.
“…Hello, Batman.” Lucian greeted slowly, smiling slightly.
The superhero, fully armed again, walked over, not looking at all embarrassed, and said, “Your iris has changed color.”
Lucian was stunned for a moment, his smile faded, and he raised his hand to touch his eyelids:
“As expected, I guess I’ll change my hair color too.” He put his hand to his lips again, drawing an upward arc: “Maybe I’ll also have a permanent smile.”
Silent.
“Okay, that’s not funny…”
Lucian said, “As soon as possible, a full-body blood transfusion… I remember it’s not a difficult thing. It’s used in the fields of poisoning and neonatology, right?”
Batman nodded slightly.
Perhaps it was an illusion, or perhaps it was the light, but Lucian suddenly saw green eyes burning like phosphorescence through Batman’s pale goggles.
He was startled.
I thought Batman also had green eyes, but I quickly realized that those were my own eyes reflected by the goggles.
…
wrong!
Under Lucian’s horrified gaze, the owner of those eyes walked out of Batman’s body.
The thing that had been vaguely present in his mind gradually came closer to reality. The strange green eyes turned and looked at him with a smile.
Lucien couldn’t guarantee what expression he showed at this moment, but when they looked at each other, he seemed to feel an indescribable horror and terror.
“Have you seen the Joker?” Batman said.
It was the clown who came out.
“How do you know?” Lucian asked in a dry voice, realizing that the image of the clown was an illusion.
“Guess.”
Guess?
At this moment, Lucian felt his soul rising, and his words became uncontrollable. He smiled and said, “Did you see the same thing? The clown… came out of your body and looked me in the eye.”
Batman remained in cold silence, like a cold monster made of steel, and Lucian seemed to be doused with ice water from head to toe.
He came to his senses.
“Feel sorry……”
“You are deeply affected.” Batman said, “I will perform a full body blood transfusion in three hours.”
“……good.”
The Joker was walking around Batman, but he was still looking at Lucian. The real light seemed to cast a shadow under the illusion’s brow, hiding the green eyes in darkness, faintly reflecting a gray light.
Now the color of Lucien’s eyes is indescribably strange. The warm yellow-brown is still the base color, but it is stained with green, like a beach eroded by a swamp, or green paint splashed on warm nanmu.
Very… weird.
It was as if the Joker died in his hands, lived again in his mind, and then looked at the world through his eyes.
…
Time flows quietly and the room is silent and quiet.
But Lucien gradually lost his sense of time. He felt the two gazes staring at him anxiously, and gradually he felt uneasy and creepy.
“The Joker is a symbol… In my impression, it is true. We even think that Gotham without the Joker is not Gotham.” He finally started to make small talk.
“us?”
“We…readers.” Lucien explained, and then there was silence again.
He began to miss Nightwing.
At least the atmosphere was relaxed when talking to Nightwing just now, and there were no blatant Joker hallucinations.
…
Three hours passed…
Batman and the Joker stayed with Lucien without saying a word.
Until the medical staff came in one after another, Batman and the Joker disappeared.
…
The turmoil in Gotham started by the Joker is different from previous ones. In the past, those who died would be people related to the superhero industry or more representative figures. Among them, the mayor and prosecutors were the main victims, and gang leaders would not be easily attacked – everyone understands that the rules and order represented by the gangs are more authoritative and credible than those of the government.
But the Joker’s criminal pattern has also led to frequent changes in the top leadership and the dominance of grassroots gangs – the most obvious benefit is that laws and regimes are difficult to pass, and justice is difficult to uphold.
The reason why the Joker’s crime is different this time is that he destroyed the tacit understanding of the past. The expendable mayor was not targeted, the prosecutor who had ties with the gang was living a life of luxury, but the gang leaders were almost killed.
The Penguin had his head blown off by a large-caliber bullet, Two-Face was crushed into blood foam by a falling giant coin billboard, the Scarecrow was poisoned to death by an overdose of terrifying poison gas… and many more, even some big figures who had been hiding behind Gotham were left struggling to survive and covered in wounds.
It is precisely because of this difference that the exhausted superheroes cannot indulge in sadness… They have to be even busier – the decline of order can lead to the collapse of society far more than the death of certain characters.
The neon lights that penetrate the clouds at night divide Gotham into two parts, making it look half prosperous and half deserted.
The rich area, which was full of debauchery and extravagance, did not seem to be shaken at all by the clown’s final madness, while the poor area, which was struggling in pain and cautious, was flashing even less light.
The night in this city is magical. The lights are always clearly defined without any overlap. The God-given moonlight rarely appears in Gotham. Of course, this also makes the bat lights appear brighter.
Tonight was different, or rather every night since Gordon’s death had been different.
The moon has never appeared in Gotham, but that doesn’t matter. It has always disdained to protect this cloud-shrouded city, and people don’t need its useless pity. For Gotham, the Bat Lantern is the moon of this city.
Protect justice and control crime.
Over the years, although people sometimes hate and curse Batman, they have long been accustomed to the bat lights that penetrate the clouds at night and the moon in Gotham.
And now? There is no bat lamp, no light that penetrates the gloom and cannot be shaken.
After Gordon’s death, no one bothered to light the Batlight on the top floor of the GCPD.
This is not to say that the police station has no more problems or Gotham has no more disasters, but that people dare not do so. After all, anyone who has anything to do with Batman and lights up the Batlight will not have a good death.
Harvey Dent is like this, and so is James Gordon.
Almost everyone who could light the light but didn’t do it thought so, and the rest of the people wished that Batman would die a miserable death as well.
Without the light of the Bat-Lamp, the entire Gotham night was dim, as if the Abyss had won a lot in the battle with the Dark Knight for Gotham.
On top of a towering building somewhere, on a dripstone that could not be illuminated by any light, Batman stood quietly, the evening wind howling and blowing his cape, trying to make him fall from the height and fall into the mud.
Bats are a general term for Chiroptera animals of the class Mammalia, and are the only mammals that can truly fly, but Batman is not. If he takes off the clothes that may be armor or restraints, Batman is just an ordinary person.
If you fall from a height, you will really get hurt, and if you fall into a muddy place, you will really get dirty.
“We are all crazy, whether it’s the Joker or Batman.”
“Those people are full of morality and justice, but you saved them, and they hate you. But I won’t, even if you beat me to death.”
“I’m still grateful to you, Batman, for making me whole.”
The Joker stands beside Batman like a phantom:
“I know you’ve always wanted to know where I came from.”
“You’re using this as leverage to get me healed.”
“It’s as ridiculous as the idea that Batman isn’t a lunatic and Gotham can still be saved.”
They stood together, side by side, with almost the same temperament.
It’s like standing on the edge of an abyss with arms outstretched, only the heels touching the ground, ready to plunge into the abyss with all the emotions and past.
“Okay…well, now that I’m dead, it’s not a secret anymore.”
“Let me tell you a story.”
The clown began to tell the story again.
There have always been many stories about the Joker.
Absurd, grotesque, tragic, funny…
There is no shortage of stories about the Joker.
“Maybe it wasn’t that long ago, but it’s a long time for the Joker.”
“There was a child. He was not smart, kind, or beautiful, but he was not miserable, pitiful, or evil either… He was a very ordinary child.”
“A child who is very different from you, very different.”
“He lived an ordinary life, going about his life as planned… One day, he suffered an accident.”
“Accident, I forgot what accident, but accidents are not uncommon in Gotham, Bruce, accidents are the norm in Gotham, aren’t they?”
“So this ordinary child came face to face with the horror of human nature.”
“What kind of horror was it… I forgot again, anyway, it was about a horror that made me laugh, and so… I was born.”
“It’s the Joker! Bruce, it’s the Joker! The Joker is born!”
A third-rate story that can’t even be called an anticlimactic one.
The clown’s eyes were a pale green, like phosphorescent fire burning on an unknown background. The fire was cold, but when blown by the howling wind from above, there was no sign of it going out. His voice calmed down again, not so excited, gentle and humble, spreading in the wind, carrying an indescribable question and verification.
“Look, this is just an ordinary child…How many ordinary children like this are there in this city?”
“How many children like this are dying in Gotham right now?”
“And how many can you save?
The Joker seemed to be whispering in Batman’s ear.
When Batman turned around, the Joker disappeared like a bubble.
But the arrogant smile did not disappear.
Always there.
Batman knows that he has also been infected with the Joker virus.
But it was completely different from what Lucian had, or even the opposite.
Lucien is able to control his own mental activity most of the time and maintain independent thinking. Compared to Batman, the Joker hallucination he endures is more like an insignificant scare box.
In Batman’s mind, the Joker has been laughing crazily, and his nemesis still does not forget to seduce him even after his death.
Batman knew something was wrong with him, but the phenomena that had alerted him in the past made him feel that it was not that important now.
He remained normal without control.