In the Mind of Madness

Kenna climbed to her feet, but before she could ask any of her many questions, Batman was grabbing her hand and pulling her roughly across the roof. The high heels made her stumble, but she kept up with him somehow. As soon as Batman stopped at the edge of the roof Kenna kicked the shoes off, smiling at the relief it brought the sore soles of her feet.

The nearest building was a good forty feet away, and much taller than the one they currently stood on. Kenna judged the distance to the ground, positive that jumping wouldn’t leave a very good chance of survival.

“What are we going to do?” asked Kenna. She glanced over her shoulder, a flare of panic breaking through her elation. The Joker might follow them. It was impossible to know if he would or wouldn’t.

Instead of answering Batman snatched something off his utility belt, holding it up to reveal what looked like a small gun. He bent down level with the roof and shot it, a black chord shooting out with a puff and a whir. Kenna watched with wide eyes as it attached on the tall building, Batman attaching the gun to the roof and slipping something else from his belt onto his glove.

“Hold on tight.” said the gruffest voice Kenna had ever heard, quickly followed by Batman’s arm crushing Kenna to his chest.

Kenna watched as Batman grabbed onto the line with the thing in his hand. She started to ask ‘what are you doing?’, but all that came out was ‘wha--’ before it was replaced with a bloodcurdling scream.

Batman stepped off the roof, falling into open air and causing Kenna’s stomach to tighten almost unbearably. Her fingers clutched at whatever they could find purchase on, her feet flailing in the air. Batman was holding her tightly with his free hand, but Kenna was sure that any moment she would come in contact with the street.

Even thought she knew it was a bad idea Kenna peered down, her hands tightening even more. The cars were whizzing around like usual, only now they looked like death machines with headlights. Kenna could see herself dropping, landing on a car and dying on impact. She tried desperately to get her legs up to hold onto Batman as well, but they were restricted by the dress. When she moved her eyes up again to try and forget how far below her the street was Kenna saw Batman’s face, set in a grimace of concentration, his hand unwavering on the zip line.

“Cover your eyes.” barked the voice like rocks on sandpaper.

Kenna couldn’t make her hands move, so she hid her face in Batman’s shoulder. It was hard, just like every part of him, covered in smooth black armor. She clenched her eyes shut and waited, sure that an impact was coming. They were flying right at a building, after all. And it did come about three seconds later, a loud crash as Batman and Kenna shattered a window and rolled inside.

The air was forced out of Kenna’s lungs, her eyes opening to see the dark ceiling of what appeared to be a floor of an office building. Batman was still holding her to his body, having used his body to take the brunt of the fall. He grunted when Kenna put her hands on his chest to push herself up, most of her weight sitting on his thighs. She winced, looking around to find a good place to stand, but there was glass everywhere and her feet were bare. Before she could start apologizing Batman sat up, standing up and lifting Kenna simultaneously so her feet wouldn’t hit the ground.

“Thank you.” said Kenna a bit breathlessly as Batman walked a few feet and set her down safely away from the shards.

He didn’t respond, glancing over his shoulder out the destroyed window. Kenna peered around his hulking form to do the same, for some reason expecting to see The Joker standing on the rooftop they’d been on previously. But there was nothing. Her heart leapt into her throat.

“I can’t believe it.” her voice said, but it felt distant. Kenna knew that a huge smile was growing on her face. “Ha!…Ha, ha!”

She broke down into laughter, bending over as if to help it spill out. Free, free, free!. The word kept repeating in her head, loud and jubilant and away from that lunatic at long last. It had worked. Kenna couldn’t decide for sure if it was shock or relief that was causing the laughter. Maybe the mixture of both. She could go wherever she wanted again, she could listen to music in her apartment, she could see her mother and…God, her mother!

Just as quickly as the laughter came it was gone. “The detonator!”

“I have it.” Batman plucked it off his belt, ripping off the back and tearing the wires. He then dropped it to the ground, crushing it under his foot.

Kenna looked down at the pieces. “I can’t believe I forgot about it. That was the whole…wait a moment.” her eyes snapped up to Batman’s face. She looked into his eyes and then his lips, the only parts revealed by the bat-eared mask.

And in the most inopportune moment it clicked. Kenna should have been worrying about The Joker searching for her, the Gotham police doing the same, her mother and Alan fretting over her safety, but all she could do was gape at the masked man in front of her. His green eyes narrowed slightly, waiting for her to say something.

“Bruce.” she said the name uncertainly, watching his reaction.

His lips parted minutely, but that was enough. Kenna swallowed noisily in the silence. “I…How else would Batman know? He wasn’t in the bathroom. It’s you…”

“Kenna, I --” he started to respond, and it was only Bruce’s voice without the roughness, but a sound starting in the distance made them both start and look to the window.

Police sirens. They would be there any minute. Batman (er, Bruce thought Kenna) spun around and Kenna realized he was going to leave. Her pulse rocketed.

“No, they can’t find me like this!” she shouted, effectively stopping Bruce.

He looked over his shoulder at her, one hand braced on the window frame. “Why?”

“They’ll arrest me. Please!” sweat erupted on her forehead, causing her to notice for the first time that her wig had come off at some point.

He seemed to debate with himself for a moment, but the police were two minutes away at the absolute longest. Kenna gasped as he grabbed her wrist and ran down the hall. Her mind went back to all the times The Joker had pulled her that way, but it had never been as gentle. The strong fingers barely dug into her skin, mostly using the hold to help her keep up with him.

Bruce kicked open the door to the stairs, peering down over the railing at just how many flights they would have to go down. He cursed under his breath, then snapped his face around to look back down the hallway as the door shut.

“Wait here.” he said to Kenna, striding in the direction they’d come from.

She seized onto the door, holding it open and watching with anxious eyes as Bruce pushed the button to call the elevator. She didn’t honestly think he planned on taking it, they wouldn’t reach the bottom before the cops showed up. When it came Bruce fiddled with something else from his belt and threw it inside, leaning in briefly to press the ‘L’ for lobby before ducking back out.

“Start down!”

Kenna let go of the door immediately and ran down the stairs, her feet making little slaps on the cold concrete. She felt like crying in panic, knowing that it could only be moments before the police arrived. Bruce was right on her heels, quickly passing her, his long cape billowing as he raced down the stairs three at a time. Kenna wondered briefly if he would leave her, but then he was slowing and looking back with a grimace.

“Can you go faster? I bought us some time, but only a little.”

She shook her head, aware that he didn’t mean to be rude. He was as stressed as her. “Going as quick as I can.”

“Get on my back.”

Kenna kept running, but furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you kidding?”

Apparently he wasn’t, because Kenna had to purse her lips so a shocked scream wouldn’t erupt as Bruce grabbed her arms and pulled her onto his back. She held on to him desperately for the second time that night, beginning to feel a bit like a damsel in distress, not looking as Bruce set the same brutal pace as before. She didn’t want to see when her weight came to be too much and they tumbled down the stairs. But his legs didn’t give out. He just kept going.

In moments they were on the bottom level, faced with two different doors. One wasn’t labeled and surely led into the lobby, and the other was an exit. Kenna slid off Bruce’s back, landing a bit heavily and watching as he opened the exit door and held it for her.

Kenna followed him to where a sleek black car was hidden in an alley, not saying anything until she was in the passenger seat.

“I think we have a lot to talk about.”

Bruce started the car. The engine was nearly silent. “I agree.”

So he drove them to the newly rebuilt Wayne Manor.