Amusement Mile was dark and damp as Batman strode through the premises. He had just received an envelope having a replica of the park's ticket with a small note bearing the Jester's symbol and a line scribbled in that ominously familiar cursive: "With compliments, Joker."

That moment he had known that Joker was using the park as the final stage for his whole performance that he had put together piece by piece in all those weeks he had been out of Arkham with no one else having an inkling about it.

Even though the park seemed completely abandoned, puddles littering the concrete paved flooring wherever there were chucks of pavers missing and darkness engulfing the area, still Batman could sense an unmistakable scent of horror lurking in the place.

And it was to no surprise since the Joker was capable of inducing the worst of horrors. By the ticket and all the events that had happened so far, he could clearly guess that the Joker was up to something far more dangerous than any of his stunts he had pulled earlier.

That once instead of targeting innocent people and other citizens to gain the attention of Batman and Commissioner Gordon, he had struck right at them.

"He said he wants to prove a point," Barbara's trembling voice rang in his ears again and he quickened his pace, not able to shut out the tremor in her tone and the distress on her features when she had said those words and fainted right after.

He had to get Jim Gordon free from Joker's clutches, he could not let another life be lost due to the personal enmity that existed between him and the clown maniac.

The silence around him was unnerving and then his eyes fell on a row of cages, noticing that one of them housed a man with his head dropped on his knees and body shivering from fear or cold. He recognized the shade of greying hair as he approached and quickly tore open the steel bars of the cage, "Jim?"

Jim Gordon almost fell out and he had to hold him by the arms to keep him steady. His eyes were lifelessly dim but soon as he saw it was Batman in front of him, his eyes widened in alarm and his grip tightened on the vigilante.

"Barbara... He shot Barbara..."

"She's at the hospital," Batman replied, "the GCPD is right behind, you must go back with them."

His tone was firm and decisive though Gordon had noticed a streak of rage behind his apparently composed demeanor. And that sort of rage emanating from him could only mean one thing.

Joker had succeeded in pushing him to the limits and that was not going to end well for either of them.

"Batman... You have to show him our way works," even then Jim Gordon could not deviate from the inbred morals of justice and law. Despite the fact that the Joker had surpassed all means of just judgement, still the Commissioner was not willing to inflict the sort of punishment he truly deserved, "you must not kill him... You can not..."

Batman gave no reply as he turned towards the massive iron gate that had lit up immediately, a jester's face embossed on its metal structure.

No one more than Batman would have thought about the fine line between justice and law. The law stated that it was murder to kill another human being but justice on the other hand would be to take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and thus a life for a life.

By that notion Joker should have been killed thousands of times for all those lives he took. And then there was no knowing how many lives he would take if he was not put down then and there. How many more people could fall prey to his manic massacres, how many more innocents would suffer at his deathly jests?

It could be anyone and everyone. It could be people Bruce Wayne had little to no connection with, just like the citizens that were found dead in the sewers with grins cut up on their faces. Or it could be people closer to him than his own heartbeat. Richard, Alfred, hell it could even be Jason.

Jason who was young and brilliant, full to the brim with life and ambition. Yet the thought of him being targeted by the Joker as his next victim was too hard to bear.

He could not let that happen, Joker had to be stopped even if he would have to face the consequences by himself later on.

"Batman!"

But Jim's words fell on deaf ears as Batman proceeded towards the gate that had parted like the jaws of a menacing predator; gradual but threatening. Deep inside that tunnel laid the final act of Joker's horrendous theater, a final standup that he had designed especially for Batman.

The sirens could be heard in the distance and Jim knew the GCPD had reached Amusement Mile, the red of those sirens gleaming in the dark night. And when Jim turned back towards the gate, Batman had long disappeared inside its vast tunnel of terrors.

Deep down, Jim knew nothing was going to end well. He had worked with Batman for too long now to be completely sure of his mannerisms and eccentric behavior. But none of his previous encounters with him could match the rage he had envisioned in him just then.

"Commissioner Gordon!" Officer Thomson's voice shook him out of his reverie and right next moment he felt a warm jacket draped over him. He recognized the faces from his workplace but his mind was no different from an incoherent mess, thoughts divided between what had happened and what was about to happen.

But then he had no idea how Barbara was and Batman hadn't exactly told him her condition, merely stating that she was at the hospital. So despite the fact that he knew something terrible was about to happen at Amusement Mile for the Joker had not yet proved his point completely, he asked Officer Thomson to take him to the hospital instead.

He had to be beside his daughter because he knew she had been through too much in just that span of one night. 

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