Dick walked around the home of their target and said there was nothing to worry about.
"Maybe we should go to Arkham for a visit." He suggested eagerly, "Since Xiao Chou got us in, maybe he knows how to get out."
His idea actually made sense. But Moses knew that Xiao Chou was not in Arkham at all. If he did not deliberately leave clues, it would be difficult for other criminals to know his purpose. In addition, he knew very well that Dick did not want to catch Xiao Chou at all - this was not the real world, and no innocent people would be hurt if Xiao Chou was allowed to wander around outside. In this case, wouldn't it be better to let him not get any attention at all?
"Have you ever thought about it?" At this point, it doesn't matter whether to speak or not. Batman said slowly, "Since Xiao Chou asked us... ahem, mainly me, to come here to meet him, what is the purpose?"
The subject of this sentence is Xiao Chou in the real world.
He went to great lengths to kidnap Harvey Dent, but instead of causing trouble in Gotham, he went all the way to SHIELD to lead Batman into a trap. Wouldn't it be ridiculous if he gained nothing?
Xiao Chou never entertains others, he only entertains himself. So Moses deduced that no matter what Joker wants to achieve, the key lies in Xiao Chou in another world.
"I don't know." Nightwing said worriedly, "I suspect he wanted you to die of pneumonia."
“…”
Moses gave up, thinking Dick was the one with the fever.
Xiao Chou didn't know where he was, but Catwoman came to him on her own.
"Oh my god." Catwoman has always lived in Gotan, so she is the only outsider with a physical body besides Batman. The tall woman walked to Moses with a cat-like step, with a strange and sympathetic expression on her face, "What's wrong with you recently? Every time I see you, you are more ferocious than the last time, just like a black cat I adopted some time ago. That little guy fights with the wild dogs in Gotan every day, and he won't let anyone touch him after he is injured."
She could see Dick and Dick could see her.
Nightwing suddenly cleared his throat and pointed his finger at his throat, signaling Catwoman to stop.
The cat girl glanced at him, which meant something like: Isn't he just mad at you?
Batman was in no mood to care about their eye-to-eye dispute, and asked coldly, "You, ahem, what did you find out?"
Perhaps because she was thinking of the cat, the cat girl was in a good mood. "I understand your attitude during your illness, but I'm here to help." She adjusted her eye mask and said with emotion, "Guess what I found out? We are quite famous in this temple, and many people think we are a couple."
"..." With a headache and a fishy-sweet taste gradually mixed with the itching in his throat, it rushed down his throat to his brain nerves. Moses restrained himself from rubbing his temples and said, "Let's get to the point."
"The point is that everyone says that we used to play tricks on each other that you never wanted to admit. But then..." She hesitated, trying to observe Batman's expression, but saw nothing, so she continued, "After Robin was killed by Chou, Batman became more and more withdrawn and cold, and then the rumor gradually became that you and I broke up."
The young man frowned quickly, then relaxed his brows before anyone noticed. Dick said, "So the legend goes that you dumped him or he dumped you?"
Catwoman: "Of course I dumped him."
Batman understood that they were trying to make something that they had no impression of having happened but was obviously not very pleasant seem calm.
But perhaps the pale joke only makes the tragedy seem more ridiculous.
Alfred in this world has not spoken for a long time. Perhaps in his eyes, this conversation itself is illogical. Moses wanted to laugh, but before he could laugh, he coughed. The butler is always right. He bent down and tried his best to endure. Even Batman should drink more hot water when he has a cold or fever, otherwise everyone will know that you have pneumonia.
"Catwoman." After finally keeping his voice down, he straightened up and looked into Catwoman's black eyes. "Since you have a good relationship with Red Hood, please do me another favor."
Under the eaves where they stood, several children were holding Christmas wreaths and running away happily under the light of colorful fairy lights. The sound of their crunching footsteps echoed on the crystal snow.
At this moment, Catwoman - Selina, didn't know what moved her.
She had originally laughed off the rumors from all sorts of people. No matter how ambiguous she was, it was just a pretext to tease Batman, a little entertainment she had used to vent her resentment of being chased for several nights. But just now, for a moment, the thought flashed through Catwoman's mind that maybe in some parallel world, her relationship with Batman was really good. Not so distant, nor so stiff and polite.
The Batman in the parallel world is getting older, and because of the departure of his companions, he is gradually drifting away from the Catwoman here. They had a relaxed and happy past, and they don't know whether they will have a hopeful future.
What about the Batman she knew? Sometimes he looked young, and sometimes he looked like an old man who had seen a lot and was about to die. They had met not too late, but it seemed like they had missed a lot.
Cats love secrets.
Batman is the secret itself.
"I promise you," Selina said softly, "I will bring him to you in one piece."
She threw away the whip, hung on the snow-covered treetop, and disappeared lightly from the sight of the remaining two people.
"What's going on?" Dick watched her walk away, then turned back and said, "I've never had such an easy time chasing girls. She almost fell in love with you before you even opened your mouth."
"She likes puzzles, not me."
"Catwoman didn't chase the Whisperer. Bruce Wayne is loved by everyone, why can't Batman be loved by everyone?"
Moses was almost amused by him. Is this the same thing?
"You go find Red Hood too." He spoke faster between coughs. "We'll meet around here after the Christmas bells ring."
Dick's departure seemed to have taken away the last bit of warmth around him. When Moses first hooked the gargoyle with his claws, his fingers didn't hold the beam firmly, and he fell from the air unsteadily. He fell heavily into the muddy water on the shady side, and numb pain spread up from his spine, but this was not a big problem - he was still in a good mood to analyze it. Excluding the influence of high fever, this injury was no more than a child's knee injury when he fell down due to unsteady walking.
The coolness of the ground neutralized the heat in his body, and the man lay on the ground, not wanting to get up for the time being.
The butler's voice came: "Master." His tone was like he was comforting a child, with a nasal tone, "Master Dick is right, you should be more tolerant of Catwoman and yourself."
Moses belatedly asked him, "Did you hear Nightwing's voice?"
"I can't, sir. But I can imagine what he would say."
Before the housekeeper could finish his words, there was a sudden sound of tap dance-like footsteps at the end of the cobblestone road.
Moses' heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously turned off the communication channel as he stood up.
Half a second later, the Batmobile beside him burst into flames, like an overly expensive bonfire on Christmas Eve. The Batcape suddenly opened to block the impact, but it couldn't prevent its owner from being pushed several meters away and coming into close contact with the wall again.
A certain realization came to Moses' mind: this was the 'opportunity' he had been waiting for. The appearance of Xiao Chou would be a turning point in this virtual world. As long as things went on reasonably, he would be able to figure out what the Joker in the real world wanted to know, and - where that door was.
Therefore, although he could still stand up, he just slumped down and did not move due to the fatigue and pain in his body. Xiao Chou came over, grabbed his cloak, and walked forward humming a song as if dragging a sack.
"Catwoman broke into the police station's file room." After a while, Xiao Chou suddenly broke the silence, his mouth curled up strangely, "Do you know about this, Bat?"
The shadow behind him did not answer him, only the rustling sound of it rubbing against the snow.
"Huh, hahahahahaha, I guess you don't know that she searched through most of the archives, but only took away Two-Face's copy. Do you still remember him? In your hateful memory full of blood and fire, you didn't leave any room for your old friend?" He turned his head exaggeratedly and looked around, "No one can hear me talking, what a pity, then what's the point of me saying that Two-Face is Harvey Dent?"
The moonlight finally broke through the clouds and shone through the dead branches on the treetops. Moses felt that his cold was getting worse. His vision was blurry, but he actually saw a hint of deep red in between.
When I looked over again, I saw only yellow dead leaves trembling in the wind and huddled on the branches.
Could it be that I am really hallucinating? He tried to stay awake, and by the time he connected the name Two-Face, which sounded a bit unusual, with 'Harvey Dent', Xiao Chou had already continued to amuse himself.
"I still remember the grand occasion when you took the blame for Two-Face." He chuckled and raised his head. "'Holiday Killer', it happened many years ago, do you remember? The executioner who claimed to be righteous and massacred gangsters everywhere, in the end you and Gordon were not determined to connect him with poor Attorney Dent. Who made you and him friends? Who made you two the iron triangle of Gotan? Hahahaha, but disaster is like the smile on my face, never absent! Dent was splashed with sulfuric acid in the court and became Two-Face - Two-Face, symmetrical, this name is really interesting. But Chou is still more perfect than him. What do you say, little bat? Do you think my face is much more handsome than his? This is all thanks to you, I will always remember this."
There were fewer and fewer houses around them, and the scenery became increasingly desolate; they seemed to be heading towards an abyss.
"And then they put the blame on you." Xiao Chou's voice gradually lowered, almost whispering, "Dent is still the 'golden boy' of Gotham City, a hero who sacrificed for justice. What about you? Batman? Ah... time has passed too fast, and you are almost getting old in the blink of an eye. Do you still remember what you thought when you were full of hope? What made you become what you are now, Gotham, or yourself?"
He's trying to stir up anger or resentment in me, Moses thought calmly. But unfortunately for Chou, the Batman he was talking to had no memory of this.
"I can't understand why Catwoman stole Harvey Dent's files. Did she find out something that Chou doesn't know? Never mind. It doesn't matter. Look, Catwoman left you behind, and I didn't bring Harley with me. Now it's just the two of us. Let's talk, Bat. Do you have to let me play a one-man show? I didn't want to speak, but if even Chou doesn't speak, is the whole world going to be silent?"
He pulled hard and threw Batman and his cape into the snow pile in front of him.
The full moon peeked out again, shining its cold light equally on Batman and his opponent. There were stone tablets and wild grass all around - this was a cemetery.
"I hate your expression, as if you don't care about anything, but we both know that's not true." Xiao Chou squatted not far in front of Moses, looking at the man leaning against the tombstone, "In that case, let me tell you something that can make people laugh. It's Christmas Eve, let me think... Well, how about Jason Todd? It's a good name. Hahahaha! It can always arouse your interest, right, bat?"
Red Hood, who was hiding more than ten meters away - mainly to avoid Batman's sight, almost fell from the tree.
"Be careful." Catwoman said softly. She was holding the Two-Face file that was said to have been stolen from the police archives. Her eyes were fierce. "You should never underestimate Bats, even if he has a high fever due to inflammation."
Nightwing looked embarrassed and whispered, "Why do we have to eavesdrop instead of rescuing Batman first?"
"Do you think he'll let the little clumsy guy do what he wants? Going out now might ruin Bat's plan. Besides, they haven't started fighting yet."
As for Red Hood, who was reluctant about this activity just now, he quickly changed his mind after hearing Chou utter the name: "Pfft."
Nightwing: “…”
"Calm down, kid." Catwoman put her palm on his shoulder. "We are all worried about him, but." She gritted her teeth, savoring the unwillingness in her heart, "You know him and what kind of person he is. I heard Tolstoy say something. What did he say? 'Such a person will feel as if others are always deliberately touching his painful place'..."
She paused, and the next person to speak was Jason: "'The reason for this feeling is that only the painful part can feel others touching him.'" Facing Nightwing's astonished gaze, the boy snorted coldly, "Tolstoy's "Resurrection", I just read it two days ago. Catwoman is right, this is our only chance to figure out the situation, otherwise do you think he will tell you the truth?"
Some wounds have no chance of healing until they are exposed to the light of day.
The two people in the cemetery were still confronting each other.
It's too late.
Assuming Nightwing and Catwoman find Red Hood and return to the place they agreed on, they will find the missing Batman and a scrapped Batmobile. If they have a better observation ability, they will also find broken eaves, traces of falling in the mud and water, etc. After that, there is an 80% chance that a group of panicked people will follow the snow traces left by Clowney into the cemetery.
Moses had some idea of the consequences of his current external situation and some of the distorted remarks that Xiao Chou was about to say.
In an emergency, Batman doesn't think he has a problem, but he still wants to resolve it as soon as possible before all kinds of arguments and accusations that may erupt with good intentions come.
"Your purpose." The young man who had been silent finally spoke. His throat was dry and hoarse, and his original voice could not be heard even without him deliberately changing it.
Xiao Chou's eyes widened with excitement: "Aha, I knew it! Is it because of him? You are like a dead man now, just after I killed that Robin bird? Too boring, what else could my purpose be, Bat." He laughed, pushed open the coffin lid beside him, and patted the wooden edge as if to ask for credit, "Either you killed me, or I killed you. Otherwise, we will have to be entangled like this forever..."
On the treetops, Red Hood's breathing became more rapid again. Catwoman looked at him thoughtfully and said nothing more. Nightwing thought of the red cape that appeared in the Batcave in this world.
Jason was actually a little confused. He suspected that he had misheard, but after analyzing the logic of the little joke again, he still felt that he had understood it correctly.
The deep scar on Batman's resume that the Arkham prisoners talked about after dinner was himself.
Red Hood considered many candidates and screened all the places Batman had been in his mind, but he didn't consider this one.
Because, how is it possible?
If it weren't for this accident, they would have had almost no intersection. The look Batman gave him in the gang warehouse was still lingering in his memory, and the actions of the Gotan vigilante revealed an implicit rejection and defense - Jason almost thought Batman didn't like him, if Nightwing hadn't said that his partner had always been concerned about his safety.
The boy's eyes unconsciously fell on the cat girl. The woman who had always been good at finding a balance between various situations shook her head at him, with a look of pity, but he didn't know who she was talking to.
"Resurrection," she mouthed, the title of the novel they had just discussed. Then she looked over to where Batman was.
Jason's heart beat heavily.
The little clown below said, "Let's make a choice, Bat. I know how to resurrect the dead and make the living immortal. Now you have this opportunity." He stood up, looking down, his mouth was bright red, and the marks and wrinkles under his eyes were like flowing tears. "Or, I will bury you in a coffin."
"Batman shouldn't exist in this world. Think about me, Harvey, Robin, the basket of criminals in Arkham, and the old Commissioner Gordon and the stupid wanted order of the police department." He said, "You will only leave people with pain."
"Okay, I know this multiple-choice question is ridiculously simple! Everyone will choose the first option, which is simply substandard! Come on, Batman, let me see you, which side are you on? Hurry up! I've already carved the inscription for you!"
Next to Xiao Chou is a tombstone with the following words written in sloppy handwriting: 'Here lies a bat. He died as boringly as he could, and no one loved him'.
"Number two," said Batman.
"Okay! I knew you'd pick No.—wait, what?"
However, the result disappointed him.
Batman's eyes were too peaceful. Those shadows were still buried in him, as if they had merged into a part of the bat mask, but no one thought he couldn't come out.
When he figured this out, not even the paint on the ugly face reflected any color, and he lost his exaggerated sarcasm and became expressionless.
"This is impossible." He stroked his face and talked to himself, "Who did you see tonight? Who influenced you? Did you really have a fever and hallucinations, seeing ghosts from far away and from the past, and treating them as a part of reality? Your hope is so cheap?!" His emotions gradually became crazy, and his voice was high-pitched, almost roaring, "I took great pains to arrange everything now. If you die like this-"
'Bang--'
A sound similar to the collision of a frying pan and stones suddenly resounded through the night sky, startling a few birds foraging in the bushes.
After a burst of flapping wings, Catwoman, holding the iron shovel "borrowed" from the cemetery manager and just in intimate contact with the back of the head of the little ugly man, jumped in front of Moses - at this time he had already stood up with his hand on the tombstone - and said without any guilt: "I'm sorry, I stole your head. I saw you wanted to take out the bat dart, but I couldn't help it. He talked too much nonsense."
Moses brushed the snow off his shoulders, his fingertips feeling numb. He really felt like he had died once, Batman had sacrificed too much to figure out what Chou was thinking.
"How long have you been listening?"
Catwoman: “Five minutes.”
Red Hood: "I heard the tail end of your conversation a little over ten minutes ago, but I still don't understand it."
Nightwing: "...Red Hood is more reliable."
That means I have almost heard it all.
Moses sighed, the two children hunched their shoulders, and Catwoman looked at him angrily.
"We'll talk about this later." The man seemed to have no energy to even make a face, and said in a flat tone, "What do you think?"
silence.
After a while, Dick asked tentatively, "Is Xiao Chou really not normal? I apologize for ever believing what he said."
"What?" Red Hood immediately began to laugh at him, "You're going to believe Chou? He can't say anything. I don't even want to hear it."
"...He wants Batman to become another villain. He said that either he kills Batman or Batman kills him, the actual result is the same - the Batman of this world will never appear again." Moses dragged the topic back with difficulty. Fortunately, he didn't cough much now. Maybe the physical cooling on a snowy night (?) worked. "But that's too difficult. He tried many times but to no avail, so he chose another option: to make people immortal. If this is true and not his imagination, it can't be without cost. The multiple-choice question just now is his purpose, either life or death. He deliberately led the latter to be full of malice, so normal people would choose the first one."
"Indeed," Catwoman said. "I was almost tempted by what he said. But Batman chose the second option, didn't he? If you were so desperate as to want to go along with the quagmire of Gotham, you would choose the first option, pretending that you didn't notice the trap hidden in it, and maybe even find some excuses like having more time to do justice."
But Batman didn't. What's even more ridiculous is that Xiao Chou thinks it was Nightwing and Red Hood who gave the Dark Knight hope to hold the bottom line.
Don't you understand and hear?
Moses: “Almost.”
He looked down at the open coffin at his feet and the scattered tombstones beside it: "I think this should be the way out we are looking for."
"How do we do this?"
Moses consulted the system for advice, then gestured, "It's not difficult. Just let me lie down."
As soon as he finished speaking, the two minors visibly showed their rejection.
"Can't we do it the normal way?" Red Hood muttered. "Like, we stand the coffin upright and Batman stands in it?"
"..." Moses glanced at him subtly. This was an idea he had never thought of before, but, "No, I've seen the photo from SHIELD, maybe it's related to this. The Batman in that photo was buried in the soil."
Catwoman made a disgusted expression: "Damn, don't tell me we have to bury you again."
The man said indifferently: "If necessary."
In a distant city, Christmas bells rang, one after another, like an endless dream.
The four people in the cemetery looked at each other in silence for a long while.
Then Dick picked up the shovel that Catwoman had thrown aside and laughed dryly: "This thing is not in vain, right? It ranks among the top three useful props tonight."
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