Chapter 19

BRUCE WAYNE

Life had been very exhausting and complicated for Bruce over the last few weeks. Leading a double life was not all it was made out to be, and it was beginning to take a toll on him.

He had spent his night scouring through the city' searching for Ducard and any remnant of his men, yet had found nothing. Thomas tried his own hand at trying to locate the man, yet he failed to bring up anything.

It was as if they had vanished into thin air, yet he could feel the invisible tension build up, and felt that something big was about to happen. Something very big. And Thomas agreed with him.

So, after a whole night of trying to find a trace of the League, he found himself awake at noon, with the Sun already past its peak in the sky. And then, as he walked down the stairs towards the stairs, he stilled as he heard the all too familiar voice of Rachel Dawes.

"I cannot believe you hid it from me for all this time," he heard her speaking rather animatedly as she sat beside Thomas's girlfriend. A topic they had yet to discuss.

Yet it didn't matter to him at the moment, for he suddenly recalled just what Today was the day he was supposed to go out with her, and as his eyes raced to the clock on the wall, he realized that he had messed up.

And then he watched her turn too, and the smile on her face dimmed as he entered the kitchen, trying to smile.

"Hello, there," he said as he greeted her, and even with her response, he could tell that it was different; instead of the usual warmth-filled and caring greeting, what he received was a distant smile.

And his heart thumped in his chest as he saw that before he turned to face Selina Kyle.

"So, I believe you have met Thomas's girlfriend," he tried to lighten the mood, yet he didn't miss how Rachel continued to look at him with a complicated gaze. She seemed rather dressed up, and he knew that he had messed up.

"Yes, I have, and she is even more lovely than Thomas made her out to be," she said as she squeezed the brunette's hand.

Selina and his eyes met, and the brunette evaded his gaze as she smiled at Rachel.

"Indeed, she is. Now, what brings you to the manor today?" he questioned despite knowing exactly why she was there, and then he saw her lips thin before she turned to face the girl by her side as she told her.

"Could you give us a minute, please, Selina?" she requested, and the brunette looked over at them as she stood up and left with a simple.

"Of course," and with that, she walked out of the kitchen, leaving him alone with Rachel, who turned to face him with a complicated expression.

And he finally noticed the today's paper placed in front of her, with his own picture splattered on the front.

"Bruce," she began, and her voice was sad rather than angry, and it hurt him more; he would have preferred it if she had been angry.

"What is going on with you?" she questioned rather hesitantly as she slid forward the paper, and he gulped down as he sat down beside her.

"What do you mean?" he tried to wave it away, yet he knew exactly what she was talking about.

She saw through him as she cut in rather sharply.

"Don't play with me, Bruce. You and I both know what I am talking about," she said as she slid forward the paper.

And he glanced at the headline.

BILLIONAIRE BRUCE WAYNE BUYS A WHOLE HOTEL FOR HIS EUROPEAN FLINGS!
by Marco Phenex

And besides, it was a picture of him with two European models in his arms, and he gulped down as he spoke up, not knowing what to say.

"Say something, Bruce…." Rachel's voice cut in and he looked up to find her staring at him.

"….anything!" she finished, and he nodded as he began.

"You know, it's just a play. A fugazi, a persona that I have adopted… for the um. Company, you see," he tried to reason out, evading the real reason.

"Is it?" she cut in, as her eyes narrowed.

"Of course it is," he said as she held her hands, yet she pulled them back, breaking his heart as she continued.

"Because it feels to me more and more that instead of that, this whole thing is a lie," she added, and he didn't know what to say as Rachel looked him in the eye.

"Of course it is not," he cut in.

"Then where were you, Bruce? Where were you while I waited for you in that hotel for hours?" she cut in, and he could feel the hurt, anger, and frustration in her tone.

"I…" he was about to lie yet knew that it wouldn't work. Not with her, not now.

"It escaped my mind," he answered as he glanced down.

"But I will make it up to y…."

"There is no need for that," she said as she wiped the water from her eyes and stood up, pushing back the stool.

"Rachel!" he tried to stop her, but she evaded his hand.

"I cannot take this any further, Bruce. Not like this," she said as she sniffed, and it took all his willpower not to just spill his secret to her, to unburden himself in front of her.

"Rachel, please. Just give me a chance. One chance," he pleaded as her face flushed.

"Then tell me the real reason you are doing this," she said as she pointed towards the paper.

"I told you it's for the company…."

And she shook her head as she stepped back, halting him mid-sentence.

"A lie again," she cut in, and he looked down, not knowing what to do.

"I had thought there was always something more between us," she began as she her eyes watered up, and she gave him a broken smile.

"But now I think it was just my delusion," she said, and his heart broke as she walked out of the kitchen.

"Have a good day, Bruce."

And with that, she was gone, leaving him all alone, in the kitchen.

"You could have told her, you know," a voice cut in, and he frowned as he looked up and found Thomas's girlfriend standing there leaning against the wall, biting on an apple.

"Told her about what?" he questioned with a sharp tone.

And she looked at him, like he as some idiot.

"Told her about your little night crusading activities," she cut in, and he perked up at those words.

"How do you know?" he questioned, not believing that Thomas would have told her his secret.

"I can recognize Thomas's work from a mile away, and that suit of yours was an easy tell, though there were a hundred other things besides that as well," she cut in, and he narrowed his gaze.

"And is Thomas aware of your own late-night strolls, Miss Kyle?" he questioned threateningly.

"Of course he is," she replied, and he was surprised by the answer.

"Thomas knows everything about me; he even designed my own suit," she replied, and he frowned.

"Though we are not dealing with me, we are talking about you and your obvious infatuation with our assistant DA," she said as she took another bite of the apple, and he shook his head.

"This all is too dangerous, and too many people know already. I cannot involve her in this," he argued, his own heart breaking at those words.

"And even if I tell her, she will not take all this lightly. For no matter what one may say, what I am doing is not right,….

".. But it is necessary..." she cut in before adding on, "…and as you said, too many people know already. What's one more?" she argued, and he gritted his teeth as she picked up something from the table, and he recognized it for what it was.

Rachel's phone.

"Go after her and tell her."

She said once again, and he thought of her words as his mind and heart clashed inside him.

"Don't take such a decision for both of yourselves. Let her decide for her own," she argued, and he sighed as he picked up the phone, his mind made up.

"Thank you," he said to the Brunette as he rushed out of the kitchen, yet he found no trace of Rachel's car outside.

He was still in his trousers and would need to change.

"Alfred!" he called out, surprised that the butler was missing.

"Alfred's not here," Kyle's voice cut in from the side.

"He is gone to pick up Helena from her school," she told him, and he nodded as he rushed up the stairs heading for his room.

Yet, despite his haste, he would be too late.

Maybe too late.

0000

THOMAS WAYNE

Thomas Wayne sat in his office, tired and lethargic from all the work he had on his plate. The actions of the League of Shadow, targeting Helena, had been somewhat of a surprise to him, and Selina had highlighted that he had underestimated them and their drive and that changes needed to be made.

He was always aware of the dangers posed by this world, even if all these years later, he could recall a few of them. So, he had made several plans over the years, yet now they were being hosted up, and hence his exhaustion as he sat in his office trying to find the League's hideout in Gotham City.

The Wayne phone had launched recently and wasn't still widespread, yet even still, the data he was harvesting from those devices was substantial, yet for some odd reason, there was little to no trace of them in Gotham. And this bugged him quite a lot.

They were planning something. Something big. The vanishing of Crane a few days ago was just one more sign that Ducard hadn't given up on his plans to reform this city.

And he had to stop it at all costs.

And the person standing opposite to him was the key to that. Her red hair was tied in a simple bun, a white coat draped over her red sweater, and the head and sole member of Wayne Enterprises Botanical and Toxicology division sat in front of him, staring at him with wide eyes.

"You want me to do what?" she questioned in a perplexed tone as he rubbed his eyes, feeling the exhaustion catching up as he repeated.

"I want you to work out a plan for mass dissemination of the antidote you have produced," he replied and saw her eyes narrow as she looked at him in a queasy manner. She looked him over, her eyes examining his disheveled state.

"Are you fine, Thomas? And why would you want me to work out a plan like that?" she questioned worriedly and cautiously.

He sighed as he thought of what to say and then decided to be honest about it.

"Because I suspect someone is planning on using that poison on our city," he replied, his eyes still lingering on the screens to his side, showing various surveillance feeds showing movements across the entire city as he tried to root out Ducard and his men.

"What!" she nearly shrieked at his words.

"Who! We need to tell the authorities! And how do you even know that!" she questioned in a single breath, panicking, and he turned to face her, as he replied.

"I cannot answer the who part, and as for the authorities, I have conveyed my concern to them, but we both are well aware of the incompetence of our government, so I would feel much comfortable if we were prepared," he told her and she nodded gulping down nervously.

"Yeah, me too," and he nodded.

"So, any ideas how we can do this?" he questioned, trying to pick her mind, for much like him, Ducard was now in need of a method of dispensation of this poison after he had destroyed the microwave emitter, and maybe bouncing ideas off of her would given him an insight.

She seemed to think for a moment or so, before she began.

"We could have it distributed through medics, and I could make a spray out of it. We could dump it into the water supply as a last resort…" and on and on she went listing out plans and plans, for say what you will about the future poison Ivy, she was quite smart.

Yet he had thought of them all until she finished.

"… or we could simply seed the clouds with it, the weather is appropriate enough for it."

And he perked up at that, his mind racing as an idea clicked inside his head.

"Cloud seeding!" he said as he leaned forward and began to reprogram the search parameters.

Seeding. And then he recalled Falcone's words. Planes.

It all clicked together, and he cursed himself for not seeing it earlier, and there it was on his screen, a heatmap of all the public and private runways in and around the city.

And just as he was running over them, a call came for him.

A call from Bruce.

He picked it up.

"They have Rachel! Thomas, They have Rachel!" he stilled at those words, and he could tell Bruce was affected as well.

His eyes went over the runways and other structures, and he noticed the large number of small planes parked outside one.

"I might have an idea where she may," he said as he sent the coordination to his brother, and just as he did, a bright light from the side interrupted him as Palmella shrieked.

"THOMASS!"

BOOOM!

0000

A very special bike raced down the streets of Gotham, the caped crusader rushing towards the location he had received, as a massive explosion rocks the very foundation of Gotham City. He looked up and found the Wayne Tower lit in flames as an emergency was announced.

'A plane has struck Wayne Tower'

0000

Read ahead and support me on Patreon. Your support makes it possible for me to write these stories. So, if possible, have a look and consider supporting me. It would help me out a lot.

www.Patreon.com/Drkest

Have a cool day!