You know, I should probably have an excuse for taking this long, but I really don't.

God I'm a horrible person.

But, Update?

Long chapter as a peace offering. This is 5000 words and better make you happy because it caused me SO MUCH PAIN.

GODS ABOVE MAKE ME WRITE AND NOT FAIL MY CLASSES BECAUSE FOREWENT DOING MY HOMEWORK FOR TAKING 7 HOURS AND 4 DAYS TO WRITE THIS. PLEASE. I BEG YOU

The worst thing about expecting something, is finding out just how wrong you really are.

I might not admit it to myself, or anyone else for that matter, but I can be wrong. Sometimes everything that comes out of my mouth is absolute bullshit. Me faking knowing everything to prove everyone else wrong. I do know things, facts that seem to stick into my head weather I like it or not. I know math and I can calculate the location of a falling object before it hits the ground. Cut through firewalls like butter. And all of those, the skills and facts, they come from countless timeless hours inside my own head. But sometimes it seems I never know enough.

The hardest is people, to understand them. I can grasp the facts of classical conditioning, of mental disorders and fleeting physiological trauma. Though, I never really seem to understand why something the way it is. It's like the forth dimension, Time-space. Some people can know it, know what in entails and what it is. But few people can really understand it. Visualize it and connect to it like its your own hand.

I am wrong about things though. I can remember that mitochondria is the power house of the cell and that Thomas Jefferson was the first secretary of state, but those are things that you read in a book. Those are things you remember, when you are seldom wrong. Making decisions, that's which door to go down, one leading to what you want, the other to your death. That's the sort of thing I'm always messing up, and I had the feeling I would pay for it when the time came.

I don't know why, but I expected all of my problems to be solved as we broke through the thin layer of concrete. That Dick would be there, finding some means of communication with Bruce. Perfectly unharmed wearing his trademark grin. Of course, as we've covered, there must be gods in the sky messing up our lives.

Theo rammed his elbow into the concrete, positioned awkwardly at the top of the rusted latter. It was dark inside the cavern-like sewer, but I could still see Clarisse's pinched expression due to the mistake of breathing through her nose. Theo repeated this action till he hissed in pain on contact with the thin layer of stone.

"Concrete is still concrete, Theo." I yelled up at him. He hung his head and breathed heavily through his mouth in exertion.

Just this once, I really hoped I was wrong about what we would see in there. What we would see throughout the facility. Death. Bodies painting the floor red and writhing teenagers strapped to chairs, fighting off the grief of seeing their friends torn apart. And most of all, I really hope that Dick hadn't ended up as a centerpiece.

No, he can't. He has a future, unlike me...

I turned my head to the side where tubing ran along the wall. It was screwed in half assed at best and was sealed with duct tape. I trudged over to it back through the fecal matter and climbed onto the pipe. It fell away with one well placed stomp to the side. I grinned and carried it back over the mixture of piss and shit with a strange sense of glee. Don't really know how a managed a smile while standing in shit.

"Use this." I shouted, throwing up the pipe as he turned his head. It took only a couple of blows for the concrete to start crumbling, falling off in dust and chunk. The hole plastered area fell away. I gave him a thumbs up, still grinning. Clarisse just sighed and blew a stray stand of hair out of her face.

And then I was climbing, desperately hoping that all that I knew was wrong, was false, lies, speculation. I wasn't wrong. Something inside me twisted and my breath caught.

It was the same setup as our room had been our room had been, body in the middle, three others circled around them. The only difference was that the body looked like it was burned to a crisp. They weren't as clam as we had been, and we weren't calm at all. The room was engulfed in yelling, they hadn't been able to see their entrance in the darkness.

I turned to Theo and put a finger to my lips. They didn't need to know we were here yet.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Someone choked out, I could make out a head of blond hair.

"You're the doctor Will, you tell me." Another voice spoke, it was strained and breathy.

"He can't be dead, not now. Not after all we've been through." His voice, Will, cracked.

"It's not your fault Will." The last person finally spoke. A girl.

"Yes it is Lou! I could've of saved him! You know I could've. If I had just been awake..." He trailed off.

"That's an if, the fault goes to the sadistic bastard who did this too him." The second guy spat. "I swear too you that if I ever get the chance, I'll blow his fucking head off."

I shook my head as I ducked behind the guy named Will's chair, silently examining the bounds wrapped around his hands. I sighed, giving myself away. I could see Will's back tense.

"The man who brought you here was and evil, fucked up clown. I, doubt you would be able to accomplish what many others have not." I spoke, suddenly self conscious of how high my voice sounded.

Will writhed.

"Who the hells there?" Lou demanded at the same time the other guy asked. "God, how old are you?"

I twisted the rope in my hands, pulling that strands through and untying it. Will arched his back and twisted.

"Calm down, would you." I shot out.

"What the hell are you doing?" He returned, still writhing in his bounds.

"Oh, just you know, Invading Checklasovokia. What do you think?" I snapped at him, untying the last knot.

"How the hell did you even get in here?" Lou shouted again, I deemed her the one who asks the important questions.

Will brought his wrists to his chest, messaging where the coarse rope had bit into his skin, leaving red indentations along his palm. He kicked his feet in an attempt to release the other bindings, making a frustrated growl.

"The sewer, if you must know." She looked at me like she was tired of my sarcasm already. "Wasn't pleasant."

It was Will that spoke up next, finally releasing his feet from the rope and was attempting to stand.

"What the hell is happening?" He sounded much calmer than before, but frustrated. I looked to the ground, lifting from the kneeling position I was sitting in and walking over to untie Lou.

"This is what happens when The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum, bodies drop faster than you can think 'RUN' and the next thing you know your being fucked over, roofied and kidnapped by people who think that it's smart to work for a psychopathic killer, when really, it's a high possibility that no one will be leaving this place alive." I looked up then, seeing the weight of what I said slouch their shoulders and cloud their eyes. I pursed my lips.

"Fun." The other guy said, voice simply soaked in sarcasm.

"Shut the fuck up Cecil!" Lou yelled.

Will didn't even react, he just collapsed back in his chair, giving up on the prospect of standing, and dropped his head in his hands.

I finally looked back at the silent viewers and found a pissed off Clarisse along a Theo with his hands resting in shallow pockets, shaking his head. Clarisse seemed like she wanted to murder me in more than seven different ways, each one more painful and traumatic than the last. She stalked into view and put her hands on her hips in front of me.

"Are you stupid or just socially inept! I would rather go back into the shit than walk through your social skills Percy." I looked down and bit my lips, not exactly ashamed. It wasn't my fault. She knelt down in front of Lou and made herself useful by undoing the rope around her feet. I'm pretty sure she muttered something akin to "No more talking to people for you" Under her breath.

"Who the fuck is this?" Lou groaned, head falling back against the chair.

"I'm Clarisse," She smiled. " And over there is Theo" She jabbed her thumb to the side. Theo was gyrating on the balls of his feet, taking a hand out of his pocket to do a small wave.

"Hi"

"We escaped our hell hole of a room, Percy over here finding a route through a toilet. But instead of leaving immediately and finding help, this dumbass decided that he should try and rescue everyone by himself." Not true, I sent a distress signal as soon as we were out of the room. "Us both being responsible adult like people, elected to follow and not have him kill himself."

I huffed indignantly.

"Wow, so your the 6 year old who goes to our school?" The other guy, Cecil, laughed.

"I'm 9." I growled.

"Are you sure?

"Keep it in mind that, as a very young minor, I wouldn't be tried in adult courts for murder. If I was, the maximum sentence I am unlikely to receive is 32 years." And nope, looked like he lost interest in everything I was saying 5 seconds ago .

"Your going to kill me?"

"I'm considering my options."

"No ones killing anyone!" Lou shouted.

We needed to get out of here, quickly, we didn't have time for this. The arguments, people could be dying and we were standing her like high school sweethearts that have been married for 30 years and have cheated in each other at least 16 times.

"Lets go, I'd rather not spend anymore time in this shit hole than I need to." I stalked toward the caved in concrete and started climbing down, not waiting for the rest of them, and wading through the shit again.

I felt like I was going to implode. Ill admit that I'm not that efficient at interacting with other human life forms, but hey, I'm nine and in the line of work that I'm planning on, talking to people is not that necessary. It didn't matter if I didn't have anything to talk about other than the philosophy of life, chance and percentage and what happened last on supernatural, I don't need people the way other people need people. Being alone to my thoughts is when everything changes and the caged animal inside likes make me think. It never felt like being alone was wrong, alone was my friend.

Thoughts don't hurt people, people hurt people. It was easier if he was just a ploy on the battlefield of his mind than being the ally or enemy of someone else's.

I looked down to the next sewer connection, it wasn't that far away. They followed behind me, teetering down the latter. grimacing at the sludge I was waist deep in.

"On down back where we came from is a service entrance, keep going and you'll make it to the downtown area. Ask for directions, go straight to the police station and walk briskly past any dark alleyways. Keep going, don't wait or stop, just go-"

"What are you talking about Percy?" Clarisse asked.

"No one else needs to get hurt, town should only be three miles away-"

"I'm coming." Will cut in.

"What-"

"I said I'm going." He took a shaky breath. "Those assholes killed my brother and I would very much like to beat an evil clown to death with his own crowbar."

"That's beside the point, no one else needs to get hurt-"

"Including you Percy, your nine years old and standing in a sewer trying to rescue people you didn't have the care to know. Tell me what the fuck gives you the right to be a fucking hero when you have it all set out for you-"

"Will-"

"Who did you have die? Who the fuck are you trying to avenge? What gives you the fucking right to tell me I don't need to get hurt when this things already killed the only thing I've ever had!?"

I cast my eyes down, biting my lip so hard that I could taste the iron in my mouth. I wanted to say something, tell him all I had lost and all of the shit that was riding on me fighting to save these people. Wanted to tell him just what a freak I was and how I could kill him right then in there and everyone would think it was a bad dream. I wanted to show just what he was saying and all of it would come falling out if I didn't bite my tongue so hard.

But I didn't, I turned my back and walked towards the opening in the ceiling.

"Don't ask what you don't want to know."

Then, silence.

"Are you coming or not?" I didn't wait for them to make up their minds.

_

The next room wasn't any better than the last.

In fact, worse.

Much worse.

I was silent through the process of breaking through the thin concrete layer, refusing myself the satisfaction of relishing my anger. Instead I stared at the shadowed brick wall on the other side on the sewer, hoping that whoever was in that room didn't have a slaughtered boy wonder sprawled across the floor. I couldn't get the image out of my brain, glassy eyes and no expression. cold hands, skin without color. I knew that it wouldn't happen, couldn't happen. That the future couldn't change, wouldn't change, hadn't changed from the way I saw it. Unless it could. Unless it did and Dick was on the aged stone floor with glassy eyes and cold pale skin. Dead.

No, he had a future. He had, he had life and he just couldn't be dead. Please don't be dead.

I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, exhaling the built up tension in my shoulders. Lou and Cecil had gladly ditched the joint like smart people who live in horror movies, but Will, the ever deepening thorn in my side had taken up the roll of standing on the other side of the latter, glaring at the ground like it was the one to kill his brother.

At least he was taking his anger out on inanimate objects and not me.

In less than a minuet, Theo had broke through the surface and pulled himself through the surface. I started climbing the latter with Clarisse following me, a lump in my throat. I pulled myself through the surface with the little upper body strength I had and rolled onto the ground not wanting to look at the scene. Until I did.

I breathed and closed my eyes. It's wasn't him, it was some poor girl that looked like she had half of her faced burned off by acid. Not dead. repeated in my head as the sweetest phrase that I had ever heard.

And then Clarisse screamed. My eyes shot open. Clarisse screamed, she hadn't even so much as shed a tear at the fact that she was drugged and placed into a room where a body lay in the center. Now she had screamed. It sounded so heartbroken, like a woman had been taken from her child.

She was running, chasing the last edges of rationality towards the girl in the center. She whimpered and fell to her knees, throwing herself over the stiff body. I heard her crying, sobbing. Breathing shakily and struggling not to let out any noises.

"Selina." It was chocked out with futile premises, as if the name would bring forth some kind of response.

Selina was dead, cold hard dead. Half of her face was burned by acid, reveling the inner lining her mouth, teeth and all. The side of the eye rotting inside her skull and half a head of her hair decayed and burned. Like the recreation of Two-Face on an innocent high school girl. Suddenly, I didn't want to look at them anymore. I didn't know her, didn't know most of everyone, but the expression of pure suffering was too much to take.

The rest of the people already looked dead on the inside. I didn't ask for their names as I told them travel down the sewer. I didn't care and neither did they. There were no objections and no sudden growing of consciousness. Will, Theo and I all watched in silence as Clarisse struggled not to feel what was impossible not to feel.

Then she wasn't, she stood up on shaky legs, back straightening and fists clenching. When she turned around, it wasn't misery on her face, not suffering, just pure unadulterated rage. She stalked past us, footfalls like thunder in her heavy combat boots.

"Let's go." She growled. and dropped back into the sewer.

We all deal with grief in different ways. Most try to suck it up and act like nothing was ever bothering them. Society, I find, would like us to be strong and get over it and continue on with our lives. Whether it be your pet goldfish or your mother. They expect death to be a short coming, a quick and go. That's not how it works, death is process, a feeling. It's drawn out by the people who never imagined how to live without you near them. Some deal with tears, a numbness in which you can't even think any more, and sometimes, it ends in anger.

-

We didn't get lucky another time. As lucky as you can get with a room full of people staring at a corpse in the middle of the floor. As soon as we entered the surface, there was a man with a gun pointed at me and Theo. I held up my hands and tried on my best scared little boy face. I was silently hoping that the others wouldn't follow as we stepped out and backed against the wall.

The gunman looked like your typical henchman. Dark brown hair lining a face with to stubby features, long thick nose and thin crusty lips. And it was Theo staring down the barrel of the pistol. I had created contingencies for these types of situations, maneuvers that could be executed as, none 100% effective, but then again nothing was.

"Look man," I began looking up at him with innocent eyes. "I just wanted to know where the bathroom is."

He hesitated for a moment.

"What?"

"Ok so I may have snuck away from my group, but hey! This tour blows and I had to go pee!"

"What?" He sounded even more confused.

"Really man hurry! I'm about to pee my pants!" I did a show of squeezing my legs together.

"What?" He said louder, closing his eyes with the force and shaking his head. In that moment, he was on the ground with his gun kicked away and a broken trachea.

I grinned and picked up the gun, testing it's weight in my hand. Theo just stared at me, a bit miffed.

"I cannot believe that worked."

"Neither can I, I should have gone with number 12SBAlpha, or as I call it, 'Are You My Mummy?'" I shoved the gun into the side of my pants and grinned wider.

"You guys can come out now, it's safe, but be quiet."

"You are so fucking weird." He huffed.

"I'll take that as a complement."

He shook his head and continued to etch down the hall. Depending on what sector we were in, the hallway might lead us to the commons area, something that may wanted to be avoided at all costs. These passageways, unlike the room, were lined with very non-ominous lights if you sense my sarcasm. But, better than no light at all.

Being here was counterproductive to any cause, but call me curious, or stupid, either one. We needed to rescue the people out of the rooms and wait for Batman to come and save the day, not gallivanting about and risking our lives for exploring. Diverging off the set plan only works in love stories and adventure genres, not the horror film we were taking part in. No scratch, the characters are too developed to be a horror movie, more like shitty reality TV, same thing.

The lights flickered, and a gunshot sounded around the corner in a thunderous warning. Clarisse jumped next to me and panic flared in her irises. If the person who fired that shot were to round the corner, we would be dead within seconds, no doubt. Unless....

Another shot rang out and laughter sounded. Laughter like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

We had to get into a room, I could get away if it was just me, but that wasn't the case. and unless these people had experience in intense parkour, it wouldn't work out for any of us. No we had to get to a room, not if who I thought was laughing was laughing.

The nearest room was to the left of us, bolt locking from the outside. One of the more useful modifications that actually worked in my favor this time. The bolt was a huge slab of metal that was unable to be moved from the outside, one of the reasons that the rooms were so hard to escape, but they were meant to be locked from the outside. I rushed to it, pulling the lock as hard and carefully as I could. We had to get out of here. I opened the door as fast as I could with what felt like an 100lbs, but successfully ushered them inside. Will pulled me inside forcefully and shut the door behind him.

Staying out in the open was one of the worst ideas ever, not when the entire place was crawling with henchmen. It was a good way to get us all killed is what it really was.

"Jackson, any more good ideas?" Clarisse hissed with venom, but it was more pained that anything angry.

"Yeah, live." I responded quietly.

"Percy?" I knew that voice, know that voice. It couldn't have been.

I spun around, already running. I ran into his chest his arms wrapping around me.

"Dick" I chocked out in something near a sob.

"Leave it to you to save my ass. I feel sorta embarrassed, I should be the one to save yours." He grinned.

"You should feel embarrassed, I expected you to be across town by now." Just don't be lying on the floor dead.

He laughed in response, it was the most freeing sound I had ever heard.

"We need to get these people out of here, I've already contacted B, he should be here to save all of our asses in no time." I buried my face into his chest, he smelled like sweat and grass, but I didn't care, I had just been running through a sewer.

"Not to be clueless, but where are we and how the hell did you escape?" He questioned bluntly .

"In Gotham's doomsday bunkers, and we escaped through the sewers like normal people." At that, he slapped himself in the face and drug it down his face, ashamed at himself because it should have been obvious.

"Not to be rude," Clarisse interrupted, ever the lovely person. "But who are you and what the hell are we going to do now?"

"Were going to leave this shithole." I growled the same time Boy Wonder introduced himself.

"I'm Dick."

"Wow." Theo coughed.

"What?" Dick's face scrunched up.

"Nothing, just, you would like to be called that?" He looked like he was on the verge of laughter.

"If you have a joke, just say it, I've heard them all." I cackled at the fact that his face was beginning to flame red.

We would have kept uselessly conversing, but more rounds of gunfire sounded fro what seemed right outside the room. All that protected them was an unlatched door and two fighters not old enough to drink.

"We need to get out of here." I whispered backing away from the door.

"You know," Will began. "You keep saying that but what are we doing to actively escape."

"I'm doing things." Will raised his eyebrows.

"Things."

"Yes things." I whisper yelled.

That is when I scanned the room, stopping dead at two other silent people held captive with Dick. One with long, blond hair.

Artemis Crock was staring at me, looking like she was deciphering whether or not I was an atomic bomb or a firecracker. She could wait, I had to get these people to safety, not play 'I Spy' with someone that already knows all of the answers.

"Percy." Dick said, I pulled my head away, realizing I was staring.

"Oh yeah, escaping. Were gonna have to go through the door, whatever is on the other side would hear us breaking through the concrete. We have to do this quietly." Dick nodded but looked unsure.

"That's suicide." Will hissed.

"I'm glad you feel that way, but so is every other option."

"I think," said a voice from behind me, Artemis. "That waiting for rescue is the best option."

"It would be, If who we are dealing with wasn't a psychotic clown." I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"The Joker, in his first rampage erupted the entire city into chaos. Blew up hospitals and boats to prove that no one is really good or evil when it comes down to their life. Now, it seems he is solely fixated on destroying his bane in the most slow an painful way possible. By destroying his person. The one thing that Batman wants to have is to save the lives he hadn't been able to save. So what if you couldn't stop the chaos from raining and all the people from dying, when your the only one who can stop it. It's an endless cycle of responsibility and fighting. The way to kill your sole purpose in life is to not kill him but to make him rot from the inside."

"So your saying that were all going to die regardless?" Theo asked.

"No, I said that he wants us to die." I looked at him with pursed lips. "This buildings old, structurally flawed. A couple of charges will bring it down."

"He's going to blow the place." Dick added helpfully.

"And since Batman is on his way, that time is going to be soon, we need to escape." I finished. Will drew in a breath and turned away.

"Awesome," Clarisse blew a hair out of her face. "We should probably leave now."

-

There a lot of things that define bravery. It's not always a hero picking up a sword and fighting, nor a man heading off to war. Sometimes bravery was standing tall when no one else wanted you to, for something you believed in. Sometimes bravery was chasing after dreams, and sometimes they where putting your dreams away for the greater good. All of us are a little brave, no matter what we do or where we come from.

The best option, sometimes doesn't always work out. Life doesn't follow some plan that the only thing left to do will work, because sometimes it will be that last thing you'll ever do.

I heard the shot before I felt it, but I didn't feel it, which was weird. I was pretty sure a crazy clown was pointing a gun at me, my head working through all possible contingencies. Then the gun fired, but I felt no pain, no fair of red in my chest nor sudden urge to fall like they did in the movies.

And then, Will was falling in front of me. Eyes fluttering. Red blooming through his white school dress shirt.

Will, dying.

Will, saving my life.

Laughter, The Joker, he was laughing. Still pointing the gun at me. The greasy green hair falling into his face as he clutched his stomach. Like Will dying was the funniest thing in the world.

I took the gun out of my waistband and shot him in the leg.

He stopped laughing and fell to the ground. Dick went to action, taking his gun and knocking him out.

It dropped out my shaking hands and I fell to my knees, next to Will. My hand coving up the blooming hole I his chest. He looked at me, shocked eyes. He was afraid.

"Y-your going to be ok. Well get you to a hospital, your going to live. Please Will, don't-." My voice hitched.

"We both know I won't be. Too close a hit to the aortic valve, I'll bleed out in minuets. I want to be a med student, believe me I know." He coughed, blood came out of his mouth.

"Don't, please don't. Too many people have died. You have to live." I pleaded.

"One more isn't going..to make a difference." His speech was slurred. His heart rate was slowing.

"It will to me, don't die please."

"I'll try..." His eyes closed.

"Will don't you dare close your eyes." He didn't respond. The beats got slower. "Will" I croaked.

"Percy." A hand rested on my back. "He's dead."

"No his hearts still beating. Even after clinical death he still has 3 minuets till the start of irreversible brain damage and brain death. We can-"

"Percy." Dick spoke softly, taking my hands coated in his blood away from his chest. "He's gone."

"No he's, we can. I can. I can-can-can. I-" His arms wrapped around me.

"It's over, their gone." And I was crying, sobbing into his chest.

"He's gone." I repeated.

"He's gone."

And soon, so will I. But you weren't laying on that floor with cold, glassy eyes.