[rl] Harvey and Batman

[thedawniscoming]

It had been nearly twenty minutes now he felt something boring into his back, the irritating feeling of being watched as he moved down another alley, far more cautious than he would usually expend. His hood was up, as customary, his gun in his belt and his coin in his pocket. A normal damned night, besides that pressing feeling.

Gotta wonder- Not like life wasn't already just a little more difficult. Edward's apparent stunt with the Joker had compromised his home- shelter, whatever you cared to call it. It just meant it was all the harder to find a place to sleep at, to tend to wounds and simmer. Hell, it was almost like when he had first stumbled back to this city. Of course things were a little different now.

Not so helpless and hapless anymore. There was blood on the soles of Harvey's shoes now and when he turned each corner he only saw the filth he promised to clean, not the ghosts embedded in the brick. Harvey Dent's name was becoming quieter on the citizens lips and his own work easier to complete. He didn't even bother to count anymore. Twenty two.

He had a chance at a new place, somewhere well hidden in the Narrows where no face or name were needed as long as the money were real enough. He considered going there but the feeling following him just wouldn't shake. Him.

Harvey placed his hand on the handle of his gun, staring up the alley's high street. "I was wondering when you would show your face again." he said into the empty street.

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"Animal- that's almost funny coming from you." Harvey answered, eye still narrowed as the other rasped out his say, as he spat out the word 'chance' like it wasn't what managed to keep Harvey alive for this long. His voice like stone while Harvey's was gasoline on concrete.

"This city-" he gestured to the alley, to beyond, "It's always been rotting. Every single man you and I put away was nothing more than a cheap parlor trick, a nice little lie like you seem to think Gotham needs. Even then, eighteen months? A year? Would that have been enough time to save this city before we unleashed the disease back into the streets?"

He snorted, derisive and bitter as he looked past the alley way. "No, it was never enough. What we do was never enough and will never be enough. There will always be a dirty cop to destroy evidence, a bought judge or a biased jury. This way- maybe it is the best. They get their shot, and if they lose nothing can stop the outcome." His gaze turned back to the Bat, hard and accusing and almost desperate. "If you had killed him we wouldn't be playing in the rubble."

Something in his face almost softened at the mention of Bruce, a sight very close to guilt warring with apathy. What if that coin flip had told him to stay, how much better would things be if he were still at the manor? He thought about it more often then he cared to admit- and he knew he would have thought the same about leaving it if the coin flip had been heads.

"Stop bringing Wayne into all this." He growled, turning away. "The Joker's already paying too much attention to him without you encouraging his idiocy." Helped kill Rachel, might as well finish the job huh Bats?

[checkmymobile.livejournal.com]

"So, then make a decision. For yourself. You can't blame any of this on chance, it's people who make choices - nothing is 50/50." It was hard not to become overtly frustrated with Harvey's stubbornness - worse when he was faced with Batman than when he was with Bruce. Was this a bad idea? No. It had to be done. "When I leave here tonight, it will be because you've made a choice.

"To go back to the way it was - to become Harvey Dent again and help stop this madness - or to leave your life behind for some corrupted ideal of righteous chance and become Tim's "Two-Face." Your city needs you, Harvey, but not like this." His hands clenched into fists at his sides and he moved slightly toward him. "I don't want to be your enemy, but if you're going to be facilitating men like the Joker and Scarecrow, then I'm going to have to."

[thedawniscoming.livejournal.com]

"I don't blame chance." Harvey shot back, voice dangerously low. "Their choices are what led us here." His choices. Should have never trusted Gordon, should have never trusted the Bat, should have never let this become the game that it was - that it still is.

"You're wrong." He pulled out his coin, holding it up between them, the charred remnants of that night facing the 'dark knight.' Always hated those nicknames. "Everything is chance, everything is a wild draw. If I choose to shoot you right here, right now, it was still random events. That's life- no matter how hard you work, how good you are, it favors no one."

His good eye narrowed further, fingers tight on the coin. "I'm not like him. That Gotham isn't ours, you know it." Stop pretending you can use their mistakes to fix ours. He lifted his chin. "I'm not 'facilitating' them, they had their chance and they play their games separately. I'm doing what the city needs. I'm cleaning up, just like I promised. Maroni, his men, the dregs that the madness left behind. But if you want your chance then fine. Heads I shoot you and walk back to Wayne's, get the surgery and try to live the life you so desperately want from me. Tails you walk away, you throw me in Arkham for all it matters." He said as though it were the simplest thing in the world. For him it was, why couldn't they see it?

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"When you don't stop them, you allow it to happen. Crane is planning something. If you had turned him in while you were living with him, he wouldn't be able to release his toxin. Buyer beware: don't purchase anything canned in Gotham factories for the next few weeks." That wasn't entirely fair - he knew that wasn't entirely fair. He had his own blame in not being able to stop Crane. Raiding the factories to find nothing, even. But, it was important he make Harvey feel as involved as necessary to manipulate - that sounded so sinister - him into seeing things Batman's way.

"That coin is your crutch. You can't decide anything for yourself, can you?" Batman scowled distastefully, obviously disapproving. Still, his eyes focused on the coin, and then Harvey's face. "I'm not going to stop you from using it. But, consider your options for yourself before you really let chance pick your fate."

[thedawniscoming.livejournal.com]

"He is?" Harvey watched the other carefully, as if measuring his words before he replied. "He hasn't been around. Last I heard and Nygma were together." Saying too much- He raised his head and continued. "I thought he may be the one behind the recent Arkham break but there's no way. Apparently some new player's in town." Wonder what moniker he'll go by. He just nodded at the information on the food, wasn't like he went grocery shopping to begin with. He almost felt nauseous, speaking to the Bat like this, a little too much like those days before when he revered the other. Maybe part of him missed it under the incessant whispering.

He glanced over at the words on his coin, his crutch, completely silent a still a moment before his expression hardened away from whatever look was wrestling for dominance on his features. "I told you before it's not about what I want." He growled, his tone regaining it's muddled rage. This could be his chance, if he was quick enough to pull out his gun while the other was looking to his coin, his eyes. "A man can't live two lives." Something in his tone faltered, the hate diminishing. "You know that well, don't you?"

[checkmymobile.livejournal.com]

Nygma. That was useful - he wondered if Harvey had meant to give him that much information, not that it mattered. He would be confronting Nygma over this. Bruce had promised not to stop by the penthouse, but Batman hadn't. And he'd be paying a visit very soon.

"Ra's al Ghul. Stay away from him, regardless of what side you choose. He's dangerous to even the people who agree with him." At the comment regarding double lives, he almost had to laugh. "I'm managing all right so far." That was a lie - sort of, at least. Bruce was doing a good job of separating himself from the Batman, no one had figured it out, but the effects were noticeable on Bruce's mental state and it was hard to really separate your beliefs. There was measurable bleeding of one life into the other.

[thedawniscoming.livejournal.com]

Harvey's eye narrowed at the name, more so at the warning accompanying it. "Who is he?" How do you know him? Why didn't you stop the break out then? Who-

Harvey's brow raised. "Thought you said I wasn't the only one who lost everything." He commented.

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"Who in Gotham hasn't lost something to this war, Harvey? It doesn't make it harder to be who I am as well as what Gotham needs." He was backpedaling. He wasn't sure he wanted to answer the first question, but he did owe Harvey answers to some extent. "He was the one responsible for the first outbreak of fear toxin. Without Ra's al Ghul, Crane never would have been able to synthesize it."

[thedawniscoming.livejournal.com]

"Then what did you lose?" Harvey spat, taking an angry step to the side. "Shouldn't have given in, I told you, told them but-" he broke off as if remembering himself, stony gaze returning to the vigilante.

Ra's al Ghul. At least he had a name now. He'd have to find Crane and have a few words. "What does this 'al Ghul' want with Gotham?" Why the outbreak? It couldn't possibly help the man in anyway.