Chapter Text
Hal Jordan was enjoying a peaceful night of monitor duty on the Watchtower when an alert appeared. Taking an exasperated sip of his coffee, the Green Lantern tapped a few keys to see why the hell the computer was interrupting his perfectly good ‘practice Batman’s signature Batglare’ time. Speaking of the devil, the origin of the alert was in Gotham.
AKA, not his problem. Batman was perfectly capable of handling anything Gotham threw at him no matter how cosmically insane it was. Besides, the guy would absolutely destroy anyone who trespassed onto his turf and Hal was not in the mood to be yelled at in a quiet, condescending voice. Last time he was on the receiving end of that he’d sat in the dark staring at a wall for six hours. He’d like to keep his self-esteem and sanity intact, thank you very much.
The monitor showed that the Joker was on another rampage with Batman hot on his tail same as always. Except, the damage reports…the death reports. Maybe he should call him and offer his help. Joker had always been a psychopathic murderer, but he’s been out of Arkham for all of three hours and already there are dozens of deaths and smoldering buildings all over the city. He’s never done this much damage this quickly.
Batman had followed Joker on top of an abandoned apartment complex and the two nemeses were duking it out more brutaly than Hal has ever seen. Joker normally pranced around, playing the game he always adored while the Bat fought with determination, but restraint. Neither of them were holding back now. This didn’t look good. Hal suddenly felt an urgent need to help his…coworker? Cohero? Distant friend? Whatever the hell they were, he needed to help. But before he could, he needed to get permission so he didn’t get a Batarang to the butt.
As Hal was reaching for the communication controls, Joker went down in a spray of blood as Batman laid a brutal hit on the clown’s face. The Joker simply laughed, pulled something out of his gaudy purple jacket, and the monitor screen was flooded with red and orange before turning to static.
Hal’s mug fell to the floor, shattering the fragile porcelain and spraying coffee all over the floor. His heart hammered painfully against his ribs as his adrenaline spiked to new heights. Rapidly tapping the keys, he tried to bring up another camera with a view of the building. A new camera’s feed appeared on the screen and Hal’s previously vibrating heart froze and fell down an elevator shaft. The building wasn’t a building anymore. It was little more than a smoldering pile of rubble. The surrounding buildings had also received significant damage and were on the verge of collapse. There was no way a mere man could survive that explosion.
Batman was dead.
Slamming the emergency comm button for all league members he tried to force the words that were stuck in his throat out. Instead, all that came was panicked, rapid breathing.
“Green Lantern? What’s going on,” Superman asked almost instantly.
When Hal was unable to reply, Flash quipped, “Did you accidentally hit the emergency button again? Ah, come on man, this is the third time! One of these days, I’m going to take a nap instead of answering you!” It was followed by a good-natured laugh. Completely innocent. Fully unburdened. Flash wouldn’t be sounding like that for much long.
“Batman’s dead.”
The silence over the comm unit was deafening until it was broken by a cacophony of outrage, disbelief, and sorrow. Superman tried to get everyone to calm down to no avail while Flash’s tracker started moving rapidly from Germany across the Atlantic.
“There was an alert,” GL stuttered out. “Joker was out. Mass damages. Batman was fighting him on a roof. It was bad. And then- then,” Hal’s voice broke. He was most definitely in shock from the situation, but he needed to tell them. Maybe- maybe Batman was just trapped in the rubble and needed rescuing. Maybe he could be saved. Maybe he wasn’t dead. There could still be hope for him yet.
“Joker blew the building. Whatever bomb he used was massive. The building’s decimated and the surrounding buildings are gravely damaged. If he’s somehow alive under there, he’ll need to an immediate evac”
The calming force that was Superman started to delegate tasks. Flash and he would search the rubble while Green Lantern continued to monitor the area and search for signs of their missing team member.
After a long, fruitless search, the two superheroes in Gotham mournfully abandoned their search and began helping clean up their slain friend’s city. They rescued civilians from unstable buildings, cleaned up debris, and put out raging fires. Even if their friend had fallen, they wouldn’t let his city die with him.
Sitting in the Watchtower, Hal felt cold and sick. He’d given everyone false hope and all it did was make the loss hurt that much more. Wonder Woman had zetad up in order to check on him and hadn’t left since. She tried to comfort him, but the warrior was far more accustomed to death than he was and still too out of touch with humans to empathize and communicate with them fully. Despite her words washing over him like droplets over a stone, her presence was far more grounding.
More often than not, Hal had forgotten that Batman was just a man. He didn’t have super strength, couldn’t fly, and didn’t have magic or alien tech to protect him. The hero had survived and thrived through his sheer tenacity and wit. He was unstoppable. Until he wasn’t.
A strangled sob tore itself from Hal’s throat. He’d seen death and had people close to him die before, but this was the first hero who’d died. The first member of the Justice League to have fallen in the line of duty. It was mortifying and reestablished what Hal had pushed to the far reaches of his mind. The knowledge that they could all die if they keep being heroes.
The next day, Batman’s death was announced to the world. A week later, a statue was erected in both Gotham and the Watchtower to remember the man who’d made the ultimate sacrifice defending his home. Grief hung heavy around the League as they mourned the best among them.
Batman was dead, and the Justice League would never be the same again.
______
Three men watched in silence as the world grieved the passing of a hero. The first man wore a grim expression. The second viewed the proceedings with a mask of cool disinterest that hid his sheer joy. And the third was overcome with relief.
It worked.