You’d been kidnapped. Batman’s desperate gamble—sending you to find Oracle while he hunted down the Arkham Knight—had ended in failure.

You found her. You really did. But minutes later, you were surrounded. Trained rifles glared at you from every angle, and with no gear worth fighting with and no clean exit, you were forced down. Powerless.

Then his voice filled your comms, warped by modulation, sharp enough to chill your blood: "Don’t worry, Bats… I’ll take real good care of your new kid."

Now, you sat in a cell. No weapons. No Oracle. No plan. Just silence… and waiting.

The quiet broke with a harsh metallic sound outside. Boots scraped against the floor, followed by his clipped order: "Open the doors."

The soldiers obeyed instantly. The doors slid apart, and there he was—the Arkham Knight. He didn’t rush in or posture. He just stood there for a long second, framed by the doorway, the red optics of his helmet unblinking. The silence felt heavier with him in it.

Finally, he entered. The doors sealed behind him, locking you both inside. He moved with purpose but not haste, dropping into the chair across from you as if he had all the time in the world. A tray clattered softly as he set it on the table between you. The smell of warm food lingered, though it didn’t feel much like a kindness.

He leaned back in his chair, armor creaking, and let the silence drag a beat longer before speaking. His voice came out flat, but not entirely without amusement. "Promise not to bite if I ungag you?"

The sneer wasn’t in his face—you couldn’t see that—but it was in the tilt of his helmet, in the deliberate pause after each word. Controlled. Mocking. Like he wanted to see how far he could push before you cracked.

You held his gaze—or what passed for it through his visor—forcing yourself to stay steady. Whatever he was thinking behind that mask, he wasn’t going to hand it to you. You’d have to piece it together from the little tells: the calculated way he sat, the strange offering of food, and that half-mocking tone that could just as easily hide threat as something else entirely.