Chapter 78: Confrontation
The silence stretched for what felt like eternity.
Batman knelt beside Tim's lifeless body. His gloved hands trembled as they hovered over the boy's still chest.
For a moment, there was only the sound of receding footsteps and Batman's ragged breathing from inside his cowl.
The weight of failure pressed down on him immensely—Jason's death, his parents' murder, every life he'd failed to save compressed into this single, devastating moment.
Then something shifted inside Bruce Wayne's chest. The grief that had paralyzed him began to transform, compressing into something harder. Something that had been held in check by years of discipline and moral restraint.
Pure, undiluted rage.
Batman's head lifted slowly, his eye lenses fixing on the Architect's retreating form. The creature was walking casually toward Firefly, hands clasped behind his back as if he hadn't murdered a seventeen-year-old boy in cold blood.
"ARCHITECT!" Batman's voice exploded through the corridor.
The creature stopped and turned, "Ah, there we are. I was wondering when the famous Bat-rage would finally surface. Tell me, how does it feel to—"
Batman was already moving.
His finger found the emergency protocol switch on his gauntlet—a system he'd installed but never used, hoping he'd never need to. The Aegis armor responded instantly, servos whining as advanced combat systems came online. Red warning lights flashed across his HUD as the suit diverted power from life support and defensive systems, channeling everything into offensive capabilities.
**AEGIS PROTOCOL: ANTI-ARCHITECT MODE ACTIVATED**
**WARNING: POWER RESERVES AT 50%. ESTIMATED OPERATIONAL TIME: 12 MINUTES**
**CAUTION: ENHANCED COMBAT MODE WILL EXCEED RECOMMENDED SAFETY PARAMETERS**
Batman ignored the warnings. Twelve minutes was more than enough time to tear this monster apart.
He closed the distance between them in three seconds, his armored fist driving toward the Architect's skull with enough force to shatter concrete.
The creature twisted at the last moment. Batman's gauntlet scraped along the side of his head and taking a chunk of flesh with it.
"Impressive speed enhancement," the Architect noted, touching the wound with interest. "Guess the lesson wasn't enough, huh?"
Batman's response was another devastating swing, this one aimed at the creature's midsection. The Architect caught his wrist easily. For a moment they stood locked together, servos straining against biomass-enhanced muscles.
"You want to know the difference between us, Architect?" Batman snarled, his voice raw with fury. "I do not kill people. And I sure do not murder children."
The Architect smiled, his grip tightening enough to make the armor's metal groan. "You don't need to murder children, Batman. Your villains will do it for you, just to get some of your attention."
Batman twisted free and drove his knee upward, catching the Architect in the ribs. The impact lifted the creature off his feet, sending him crashing into the wall hard enough to crack the concrete. But even as he fell, the damaged tissue was already beginning to knit itself back together.
"Tell me!", Batman continued his rage, advancing on his opponent. "What did Robin do to you? How are you now any different from the people you kill?"
The Architect pushed himself off the wall, rolling his shoulders as his ribs finished healing. "So much rage. Rage makes you sloppy, Batman."
Batman's next punch came faster than human reflexes should have allowed, the Aegis armor's enhanced response time turning him into something approaching superhuman speed. The Architect barely managed to deflect the blow, Batman's gauntlet again scraping along his forearm and leaving deep gouges in the flesh.
Batman then grabbed a sonic disruptor from his belt, a device he'd designed specifically for opponents with enhanced healing factors. The disruptors use sonic waves tuned to cellular resonance to disrupt abnormal regeneration. Similar to how ultrasound break kidney stones, but tuned for unstable dna based healing.
The device activated with a high-pitched whine that rose beyond human hearing. The Architect's partially healed wounds suddenly stopping their regeneration process as the ultrasonic frequencies disrupted the cellular communication his powers required.
"Clever," the Architect replied, his voice strained. "But not enough."
He lunged forward despite the sonic assault, his movements erratic but still deadly. Batman sidestepped and brought his elbow down on the creature's spine, feeling vertebrae crack under the enhanced force of his armor. The Architect stumbled but didn't fall, twisting around to rake his nails across Batman's chest plate.
Sparks flew as reinforced claws scraped against military-grade composite armor. The Architect's enhanced strength was enough to leave deep scratches in the plating, but not enough to penetrate completely.
"You've prepared well," the Architect acknowledged, circling Batman like a predator sizing up its meal.
"But if you think this is enough to stop me," the Architect said, " I will be very disappointed in you."
He drove his knee upward into Batman's midsection. The armor absorbed most of the impact, but the force was still enough to lift Batman off his feet and send him staggering backward.
The sonic disruptor clattered across the floor, its high-pitched whine cutting off abruptly.
The Architect straightened, his wounds already beginning to close again. "You do not want to save people, Batman. You just want that adrenaline rush. That feeling you get when you control people, beat up people, all just to satisfy your sadistic tendancies. Your no kill code is just a reason you gave yourself to feel good about it. You are a monster yourself."
Batman reached for another device on his belt—a canister of neurological suppression gas, designed to interfere with enhanced nervous systems. "The only monster I see here is the one who murdered my partner."
He hurled the canister straight at the Architect's face. The impact clicked the release, bursting into a plume of pale smoke. Instead of recoiling, the Architect caught it mid-flight, lifted it to his lips like a cigarette, and inhaled the swirling fumes.
A slow, crooked smile spread across his face.
"Neurotoxins again? Please, I am not an amateur to not know my weaknesses."
Architect then dropped the canister and crushed it under his foot.
"You're running out of tricks, Batman. Anything else?"
Batman's HUD flashed another warning: **POWER RESERVES AT 35%. COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS DECLINING.**
He ignored it, launching himself forward with everything the armor had left. They crashed together in the middle of the lab, trading blows that would have killed normal humans. Batman's enhanced strength met the Architect's biomass-powered muscles, creating impacts that cracked floor tiles and dented walls.
Batman drove his fist into the Architect's solar plexus, feeling ribs crack under the assault.
The Architect caught his next punch and twisted, trying to snap Batman's arm at the elbow. The armor held, but Batman felt the joints strain under the pressure.
The Architect laughed, the sound echoing strangely in the damaged corridor. "If only you showed these kind of rage for the people firefly killed, robin would have still be alive. You do not stand for justice, Batman. You are just a parasite leeching off it."
Batman broke free and grabbed the creature's throat.
Batman's grip tightened while his enhanced strength tried to crush the Architect's windpipe.
"Shut up." Batman's voice was barely recognizable, distorted by rage and the armor's failing systems.
"And now Robin is dead because you chose philosophy over action."
Something snapped inside Batman's chest. His vision went red, and for a moment he couldn't hear anything except the sound of his own heartbeat thundering in his ears. Every loss, every failure, every moment of helplessness compressed into pure, focused hatred.
Batman saw Tim's body lying motionless in his peripheral vision, and the rage detonated.
He released the Architect's throat and stepped back, reaching for his freeze gun—a weapon he'd developed for opponents who couldn't be stopped through normal means.
Architect staggered back, gasping for air. "Still... can't... do it..."
"I don't need to kill you," Batman said, his voice steady despite the fury still burning in his chest. "I just need to stop you."
The freeze gun activated with a sharp hiss, releasing a stream of liquid nitrogen-based compounds that began crystallizing around the Architect's legs. He tried to move, but the rapidly expanding ice held him in place.
"Clever," the Architect acknowledged, watching the ice creep up his torso. "But ultimately pointless."
"We'll see about that." Batman adjusted the freeze gun's settings, intensifying the chemical reaction. The ice spread faster, reaching the creature's chest and beginning to encase his arms.
"You still don't understand," the Architect said, his voice becoming strained as the cold affected his enhanced vocal cords. "This changes nothing. I will get what I need one way or another."
The ice reached his neck, and for a moment Batman thought the fight was over. Then the Architect smiled, the expression visible even as frost began forming around his mouth.
"But I suppose it doesn't matter. After all, I'm just a clone."
Batman's blood turned to ice, and it had nothing to do with the freeze gun.
"What did you say?"
The Architect's smile widened despite the crystallizing compounds restricting his facial muscles.
"You're lying." But even as he said it, Batman's mind was already processing the implications.
"I'm going to find you," he whispered, his voice carrying a promise. "I'm going to find the real you, and when I do, I'm going to end you. No more games. No more philosophy. No more mercy."
Batman watched as the ice completed its work, encasing the clone in a crystalline shell. The clone's eyes remained open, still carrying that mocking look even as his body was frozen solid.
For several seconds, Batman stood motionless, processing what he'd learned. A clone. Everything—the psychological torture, Tim's death, this entire confrontation—had been nothing more than a field test for the real Architect.
"Alfred," he said aloud, then paused. His communication systems were still being jammed.
At the same time, Batman retrieved a portable stasis field generator from his utility belt. The device was designed to prevent enhanced individuals from escaping containment through accelerated healing or other abilities.
He activated it around the frozen clone, creating a bubble of forcefield that would prevent the clone from disintegrating or regenerating.
The jamming effect of the prison chose that moment to cut out, his communications coming back online with a burst of static.
"Master Bruce?" Alfred's voice crackled through the encrypted channel, tinged with relief. "I've been trying to reach you for some time. What's your situation?"
Batman looked at Tim's body, then at the frozen clone, then at the devastation surrounding them.
How could he possibly explain what had happened? How could he tell Alfred that another Robin was dead because he'd been outmaneuvered by a monster wearing a human face? How could he explain he failed to protect multiple people inside the prison just because he was slow and weak ?
"Master Bruce? Are you there? I lost contact with Master Timothy some time ago, is he—"
"Send the Batwing," Batman interrupted, his voice flat and emotionless. "Emergency extraction, maximum stealth configuration."
"Of course, sir, but what about Master Timothy? Is he safe?"
Batman closed his eyes, forcing himself to maintain control despite the grief and rage warring inside his chest. When he opened them again, his gaze fixed on the frozen clone.
"I'll explain everything at the cave, Alfred. Just send the plane."
"Right away, Master Bruce. ETA fifteen minutes."
The communication cut off, leaving Batman alone with his failure and his fury. He walked over to Tim's body and knelt beside it, his armored gloves trembling slightly as he gathered the boy into his arms.
Another Robin. Another son. Another life lost because he hadn't been good enough, fast enough, smart enough.
But this time was different. This time, the monster responsible had a name and a face.
Batman stood, cradling Tim's lifeless form against his chest, and looked at the frozen clone one more time.
"This clone is enough for me to find your weakness, Architect," he said to himself. "Never again."
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Advanced chapters on patre*n
DC : Architect of Vengeance
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