The tunnels beneath Gotham smelled of smoke, blood, and wet stone.
Flames from the city above filtered through cracks, painting the labyrinth in an angry orange glow. Jonathan moved cautiously, every sense alert.
The Owe's presence pressed against him like a living thing unseen yet palpably close.
Ahead, a shadow shifted. Jonathan froze, recognizing the shape instantly. Abe. Or what he had become.
The younger Wayne had returned, brought back by Elijah's dark rituals. The life once lost now pulsed in him again, but it was not the brother Jonathan remembered.
His eyes glimmered with a strange mixture of loyalty and confusion, the mask of the Owe still etched into his expression.
"Jonathan," Abe said, his voice trembling, yet laced with authority. "It's not supposed to be like this. But the city… the debt… it demands balance."
Jonathan swallowed, pain and rage knotting in his chest. "Abe… you're dead. You shouldn't be here."
"I am because he wills it," Abe admitted, gesturing toward the shadows.
Elijah Blackthorn's silhouette loomed faintly further down the corridor, a sinister king observing his pawns.
"But I have a choice. And I choose…" His voice faltered as he glanced at Jonathan. "…to make this right."
Jonathan's fists tightened. Memories of childhood, laughter, and shared dreams surged alongside the fear of what Abe could do now. "There's no right in this. Only survival. Step aside, Abe."
"I can't," Abe whispered. His eyes flicked toward Elijah, then back to Jonathan. "He wants me to strike. To end you. But… I can't. Maybe one Wayne debt is enough to pay them all."
Before Jonathan could respond, chaos erupted. The tunnels shuddered as explosions ignited from their earlier sabotage.
Sparks flew, smoke billowed, and the echoes of collapsing stone created a deafening roar. Amidst the turmoil, Abe lunged toward Elijah, a flash of steel in his hand.
Jonathan acted instantly, moving to intercept, but Abe's path was precise, deliberate. With a swift motion, he struck Elijah's side, drawing blood. The tyrant staggered, surprised by the betrayal of his resurrected pawn.
Jonathan watched, stunned, as Abe turned toward him one last time. "Go!" he shouted over the roar. "End this. Finish what we started."
Tears mingled with sweat and ash on Jonathan's face. He wanted to call out, to stop him, to hold him.
But the moment passed too quickly. Abe pressed forward, drawing Elijah's attention completely. The two clashed in a dance of fire, steel, and desperation, until a final, sacrificial blow ended Abe's arc.
Jonathan and Crane rushed to assist, but they arrived only to see the aftermath: Abe fallen, his chest marked with the wounds of his final rebellion, his eyes momentarily soft before closing forever.
A single tear ran down Jonathan's cheek. "No… no more debts," he whispered, his voice choked with grief.
The tunnels, still shuddering from the explosions, reflected the duality of destruction and liberation. Abe's final act had struck a blow to the Owe, weakening Elijah's control and disrupting centuries of ritual power.
The cost was immense, but it cleared a path forward for Jonathan, Isadora, and the people of Gotham.
Scrap knelt beside Jonathan, gripping his arm. "He… he saved you. He saved us all."
Jonathan nodded slowly, forcing himself to stand. The weight of loss pressed down on him, but so did the spark of hope. "He redeemed himself. That's enough."
Above them, the city burned the courthouse reduced to rubble, rioters and citizens alike demanding change, shouting the names of those who had fought for justice.
Jonathan's gaze shifted upward, toward the surface, toward the dawn of a new Gotham. Abe's sacrifice had carved a path for that future.
Elijah Blackthorn, now wounded and enraged, disappeared into the chaos, a shadow retreating into the unknown.
But the way forward had been secured, if only barely. Jonathan felt the tremor of the city beneath him and understood that Gotham, like his family, would be rebuilt from fire and sacrifice.
He lowered his head in silent prayer for his brother, knowing Abe's final bond a mixture of redemption and love had altered the course of the city forever.