(shorter chapter)
The Bowery District — Final Hours of The War
The clubs, casinos, brothels, and whatever else had locked themselves down when the war started; however news traveled fast and with the war seeming to be winding down they were cautiously returning to business and queues were already forming outside needing to get their vices.
Batman moved across the district's roofline looking for traces of his arch nemesis.
From a rooftop, he looked down at the crowd forming outside a casino that was reopening after three days of surrounding streets being a war zone.
Two men on the corner were talking. Batman was close enough to hear them clearly in the still night air.
"— all but done, the way I hear it. Sophia Falcone and Maroni are going to be shaking hands soon, she's got 90% of the Falcones behind her now after all."
"Carmine still has the tower."
"For how long? He's lost his entire personal army at this point."
"Maroni had help from somewhere, though, that's what people are saying."
"People say a lot of things."
"I'm just saying. Maroni never had the confidence before, something had to have changed."
"Then who was it."
A pause.
"That's the question, isn't it."
Batman moved on.
He had been hearing versions of that exchange for over an hour now. The consistent lead was the same: Maroni hadn't done this alone. Something else had been operating in the war but who is the question...
He kept moving until he reached Iceberg Lounge.
He came in quiet from the roof, through the ventilation access he had used dozens of times before, and looked down into the main floor from the ducting above it.
The war might as well have happened on a different island.
The Iceberg Lounge was operating at full capacity with its famous music playing, lights flashing, a large crowd that seemed to not care about the last few days filling up the bars and the gambling tables were full.
Oswald Cobblepot was in his corner booth.
He was noticeably heavier than the last time Batman had observed him from above this room, which had been several months ago. He had been a thin man but now the expensive suits he wore were doing their best to hide his weight gain.
Batman watched him for a moment. The Penguin had kept himself as he always did neutral even through this mob war his lounge remained untouched.
Batman felt his earpiece crackle.
"Master Bruce."
"Two large cruise ships have recently arrived in the southwest harbor an hour ago and have been loading refugees since, it seems that the captains came from the ocean to avoid the government on the mainland. They've been taking civilians continuously and neither has yet been attacked but they are large defenseless targets..."
"The Joker's favourite kind of target," Batman said.
"Yes," Alfred replied. "That has also occurred to me."
Batman was already moving.
The grappling hook went up, caught the Batwing's anchor point, and carried him up into the morning sky as he made his way southwest toward the ships.
Crane's Wings Facility — William's Laboratory
William stood at the Nomu tank.
The specimen was now back in its suspended state as he made detailed notes of its field tet to send to Hugo Strange
He turned to reach the secondary workstation.
The stand where the glove he made from Overhaul's arm was empty.
There was only one person in the facility who would take the glove, and he knew that this war would end by sunset.
Crane's Wings Facility — Ivy's Greenhouse
Eri was asleep in a hammock made of vines and plants while Silver was beside her below near the large root cluster. Her back rested against the thick roots dosing off and when Ivy returned she looked at them both for a moment.
She crossed to Silver and placed a hand gently on her shoulder.
Silver woke up quickly, her hand moved toward where her weapon would be before her eyes had finished opening then saw it was just Ivy.
"The war is almost over," Ivy said quietly enough not to reach the hammock. "The main conflict is done for the most part."
Silver nodded and looked at Eri, still deeply asleep in the vine hammock.
"You missed it," Ivy said. It was an observation rather than a criticism.
Silver looked at the hammock for a moment.
"Someone had to stay with her," she said. She yawned, which she did not bother to cover. "During a time like this.
Eastern Falcone Base — Sophia's New Headquarters
Maroni had finally received the call he was waiting for from the new Falcone "leader"
He sat in his hidden bunker, the secondary location he had used throughout the war as Crane recommended. He wore a suit and held a glass of wine. He had lost much in this but Falcone lost more… way more and now Carmine is gone.
"These are my terms," Maroni said. "I feel they are fair, we have both lost much in this but now that Carmine is gone I feel that we can bring this to an end."
"Very well," Sophia replied. "We hand over territory but from now on we share revenue on all business the margins decided on fairly."
Maroni held her gaze for a moment, then nodded.
"Then we're done fighting," he said.
"Let's get back to making money," she agreed.
The call ended.
The room behind her erupted.
Hundreds of Falcone soldiers, the captains at the front and the lieutenants behind them, had been watching the call's conclusion.
Then the message went out across every Falcone communication channel that had received the earlier message. The forces in and around Falcone Tower who were still alive began switching sides all but one.
That single man was Victor Zsasz who had been watching the broadcast on someone else's device in the rubble on the street. When the man beside him moved to put down his weapon, Zsasz looked at him, he told him to pick it back up when the man did not comply he was shot in the head.
He worked through four more traitors before the others cleared the immediate space around him.
He was bleeding from the debris from the Maroni Tower and wounded from the past few days and now everyone was betraying the man he devoted himself too for his daughter. He slammed his fist into the wreckage of a Falcone tank from days earlier cursing these greedy cowards.
He continued to limp onto a side street and started walking into the city disappearing in the rubble.
Sophia's Private Penthouse — Midday
Carmine Falcone's helicopter touched down on the roof then turned to Butch.
"Stay here," he said. "This is between family."
Butch looked at him nodding but strangely put up no protest.
Once Carmine got down the stairs he found the penthouse entrance was unlocked as hepushed it open.
Inside the penthouse was dark except for the light coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows from the city below but he didn't find anyone as he moved through the it then he made his way towards the balcony and saw the door was wide open.
A figure was seated on the balcony bench, facing the city, back to the door.
"Where is my treacherous daughter," Carmine said.
The figure said nothing.
Carmine stepped forward demanding to know who he was and where she was.
The figure turned his head slightly.
"You want the short version?"
Crane stood up and faced the King who had lost his Kingdom while adjusting something on his arm.
"Or the long version…"