When Ianthe Thatcher, a 21 year old Gotham City native reluctantly accepts a seemingly promising position at Arkham Asylum, her path takes an unexpected turn.
In addition to the crumbling state of her city and the proximity of her workplace to the...
My heartbeat raced as I met eyes with Bruce Wayne. He looked...tired. Lost. And I instantly felt like I understood him.
"Hi...uh, Mr. Wayne." I was suddenly at a loss for words. All the lines I had practiced, the things I planned to say, they suddenly vanished from my mind. I had to improvise now.
"Who are you?" Bruce rasped, his voice low and hoarse.
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"Ianthe Thatcher. You don't know me, but I know you."
I took a deep breath to prevent the words from catching in my throat.
"I'm your sister."
An eyebrow raise and sidelong glance from Bruce told me everything. He didn't believe me.
"Just...let me explain."
He looked at me inquisitively, as if trying to pinpoint any feature similar to his likeness. And I noticed I was doing the same. To my great surprise, we looked very, very similar...despite only having our father in common.
I told him everything.
I told him the story—at least it what I knew—about our father and my mother, how I was abandoned, all the the information that Jonathan Crane had learned about my past, the money that had put a price on my head, how it destroyed my life and almost killed me...everything.
To my surprise, sorrow filled Bruce Wayne's eyes.
"I..." he started, but his words trailed off into nothingness. It was silent for a moment.
"I'm sorry these things have happened to you because of my...our...father. But, why have you come here?"
The big question. Here is where I had to convince him to take the money and come back to Gotham.
"I plan to buy you out of this prison." I said it with as much confidence and sternness as I could muster.
His eyes widened.
"Then, I want you to come home. Back to Gotham. Once we get back, the money I received from our father's will is yours. I don't want anything to do with it."
He stared at me in disbelief.
"So now the target will be placed on my head?" His tone was comical.
I gave a short chuckle. "No one would dare put a bounty on Bruce Wayne. After what happened to our father and your mother that night, the good citizens of this city would do anything to protect the rest of the family and the bad people...well, it would be too suspicious for you to inherit the will and then suddenly die. Wayne Enterprises wouldn't risk that kind of attention and suspicion."
Especially not now...now that Jonathan was in custody. He was their associate, he could expose them. And I'm sure he's not the only one the authorities got.
