An unexpected dream

At that thought, Roland couldn't help shuddering. Afterward, he had spent every hour of every day as Batman, fighting all manner of freaks and monsters, without getting to experience any of the playboy half of the life.

Only now that he had found Bruce did he realize Bruce had pocketed that share.

"All right, so how do we get out of here?" Bruce asked.

Although he had a happy family here, Bruce couldn't stand living a lie. He had to go back.

"Only falling can end a dream. Only death can end a life." Roland grabbed Bruce, used his grappling hook to climb up high, then threw him down.

Bruce woke to find himself in a room in the Abandoned Church. Commissioner Gordon was waiting beside his bed, while Roland lay next to him with a strange machine fitted over his head.

"You're awake." Commissioner Gordon's eyes lit up as he checked Bruce over. "How do you feel? Everything all right now?"

"I'm fine."

"Of course you're fine. I went through hell." Roland's voice came from beside him. He tossed the machine on his head onto the bed. "We were both dreaming, so why did we get such different treatment?"

"Maybe you should use that machine on your own." Bruce shrugged. "All right, I've got work to do. What did you say happened to Harvey?"

"Harvey's current condition is... extremely tricky." Commissioner Gordon handed Bruce several photographs.

The photographs showed a building destroyed by fire, along with the charred human remains inside.

"Harvey... did this?" Bruce was startled.

"To be precise, Roland and Harvey did it together," Commissioner Gordon corrected him.

"You too..." Bruce glanced at Roland in surprise. As far as he knew, Roland wasn't someone with such a strong urge to kill.

"I was just an accomplice," Roland offered in a feeble defense.

"According to Dr. Gilda's assessment, Harvey is now being controlled by a dark personality," Commissioner Gordon continued. "It's a terrible situation. Even she doesn't know how to bring him back to normal."

"This is trouble..." Bruce murmured.

"There's more trouble. When I rescued you, I found some Fear Toxin made by Scarecrow, then followed that lead to him," Roland said. "He bribed the manager of the Wayne Chemical Plant and used your family's production lines to make six thousand cubic meters of Fear Toxin. We've barely found any of it so far."

Bruce's expression darkened further. "Leave that to me. As for Harvey, we'll still have to leave his problem to a psychologist."

"But even the psychologist is at a loss now..." Roland frowned.

"Let me think about it..." Bruce sighed, headed outside, and drove the Batmobile toward the Wayne Chemical Plant.

Just then, Commissioner Gordon's phone rang. After he answered, his expression grew steadily worse.

"Good thing he left so quickly..." Commissioner Gordon sighed.

"More bad news?" Seeing Commissioner Gordon's expression, Roland had an idea of what had happened.

"Yes, definitely bad news..." Commissioner Gordon drew a deep breath. "Joker and Harley Quinn have escaped from prison."

"That really is terrible news."

"I need to go to the Police Station and assign people to keep watch. We can't let him run wild," Commissioner Gordon said, then left with his car keys.

"Everything's happening at once..." Roland frowned. There was simply too much going on, so he decided... to enjoy himself with the Wonderland Device first. He would be more efficient at dealing with things once he had relaxed.

"Oh, right. I need to take this back to the Police Station as evidence." Commissioner Gordon returned a little while later. The moment he entered, he saw Roland dreaming with a lecherous grin on his face.

"...Is having wet dreams all you use this thing for?" Commissioner Gordon rubbed his temples, concerned about Roland's mental state.

The next day

"You said you found a way to save Harvey?" Having received Roland's message, Bruce arrived at Gilda's Psychology Clinic.

Harvey was now strapped into a straitjacket. To prevent him from escaping, Gilda had been left with no choice but to resort to it.

"Yes. I spent all last night using the Wonderland Device, and I finally came up with this idea." Roland's face was a little pale, and there were dark circles around his eyes. Clearly, all that intense thinking had drained too much of his energy.

"You're planning to enter Harvey's dream?" Bruce considered it and felt Roland's plan might be viable.

"Not me. You." Roland shook his head. "I'm worried something strange might happen if I go in."

When he had entered Bruce's dream yesterday, he had taken over the Batman part. If he took over Harvey's disfigured part this time, wouldn't that spell trouble?

Besides, when it came to talking someone through their problems, Bruce was much better at it than the inarticulate Roland.

"All right." Bruce nodded. He had intended to go in himself anyway.

Gilda made Harvey swallow a bowl of sleeping medication, putting him to sleep. Then she set up equipment on Harvey and Bruce to monitor their physical condition, so she could stop things promptly if anything went wrong.

Bruce put on the device. He had already trained himself to enter deep sleep whenever he wanted, so he needed no help from sleeping medication and soon fell asleep.

Bruce woke to find himself lying on a sofa. Looking around at the furnishings, he felt they were somewhat familiar.

After a moment's thought, Bruce remembered. This was Harvey's office.

Then... where was Harvey?

Just then, Harvey's secretary pushed open the door and handed Bruce a cup of hot coffee.

"Thank you," Bruce said.

"You're welcome, Mr. Harvey," the secretary replied respectfully.

Bruce froze and looked toward the window beside him. The glass reflected his figure, but the face was Harvey's.

If I'm Harvey, where has the real Harvey gone? Without betraying anything, Bruce set the coffee aside and began handling Harvey's daily work under his identity.

After some time, Bruce had more or less figured out the state of Harvey's dream. This was still Gotham City, except that under District Attorney Harvey's administration, every evil had been brought to justice. The Bruce of this world had no need to be Batman and was instead living as a playboy.

The Harvey persona was much like the real man, except that he was more capable, fabulously wealthy, widely renowned, and refined in manner, with a sterling reputation in Gotham City.

His physical condition, however, was poor. Bruce could clearly feel that his body was sleep-deprived and his mind exhausted.

Several days passed in the dream, but Bruce still found no trace of the real Harvey, until a brutal murder took place in Gotham City.