Author's Note: Here we go... The final chapter. It makes me very sad to end the story, but it has to end somewhere. No worries, I'll get right on the sequel. But there'll be time for me discuss that at the end of the chapter.

Batman crouched over the edge of a building on the outskirts of the city. He'd been waiting for several hours, but he was prepared to wait for as long as necessary. Unbeknownst to him, Wonder Woman had followed him. She landed silently several yards behind him. He spoke without turning around.

"I told you to stay at home."

"I decided not to listen."

"I mean it. It's dangerous."

"I appreciate the gesture, but I can handle myself."

Bruce simply continued to glare ahead. He knew that she was perfectly capable of defending herself (and her child), but he had a bad feeling about that night. But then again, he had a bad feeling about every night. Diana stepped forward to stand next to him. He couldn't help but notice the gold plates of her armor glinting in the moonlight out of the corner of his eye.

"I needed to talk to you anyway. I''ve just visited my mother. She's arranged for us to be allowed to visit Themyscira for a marital ceremony."

"I thought there were no exceptions to the rules banning men from the island."

"It's very important to her. She'll find a way to make it happen." She looked at him for a moment. "When are you coming home?"

"When the job is finished."

"And what job would that be?"

"The mob is moving to rob the Gotham National Bank tonight."

Wonder Woman rolled her eyes. "Can't the cops in this town do anything?"

"No idea. They don't have to."

"Well... I can tell you right now that you're going to be taking a lot more nights of in the very near future."

"Whatever you say, Princess."

Just then, an explosion rang out through the night. Two men wearing shady overcoats ran out through the smoke that was pouring of the wall of the bank, and climbed up an emergence ladder, taking them to a nearby rooftop. Batman leapt into action. Diana knew that she would be able to help him easily, but decided to let him have his fun.

Batman jumped down to confront the thieves. His eyes narrowed as he stared them down. The thieves pulled out handguns and began to shoot at him. However, they were rather poor shots, and he managed to dodge the bullets easily, throwing a batarang to disarm both men. He launched himself at the closer foe, throwing his cape out behind him to increase his bat-like appearance. He tackled the man forcefully, knocking him to the ground, and flipping to neatly land on his feet. The other criminal tried to throw several punches, but Batman quickly sidestepped them all, countering with a punch powerful enough to knock him unconscious. The Gotham Police arrived soon, but by the time they arrived, the thieves were both subdued and Batman had vanished without a trace.

Batman had jumped to a much higher rooftop, which proved to be a perfect vantage point for the thieves' arrest. Wonder Woman joined him shortly.

"You always have to be theatrical, don't you?"

"They have to learn somehow. The police would have gotten them, but then they'd be back to working for the mob. I can't guarantee that they won't be turning back to crime now. It's not just about catching the criminal. You have to send a message."

"And that message is...?"

"That I'm the goddamn Batman."

Author's Note: It's done! Please, leave me a review and tell me what you think of the final product. I'm still willing to take notes; it'll be a huge pain, but if people send suggestions that could improve the story, I can still go back and edit. So please keep that in mind. By the way, whoever gets the DCAU reference in this chapter gets... Well, nothing really. But maybe if your standards are low enough it could boost your ego a bit.

Now... I have some people to thank for this. First of all...

You guys. I've gathered some readers from all around the world, and it warms my heart to see so many of you coming back to read every time I post a chapter. I hope that you'll continue to stick with me through the sequel.

Next, the reviewers. The support really kept me going, and the constructive criticism was a huge help in writing dialogue and fleshing out the characters.

My main inspiration for writing this story was the Sonic the Hedgehog fic Ancient Ways, Ancient Evils by Hero of Winds; that was the main catalyst. I remembered reading it a very long time ago, and decided to look it up again. It really inspired me, and motivated me to write this story. It seems that he's been inactive for a while, but the aforementioned story is finished, and I would highly recommend reading it. It's very engaging.

This one is a bit strange... But my heartfelt thanks go out to Alice Cooper. His music was an important influence on how I wrote the Joker's character, and even inspired some of the Joker's schemes. Long live Alice!

Finally, all the other artists that I borrowed chapter titles from. Like I said, feel free to drop me a line if you want a complete list of songs: I've checked through, and they form a fairly accurate representation of the story arc, and even open the story to work on more than one level.

Now for my future plans. I've got some ideas cemented for a sequel; it probably should be filed under crossovers, but I think that it will end up in the JL section, just so I can keep myself organized that much more easily. Like I mentioned before, it will feature several characters from the Marvel Universe, but, due to my limited exposure to Marvel, I'm going to be using the settings used by movies. I may have to use some artistic license to make things work, but any changes that I do decide to make will be very clearly marked. Anyway... I think that's it. And yes, most of this chapter was just a setup for that last line.