Epilogue

Bruce didn't know where he was. He didn't like that. He couldn't remember what had happened to him. He didn't like that even more. Slowly, he opened his eyes, years of crime fighting putting his nerves on edge for what would follow. To his surprise however, he wasn't met with a mad lunatic or killer psychopath, though he was in his Batman suit as he had expected. He was standing on a sidewalk in one of the more affluent streets of Gotham, with rays of early morning sunlight bathing him in a warm comfortable glow. He blinked. This was Gotham right? He didn't have much time to think on it. Already, his presence was attracting quite a crowd, and his brain worked furiously to try to put the pieces of his memory back into something recognizable. Pulling out his grapple gun and shooting into the air, his thought process seemed to unjam itself. The resulting wave of memories was so distracting he nearly messed up his landing. But Batman didn't stumble. Ever.

Desperately, he looked around from his now high vantage point on top of a tall white factory building as memories came rushing back to him. He, Tim, and Damian had been fighting heartless, protecting citizens, trying to stop the army of monsters from devouring them. Jason and Dick, along with the Keyblade Wielders, had split up promising to get off world to try and cure Jason. This entire revelation was making Bruce's skin crawl. Where were his sons? And why did his city look uncharacteristically peaceful and not like an army of evil creatures had just come storming through it, hellbent on corrupting people's hearts?

If there was one thing Batman hated, it was being uninformed. And at the moment, he felt very much that way. Unable to spot either Damian or Tim, he reached a hand up to his communicator in his ear, speaking quickly. "Red Robin, Robin, Report."

There were a few numb seconds of reverberating silence, then. "Uh, hey, um, Batman. What...where are-"

Tim's confused voice was suddenly cut off by Robin's.

"Present and accounted for. But I seem to be suffering from a mild case of amnesia."

Tim growled at being cut off. "You and me both. What the heck happened?"

Damian took in a sharp breath as if he were about to say something, but Batman swiftly cut him off. "If neither of you are injured, rendezvous on top of the old fabric factory on twenty-second street."

The two quickly complied, their channels falling silent, and in the resounding quite, Batman used the time to try and reach Jason and Dick via comm. links, which turned out to be a complete failure. Soon both of Batman's young vigilantes were standing next to him gazing up into his white-out lenses with slightly confused expressions, a chilly morning breeze making all three capes flutter around them dramatically.

"Nightwing." Damian began. "He and Hood, where are they?"

Frowning, Bruce looked down at his son. "Communicators are a dead end, there's no response. It's possible they are off world, in which case we wouldn't get a signal."

Tim was frowning too. "Why is it that none of us can really remember how we got here? Maybe if we could figure out what happened between fighting all those Heartless and now, we could come up with a more accurate idea of where Nightwing and Red Hood are."

Batman found this a perfectly logical option, and was just about to say so when something very peculiar happened.

His cellphone rang.

Of course, this wasn't Bruce Wayne's normal cellphone that nearly every single woman in Gotham had, nor was it his dreaded work phone. No, this one was special; only to be dialed in extreme circumstances. Hearing its shrill ring echo through the air made his blood run cold, as well as freeze Damian and Tim in their tracks. They both knew that noise. Yet Bruce slide the phone from his belt and answered it on its second ring.

"Bruce, you there?" Batman almost sagged with relief when he heard the familiar voice of his eldest.

"I'm here Dick."

"Good, because I have a lot of explaining to do. Well, I guess me and Terry actually." Terry? Who...?

"Hey, leave me out of this Dick! OW, careful. This is the third time I've got stitches there you know." The voice, clearly Jason's, could be heard rather far off in the background. They were using an alias. Necessary, considering Jason Todd was still legally dead.

Ignoring it, Dick continued. "Anyway, we're at Gotham General. The emergency room actually."

Bruce stiffened immediately. They were injured seriously enough to visit the hospital? Why weren't they at the Cave if they needed medical attention? In fact, why were they even in Gotham for that matter?

"Are you okay?"

"More or less. Terry's leg is pretty cut up though." Bruce could hear the phone shift as Dick stood, followed by footsteps. Bruce knew Dick well enough to realize he was pacing, a recent habit of his high energy son when he became overly nervous.

"Sora and Kairi aren't in the best of shape either, but Riku..." He trailed off, obviously at a loss for words. Bruce knew that kind of silence only too well.

"I'll be there soon." He said roughly before hanging up and facing the other two. "They're here." He said simply. "In Gotham."

Without another word, the three streaked off the building, and soon vanished into the brilliant sunrise, and out of sight.

Slowly coming to, the first thing Riku noticed was that his throat was sore. Really sore. So much so, that his immediate concern when he first opened his eye, was to find some water. Wherever he was, it was really bright, assaulting his vision and making him blink several times before closing his eyes again. However, in the little amount he did see, he became aware that he was surrounded by several people. It was only then that he realized someone was talking. He concentrated hard to make out the words.

"I swear I saw him blink guys. No really. He's awake, I'm pretty sure!"

"Go get the doctor Dick, will you?"

"Sure thing."

"Hey Riku you lazy butt, hurry and wake up will you?"

"Jeez you idiots, give the guy some breathing space."

"Was that supposed to be a pun, ya know with the collapsed lung and all?"

"No Sora, it definitely wasn't..."

"Tt."

Riku managed then to blink a few times, and stared around at everyone bleary eyed. He was in a white, overly clean room, which had his brain immediately thinking hospital. As he had thought, several individuals were sitting in chairs or standing around, looking down at him with concerned expressions. He shifted, realizing that he was indeed lying on a soft bed and covered in warm, if rather scratchy, blankets. Waiting for his brain to catch up with his eyes, he gazed at Sora who was standing to his right, a huge smile planted on his face as usual.

"Hey Sora." He rasped. "Got any water?"

But it seemed Sora was so overjoyed to see his best friend conscious again that he didn't take in a word of this request, simply diving forward and wrapping his arms around Riku's neck, being careful of the bandages. "Oh my gosh Riku you're finally awake! We've been waiting forever, well Bruce said it's only been like two days but that's still a really long time! How are you feeling? Any better? The doctors fixed up your lung and back and everything because we couldn't heal it with magic! But they said you'd be out for a few days while you healed and it's been what seems like forever! Did I say that already? Oh and I don't know how much you remember but we totally saved Gotham and Joker is in jail and-"

Mercifully at that moment, Jason stepped in and put a hand around Sora's mouth, dragging him backwards while Kairi offered Riku a cup of water, complete with straw. He took it gingerly, realizing that moving was still indeed very painful, and sipped the water gratefully. It was cool and refreshing, soothing his throat somewhat as he drank.

"Not too fast Riku!" Kairi said, taking his water away to his great displeasure. "The doctor said not to give you too much at first."

Grinning, Riku looked up at her. "Hey Kairi, nice to see you too." It was then that he noticed a sling around her right arm, and he was suddenly bombarded with foggy memories about the previous fight. He could remember getting injured, but only bits and peaces from after that. Apparently everything had worked out for the best however, accounting for the fact that Tim, Damian, Jason, Kairi, Sora, and supposedly Dick were all present and accounted for. Though, as he gazed at all of them in turn, he couldn't help but notice that everyone involved in rescuing Gotham's heart was pretty banged up. Sora had bandages peaking our from under his short sleeve T-shirt, Jason's leg was in some sort of cast while crutches lay beside his chair, and as Dick walked back in with the doctor, Riku noticed more then a few bruises on him as well.

Once the doctor came in, he checked his vitals, asked him how he felt, assessed his injuries, and explained to him he had had quite a serious case of pneumothorax, whatever that meant. As he left, the doctor went on exclaiming how miraculously fast Riku was recovering. Next thing Riku knew, Kairi and Sora were back, leaning over him and beaming.

"You have to get better soon!" Sora was saying excitedly.

"Yeah!" Kairi exclaimed. "We all need to heal up. There's something really important we have to do."

Riku raised his eyebrows questionably at them, but they just smiled mysteriously. Even Sora, who was usually awful at keeping secrets.

"You'll see." They said together, doing a spectacular job of annoying him.

Sora had never ridden a motorcycle before. Not a real one anyway. That was painfully apparent to Jason, despite the kid's claims to the contrary. His balance was way, way off as they rode down the busy streets of Gotham at the highest possible legal speeds. Jason had to keep reaching behind him and poking the kid into a better position. They would have been going faster, but Alfred, Bruce, and an assortment of crazy crime fighting children were driving behind them in a gratefully inconspicuous van. Jason had opted to ride his new motorcycle, courtesy of the losing teams – being the Demon Spawn, the Replacement, Bruce, and Dick. They had paid up on their side of the bargain, Jason had made sure of that, and now he and Sora were riding in front of them, rubbing in their victory as much as humanly possible. Sora had been bought a bike too, but as he was far to young to ride it here legally, it was safely stored in the cave. Which was just as well: Jason suspected the kid would cause some major chaos if he were allowed to ride one of these babies on his own. The bikes were beautiful, with one of the most powerful engines Jason had ever handled, and coloured red and black with a few streaks of white spread throughout its design. Needless to say, Jason thoroughly enjoyed the ride to their destination.

Large flag poles, multicoloured balloons, screams of delight and glee mixed with the mechanical whirring of rides, the wafting smell of cotton candy, popcorn and corn dogs, and a lot of happy people met them as they pulled into the parking lot of Amusement Mile. Riku, only cleared to come out yesterday by his doctor, and the only one left in the dark, simply stared up at the large sign bearing the park's logo, before his expression slowly turned into a smile. Dick on the other hand, was bouncing around like he had drank about 8 cups of coffee in the past 4 hours. Which, in reality was totally possible. He danced around the group, happily questioning which rides they should go on first, and already pleading with Bruce to let them stay until the fireworks at 9:00 PM. Despite themselves, everyone began contracting his infectious good mood, Bruce, Damian, and Jason even cracking small smiles as they walked into the front entrance.

Sure, it had its quirks, but in the end, Gotham was worth saving, if only so Jason could share it with his friends and family. Besides, he thought as they passed through the gates into the amusement park beyond, We've earned a little free time.

AN: Arrow: Well well well, it has finally come to an end. Guys, I can't believe me and Loxie were crazy enough to create this, but if anything, I think it got us both into writing again. Especially in Loxie's case. She writes some awesome Batman fics, so I would highly suggest going and checking them out. And honestly, if you've read the entirety of Gotham Hearts up until the end, good for you! This was quite literally the size of a novel!

Loxie: You shoosh with that praise. Those fics are acceptable. And yes it was. 274 pages in a word doc. So. Hooray for us for actually writing something that massively massive, and congratulations to you all for slogging through it with us! Would have posted this yesterday, but FF was being butts.

No, but seriously, thank you for following us through this story. It's been a journey. I hope you continue to read and enjoy many stories form here on. Loxie out, for the last time.