They had been driven to brink of darkness and rapidly shoved into abyss. They had seen the depths of depravity and had managed to embrace into their system by becoming one with darkness. The darkness personified their shadows during the night and it added an outline to their profile pronouncing their existence, during daytime. They were people who could make a difference.
They were people who made a difference.
They had fought their way hard to find the light again. And when they did tumble into land of living after going through the ordeal of "discovering" themselves, they were changed people. The scars that they carried due to personal tragedies were more pronounced in their actions. When they spoke, people listened. And people of the city spoke in hushed whispers -"Have they already met or is this a prelude to an extraordinary affair that will be remembered for a long time to come?"
He sometimes wondered if the mask he wore was easily readable by others. He was of the belief that there was no human on this earth who didn't wear a mask. No one wanted the world to see them for what they were. The world was cruel in destroying the person who didn't wear a mask or the ones who let their guard down and had gotten their mask transparent. But the world knew. It knew that below the mask lay an extremely vulnerable human who is very easily destructible.
His dead parents could easily vouch for that.
He never forgave the man who was responsible for their deaths.
The first time they met was during a moonless night. They were creatures of the night anyway. While he enjoyed cruising down the streets in the night his soul mate had enjoyed having fun. The obstacles he met during his nightly drive weren't much of a hassle.
In the beginning everything was quiet and world turned without giving a backward glance. He and then unknown partner lived in same city perhaps taking parallel paths - the ones that never meet. He hoped that they would meet one another one day. There was something telling him that the other person was extraordinary. Someone like himself but represented something much more primal. It felt as if he had been waiting all his life for this moment. The moment their eyes met across the street, he knew that this was it. This was why he was there in that place in that exact moment.
His soul mate probably felt it too since he received a very wide smile in recognition as if they knew each other from many lifetimes. The parallel paths had somehow beaten the basic principles of mathematics and had collided with one another.
It had taken him only moments along with few words to take this person in. He was surprised at the ease with which the evening had gone through. He had shrugged off the nagging feeling born from the years of dealing with darkness. Days later, he realized in horror that he missed that person.
And when he visited the person, he realized what had happened.
He was welcomed with a big smile. He never could say if the smile was real or was it fake. He didn't bother too much about it because if he asked, he would probably get an answer full of lies anyway. He wasn't in a mood to play.
The confrontation was surprisingly anti climatic.
"I will always find you, wherever you are." He promised. He vowed.
"I know you will. I know that you will always look for me and I will always do something which will make you look for me. Haven't you understood this still? You are the wind beneath my wings. You are the reason why I exist and I am the reason why people will love you and adore you. Without me, you are nothing. And without you my life will have no meaning and it won't be fun anymore." He didn't answer immediately. He knew that the person wasn't finished yet.
"You are my soul mate Batman." He didn't say anything and waited patiently for the man with the permanent mask to finish talking.
"We will always fight one another. Either you will kill me or I will kill you. I will assure you that this is how it is going to end. Because we are meant to be." He snapped then.
"Shut-up clown", he growled.
"Joker. I am Joker."