Her fist connected with Elektro’s jaw and kept going, tearing the steel apart and turning the robot’s head into a twisted clump of scrap metal. Elektro whined from somewhere inside his torso, as loud as a jet engine, and fell backwards to the floor. Jennifer straddled the machine’s frame as it twitched on the ground; reaching down, she yanked the chest plate off and pulled the fusor reactor out.
“Jennifer?”
As Kane watched, powerless even to rise from the floor, Rad got to his knees and then to his feet. Jennifer held the fusor reactor up and stared into its glowing heart. She looked mesmerized by the light, and if she saw Rad coming toward her, Kane couldn’t tell.
Then she fell, telescoping straight down, the fusor leaving her hands as they dropped away.
Rad was fast and his face was a grimace of determination. He grabbed the fusor before it was halfway to the floor. Then, as he fell over Jennifer’s body, he shouted something. What, Kane couldn’t tell over the ocean of noise in his head, but craning his neck he saw Rad toss the fusor reactor like a football towards him.
This was it. One chance. With a cry, Kane concentrated and pushed at the world, willing the power to rise from somewhere inside him, where the Fissure was hidden. He forced himself to stand; as he did, Evelyn screamed and flickered.
Kane caught the fusor. The light within was red and orange and warm and even holding the device was enough to invigorate him. Then he looked up at Evelyn.
“I don’t want to fall,” said the Ghost of Gotham. She held out her hand to Kane, her blue glow almost extinguished, leaving her grey and cold, an afterimage burned into the universe on that May morning in 1947.
Kane smiled. “Neither do I.” And then he tore off the glass cap of the fusor reactor. He summoned the last ember of his power and gave the ions within a little push, setting the reactor to destruct as the delicate balance within was disturbed. With one hand he pressed the cylinder to his chest as the device began to whine, the tone higher and higher, and he walked towards Evelyn. He took her hand, feeling pins and needles as their skin touched. He drew her into an embrace. And then she understood. She relaxed in his arms, resting her head on his shoulder, her feet touching the ground.
“I remember that day,” she said softly. “I thought I could fly.”
Kane smiled. “So did I, once.” He pulled her close and they walked to the portal, to Soma Street, passing through the assembled robots like they were smoke. Time slowed. Kane could feel the heartbeat in his chest and he thought he could feel the heartbeat in hers too, but he wasn’t sure.
They stood over the threshold, one foot in New York, one foot in the Empire State, standing in neither.
Kane held Evelyn and Evelyn screamed, screamed as she fell from the top of the tallest building in New York, her clothes caught in the wind, the wind that wrenched the shoes from her feet, that tore her stockings but that couldn’t take her hand from the pearls around her neck, the pearls she held onto until the very end.
Kane held Evelyn and Elektro’s heart detonated.
FIFTY-FIVE
Rad cried out. He rolled on his side and remembered the woman with blue eyes falling from a tall building. Then he looked up. The ground was cold, freezing, and the sign that shone in the icy air said Soma Street.
He jerked up, his head pounding. Someone said “Easy, tiger,” and a hand pressed down on his chest. He blinked, clearing his vision, and saw Mr Grieves looking down at him, standing in a sea of silver men.
Rad cried out again, and spun around on the floor. Soma Street was to his left, close enough to touch. The army of robots was on his right, impossibly tall from his position on the floor. Lying next to him was Jennifer, face down and very still. Of Kane and the woman with blue eyes there was no sign, but when he blinked he saw their outlines moving, right on the border between the two universes. It looked like they were dancing, dancing until the end of the world, but Rad blinked again and they were gone and maybe it had been his imagination anyway.
Rad winced. He hurt all over. His head felt like it was going to explode. He turned his attention to