The Count negotiates Face to Face Two-Face

Raising an eye brow in surprise to this man’s decision to spare his life at the flip of a coin, Dracula looked to the frightened men aiming guns at him and slowly lowered his hands. Two-Face stepped over to the table Dracula was sitting at originally. Pulling a chair out he sat down, flipping his coin in his hand waiting for Dracula to join him. Getting the idea, the Count joined him at the table. “So, you are this… Two-Face I’ve heard about, might I ask why you decided to attack a library of all places?”

Glaring back at the count, Harvey Dent seemed almost offended by the accusation. “It wasn’t the library we were aiming for.” Two-Face answered, his voice grave as he sneered back at the man across the table, still flipping his coin. “It was you.”

“Oh?” Looking around, Dracula found the half dozen or so armed men still aiming their weapons at him, some still shaking after watching one of their own get taken down so easily by the green cloaked man sitting across from their boss. Yet everywhere else in the library, he could see quite a few people dead from the wild gunfire those very same men caused on their entry. “And what of them?” Dracula asked pointedly to a corpse in plain sight while the rest of the library fled in a panic.

“They lost the coin toss.”

Chuckling at the whimsy of Two-Face’s actions, Dracula leaned back in his chair. “So why me of all people? I’ve only been in this city for 3 months, have I offended you in some way?”

Leaning back in his own chair, Two-Face flipped his coin and caught it in his hand. Looking at the results, Two-Face looked back at Dracula and answered, his voice smoother. “In the last three months We’ve been trying to keep the Penguin from taking the territories that used to belong to the Joker, if he’d have his way this city would be a cesspool of guns, crime and drugs.” There was a strange moment where Dracula noticed a pleading look on the right side of Harvey’s face, while the left scarred side merely glared.

“And if YOU were to take control of the city’s underworld?”

Flipping his coin and seeing it land on the damaged tails end, Dracula could see the man’s scarred side of his face almost smirk despite not having lips. “It would only be half as bad under us.” He answered, his voice grave and course again. “Under US, this town would have a fifty-fifty chance of getting back on its feet… Or go up in flames.”

“You still haven’t answered my question, sir.”

“Don’t take us for an idiot, three months pass by and people start dropping like flies like it’s the damn plague, all because YOU show up.” Snapping his fingers, one of his crew lit two cigarettes; one white, the other black and handed them to Harvey Dent, who took them both between his fingers and inhaled them on the healthier side of his mouth. “We know about the S.S. Ceres and all the bodies that dried up after that, and look who decides to shack up with the Penguin last night, hmm?”

Narrowing his eyes, Dracula gave the scarred man a more serious look. “And how do you know I travelled on that doomed ship? Or that I am the root of the murders in this city?”

“We used to be a D.A for the Gotham police, we’re not stupid, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can put those two facts together.” Waving his hand over the right side of his face, the side marred with burns, Two-Face continued, his voice softer again. “Bad luck simply gave us a dual perspective on the matters of what’s considered ‘criminal’ in this town.”

Leaning back again, Dracula finally understood. He was not speaking to one person, but two radically different people in one body; one caring and noble, the other cruel and shameless. “There was a man I knew centuries ago who would have been fascinated by you.” Looking back to the scared men still aiming their weapons at the man, Dracula turned his attention back to Harvey Dent. “What if I were to tell you I’ve only arrived in this city to deal with a single problem, a growing problem I indent to rectify and then leave once my task is done?”

“It would make us VERY happy, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you’re treating that fat old bird’s place as a motel to stay in.” Harvey breathed, puffing dual plumes of smoke from his two cigarettes. “How do I know you aren’t here to be another one of the Penguin’s hired assassins? How do I know that all these dead bodies aren’t cropping up because he told you to kill a few ‘certain’ people who were in his way? How do I know I’m not next on that little kill list?”

Smiling a fanged smile with his eyes glowing red and crossing his fingers together as he leaned back, Dracula chuckled out loud. “No one makes demands of me, I will do what I came here to do, and if it pleases you… The ‘Penguin’ can disappear from this town just as I will when my task is done.”

Putting out his two cigarettes on the raw wood of the table, Harvey pulled out his silver coin. “Let’s flip for it; heads I let you go and give you the benefit of the doubt you’ll go by your word.” Turning the coin to show its burned side, he continued. “Tails… I let my boys blow your damn head off.” Dropping the coin on the table, Harvey and his crew watched the coin spin and rattle like a top, waiting for the results. With a glimmer in his eye, Dracula used his influence to let the coin drop, its smooth clean side showing when it landed heads. Putting the coin back in his pocket, Two-Face stood and offered his hand to the count, his voice smooth once again. “Take care Count Bolg Varcolac, I hope your visit to Gotham is brief.”

Taking his hand with a shake and returning to his book at the table, the Count stood up and made to leave before turning around. “It’s Dracula by the way, Count Dracula.” Hearing Two-Face chuckle while the rest of his crew laughed, Two-Face stood up and gestured for his crew to exit to the back before the police arrived. “Right… And we’re Doctor Jeckle and Mr. Hyde.”

“Yes… You certainly are…” Stepping out of the library just before the police arrived and barged down the double doors to storm the building, Dracula was largely ignored like a figment, his grin never leaving his lips even after he disappeared into the shadow of an alleyway.