Warning! This is the sequel to my first ever fanfiction, Unmasked. It's not necessary to read first to understand this story (and I do think Untrusted has higher quality writing), but there will be spoilers for Unmasked throughout. Up to you.

Disclaimer: If I owned a billion dollar franchise, don't you think I'd be doing something better with it than writing fanfiction? Or making that stupid Batman v. Superman movie, for that matter?

Untrusted

Part I

Chapter 1: Prologue

"I'm leaving, Red."

"Alright." Ivy grimaced at the mouse she was observing. She'd given him a little too much this time around—his muscles were seizing to the point he couldn't breathe. Gas poisons were almost impossible to dose. "I could use more gloves whenever you get back."

"No, Red, I'm leaving."

Ivy looked up at that. Harley's eyes were wide, her expression more serious, more lucid, than Ivy had seen all week. She straightened, tossed the mouse back in his cage. "What do you mean?"

"That it's, uh, time for us to go. Duh."

"Where?"

"Home. Gotham."

Gotham. Home. That wasn't why Harley wanted it, of course, and they both knew it. Gotham meant one thing to both of them: Andrea Taylor.

Stall.

Ivy thought of herself as a straightforward person. If you hit her, she hit back twice as hard. If you screwed up the world by dumping toxins or getting greedy, she killed you. Simple. Direct.

It was impressive, then, that she'd gotten as good at misdirection as she had in the past two years.

"Are you sure she's even in Gotham?" Ivy asked. "She was in Star City the last time we almost caught her, and she's not an idiot. She has to know we're watching Gotham more than anywhere else."

Harley pouted at her.

"I can do my research, Red," she said as she climbed onto a lab table, her legs swinging off the edge like a child's. "Just because I'm not as—as put together as you—because I forget how to—to use a fork or—who my parents were—even when I lose everything—"

"Come on, Harley, you know I don't mean it like that…"

"I remember her," Harley whispered. "I lose everything else, Red. Even Mr. J, sometimes, but I always remember her. And that she took him away. I have to kill her, or it'll never be quiet in…" She formed her fingers like a gun and pointed them at her head. "In here."

Ivy stared at the fake gun and felt a chill walk down her spine. That was how it was going to end, wasn't it? Andi with her self-righteous crusade, Harley with her vendetta.

Ever since that awful night in the greenhouse, the future had been written out. One of them would kill the other. If Ivy hadn't constantly rerouted Harley's attempts, it would already have happened. The three of them had been best friends, and now Harley was hell bent on killing Andi, while Andi still insisted that she'd done the right thing. Sometimes Ivy felt like the only sane one of the three.

Not that that said much.

Ivy screwed up her eyes and pinched her nose.

"Ya ok over there?"

"Think I caught a whiff of that poison," Ivy said, because letting Harley know you had a conscience was a fast way to die. "Give me a second."

Harley would kill Andi. Or Andi would kill Harley. It was almost a law of nature by this point.

Screw that. Ivy was a scientist; she had mastered the laws of nature. There had been a way out all the other times, and there would be one now. They wanted to fight. Fine. Ivy had to change it so that they wouldn't or couldn't. Scare or hurt one or the other of them to the point that they got out of the game.

She could do it now. She had a gun in arm's reach. She could threaten Harley, lock her down somewhere so that it was physically impossible to chase after Andi and… no. Harley would call her bluff, make Ivy either shoot or release her. For all that Harley and Andi had changed, for all that Ivy herself was a ruthless killer now, she was also still their friend. She could never look them in the eyes and hurt them. Could never pull the trigger herself.

"What if it's not us who do it?"

"Red…"

Ivy wasn't like Harley or Andi; she was an awful liar. But by now she knew what it was Harley wanted to hear. "Us going after her… it's just plain boring, Harls. It's what she and expects us to do. Plus Gotham's getting stronger by the day and we aren't exactly anonymous over there. So… what if we flip the tables on them? What if we send someone else to do the job?"

"It can't be someone else who kills her. It has to be me. Or maybe you, if you really want."

"I know, Harley." Ivy made herself fake a smile. "You really think that anyone besides us can? Because I don't. But if we let someone else go first, soften her up, weaken Gotham to the point that it's vulnerable…"

Harley's face scrunched up, thinking about it.

"Ok, Red," she said. "If you really think that'll work. But when it's done, we move in. Deal? We go after Andi, and we smash her. And stomp on the pieces. Got it? Deal?"

Ivy tried to imagine her face was a statue, that her thoughts weren't escaping. She didn't think it worked—Andi had been the one with the poker face, not her. Get out of there, Andi. This is the only warning I can send; take it and run.

She wouldn't, though. Not if Ivy knew Andi. To force her out, Ivy would have to do more than just scare her. She would have to burn Andi so badly that she could no longer fight.

But she'd be alive. Neither she nor Harley would kill each other.

"Red?"

"Deal."

Author's Note: Ah, it's so good to be back (even if it's short)! Thank you guys for reading; if you liked it, I hope you know where to type and tell me.

Many thanks to Lasgalendil and Shad0whuntress for looking over this. They're not only good editors, they're excellent writers too, so check them out!