Title: Something She Has to Do
Rating: PG
Femme-slash warning. Poison Ivy/Harely
Characters are property Batman the Animated series. I am just borrowing.
Pamela Isley hated Gotham.
Nothing grew there and if it did then it never lasted. She had held out for as long as she could. She had made a nice sanctuary for herself deep in the jungles and far from the eyes of mankind. She was working on a way for the rainforest to protect itself. She had done quite well as slash and burn operations steered clear from her section of the forest because they feared the wraith of the trees.
She didn't want to leave the green. She was so happy there, but she was, as always, alone.
It wasn't the loneliness that brought her back, or even the promise of companionship. She returned for something she called friendship. She returned because a look at an international newspaper told her that her gal pal was in deep trouble.
Not the usual Joker escapades. Not the normal Gotham crime spree. This was real intense life threatening trouble.
Pamela didn't understand why she felt like she had to return for Harley. There were words that bounced about in her head but they just didn't seem to be enough of a reason. She considered for a moment that it was because she had come so close to having what she really wanted for once, a family and a home, only to ruin it because… Because she was too afraid to admit what it was she really wanted.
Nothing grew in Gotham, what little was allowed was eventually killed. Even in the parks the trees were battered and bruised with initial carvings, daisies trampled were in their beds and cluttered with litter, and even the grass went brown and stayed that way after a time. Nothing grew there. Nothing could last there. It was a cursed city plagued by as much obvious crime as it was plagued by corporations that polluted and raped the earth for all it was worth.
The plane she had stowed away in landed and she emerged from the imported crates of fruit as Poison Ivy, leaving Pamela behind to do all the lamenting and thinking. She had to be on her toes, needed her head in the game so she could do what she needed to do and avoid the blasted Batman on top of it as well.
She moved through the city a creeping vine in the darkness, stopping only once to see the news headlines. She shut her eyes and shook her head.
Damn it all, Harl, why'd it have to be a cop? They won't let that go. Arkham won't be enough and because you aren't the Joker, because you aren't Two-Face or one of the other boys they'll make an example out of you, because it's easier for them. She thought.
She sighed, perhaps it wasn't that bad, but the city was growing tired of the costumes. It just needed a reason to make a statement, and to enforce the point Ivy already knew in spades. Nothing grew in Gotham, eventually everything would die by the city's hands. Only a rocking and devastating reminder from Mother Nature would make the city fall back into line, and even then, even then she could imagine it rising from the ashes just as bad as it was before.
Ivy stole a junky car that no one would miss from the side of the road and headed up towards Arkham. Harley would be there still waiting trial, and the court date was just around the corner. All Harley needed was to lay low for few months so that someone else could come along and do something worse. Not that Ivy could think of anything worse than killing a cop, but she was sure the Joker could come up with something. She supposed that even she could do something worse than that.
The more she thought about the incident she had seen in the papers, the more it didn't sit right in her head. Harley was pretty keen on maiming, but killing didn't seem to be high on her list. It felt like a frame-up, but Ivy wasn't Batman and she wasn't going to go sleuthing around wasting time to prove Harley's innocence. She was going to just spring Harley and make a run for it.
She parked the car a few miles down the road and then moved down into the sewers tracing the path that lead back to Arkham. It was easy going which had her slightly paranoid, but she made it to a spot that was where she was pretty sure Harley's cell was located. She listened and heard familiar sobbing. She winced at the sound and moved on.
If there was one place the security was lacking it was in all the underground pipes. It never seemed to matter how many times crews were sent down to make repairs and replace grates and locks there was always a spot that was missed. Perhaps it was accidental, but it was more than likely that repair crews were well paid for turning a blind eye on certain areas.
Ivy entered the asylum and quickly apprehended a female guard and took the uniform. It was an escape plan that was cheesy as all get out, but because of that it was a somewhat unexpected tactic. Besides, Ivy usually did her escaping from the inside, not the other way around.
She casually walked over to Harley's cell and knocked. It was code they used when they had cells next to each other. It made it easier to communicate and plan escapes that way. She paused and heard a meek reply. She shook her head and pulled a small seed out of her pocket and dropped it by the door to the cell. It bounced once and then erupted into a mass of vines that took out the door and halted the immediate onslaught of guards.
Ivy jumped into the cell and helped Harley out.
"Oh Red, I really blew it this time!" The blond wailed.
Ivy didn't say anything she merely tugged at Harley's wrist to get her moving faster. The blond seemed hurt by the lack of response and Ivy really did want to say something back but everything on her lips was just harsh admonishments that she didn't need to say. That was part of Harley's problem after all. She wanted someone to scold her, but she was stronger than that and Ivy knew it.
The bat would come. There was no doubt in Ivy's mind even as she and Harley made it out of the sewers. The bat would come, because he always came. He was a crazed gardener trying to keep spoiled ground from dying. He wanted to see Gotham allow something to live, anything. She could almost admire his dedication except that she knew better. Gotham was barren, and it always would be.
He was at the airport. Ivy stared him down.
"She has to go back Ivy, and so do you." He said in his usual gruff tones. "You have to be held accountable for your crimes."
"I don't have time for this." Ivy said flatly and pulled another seed out of her pocket. She threw it and on the first bounce vines sprung up and entangled the Batman. She tugged Harley along towards the plane, knowing he would be behind them soon enough.
She sighed when he appeared in front of them.
"Give it up Ivy!"
"No, I'm not leaving her behind in this city. I've seen too much stunted by this barren land. Nothing grows here, Batman, and anything that does eventually dies if it stays around." She looked back at Harley and winked. Then she sprang forward and fought her best against the bat, but in the end she was caught.
He cuffed her and then looked up as he saw a plan take off with Harley Quinn making faces at him from the window. He looked back over at Ivy and shook his head.
"She's left you here with me, what does that say about your friendship?"
Ivy grinned. "It doesn't matter. She's free."
"She'll come back for the Joker eventually."
"Maybe, but you're assuming she'll leave Pamela." Ivy said with a grin and then started to cough.
"Not again!" Batman said. "You're one of her plant people?"
"In a manner of speaking." Ivy said. "I'm a little more advanced. I'll live long enough to go to jail and maybe even stand trial. I'm as sentient as they come, Batman, almost just like her, except that when they put me behind bars for good I'll wither away and die."
"Seems like a waste."
Ivy, or the plant clone of her smiled. She heard sirens coming from a ways off. "Want to hear a good story, Bats?"
He didn't say anything.
"One day Pamela woke up and she had everything she ever wanted. It wasn't what she expected to want, but it made her happy. There was a blond in her arms who she could never intentionally hurt, the only human she cared about more than plants." Ivy shut her eyes and smiled at the planted memory.
"Hm."
"It doesn't matter if Harley leaves her eventually, Batman. All that matters is that for a little while they're out of this awful city and growing, and doing it together."
End.