Ivy looked out over the city out of the window of the hospital. It was the same one Carmine Falcone was in, and Maroni's men would be there in no time at all. It was the worst place at the time for a little girl to be. Ivy didn't care though. Why would she? The people could play their stupid games, but whatever happened, they would all die. The earth would win.
There was the sound of gunfire behind her, creeping closer and closer. She could feel the shots being fired and the screaming of men being shot. They came closer and closer until they were practically behind her, but she did nothing. Ivy wasn't afraid of death. She didn't care.
Ivy turned around to notice the man behind her, holding a shotgun fully loaded, firing at something out of Ivy's vision. He turned to her, a slight smile appearing on his face.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he growled, about to fire the gun at Ivy. Stupid men like that didn't need a motive to shoot a little girl. Ivy stared down the barrel of the gun and waited to die and leave the planet, but she didn't. The man in front of her was shot. Another came into focus, a tall, skinny, bald man. He held two handguns and stared at Ivy, not knowing what to say or do. Neither did Ivy.
"Let's get you out of here, little girl." he finally breathed, his voice as raspy as death, yet with a trace of warmth towards the little girl.
Ivy slowly walked towards the man, who held her hand softly and gently, pulling her down the hall. He shot a few men on the way and got her into a quiet area of the hospital, where a few beds were lined up in their sheeting. They hid behind one, crouching down to hide and turning to each other.
"My name is Victor. Victor Zsasz." the bald man said. Ivy didn't say anything, prompting him to continue as if nothing was happening. "Who are you?"
"I'm Ivy." the little girl whispered. She didn't know why Zsasz was helping her, but there had to be a reason. It couldn't possibly be abduction. What would they do with a girl like her?
"Let's get you out of here, Ivy."
Zsasz peered over the corner of the bed, the sounds of gunfire seemingly distant. He gently, yet firmly pulled Ivy out from behind the bed and made a run down the stairs and for the door. Ivy tried to match Zsasz's long strides with quick, nimble footsteps. Zsasz was forced to shoot one more man through the chest who was blocking their way, and the two emerged out the door where the cold air stung Ivy's face.
Zsasz stopped Ivy in a safe place of the yard, kneeling down to stare into her eyes. There was something remotely warm inside Zsasz that Ivy found comforting.
"I have to go back in there." he said. "Stay safe, Ivy."
"Why did you help me?" Ivy asked.
Zsasz was silent for a long time, and finally sighed, "I wasn't always a monster."
Ivy reached out to him, but Zsasz disappeared back into the hospital, the sounds of gunfire growing more frequent.
Where could Ivy go? There was Barbara Kean's apartment, but that could be a warzone. She could try to find Bruce Wayne, but a rich kid like that was probably dead. It was a war going on, after all. The only person she could turn to was Cat. Selina wasn't like the rest of the humans. There was something different about her that Ivy liked; something very nondependent and animal that made her different. Ivy turned to the truck behind her, and slipped inside, taking shelter from the cold. She huddled in the body of the truck, closing the door behind her and looking out from behind the darkness.
"Come on!" she heard a voice say, as footsteps approached her. Ivy didn't leave the truck. Why would she? The voice belonged to a man with an eye patch over one eye, getting into the driver's seat of the truck and talking to another man, sitting himself in the passenger seat. Ivy watched their conversation through the small window. They didn't even notice her.
"I'm leaving after this." the other man sighed, seemingly exasperated. "I don't owe Fish anything else."
"If it weren't for her, your other hand would be strapped onto a doll right now. Getting her a truck is the least we can do."
"Why does that crazy bitch even need this rig?"
"Can you blame her? The woman loses an eye, comes back to Gotham, and the first thing she does is shoot up a clothing shop."
"If she dresses up like that on the island, I can't wait to see what she wears to battle."
The truck started up, and Ivy watched the world zoom past her as she was whisked off down the street. She had no idea where she was going, but what was different? What could Cat be doing, or Zsasz? It was a good five minutes of zooming down the dirty streets of Gotham, occasionally hearing a gunshot that made her wince. The man in the front seat was a terrible driver. Of course the enthusiastic one would be the one with an eye patch. What could be happening? There was the sound of a bomb going off in the distance. Maroni really was pushing as hard as he could.
There was a screech, and a stop so sudden it made Ivy jerk forward and almost fall over. She waited for a bit, silent and still, waiting for something to happen. The men left the front and talked for a bit before finally creeping towards the back and opening the door, spotting the little girl.
"What? Who's this?"
"Should we tell Fish?"
"Hell, no. The lady's got enough on her hands with her whole revenge scheme, why bother her? She won't care about a little girl, just shoot her."
"Hello." A familiar voice crept up from behind the two men, piquing Ivy's curiosity. Cat appeared from behind a door. The truck seemed to be in a warehouse somewhere, everything was grey and concrete. Cat's familiar face brought relief to Ivy, but yet she looked so different. She wore red and black leather, more adorned for style, and her hair was worn to one side. She held a shotgun.
"Oh, it's just you." The other man sighed. Ivy noticed he only had one hand. Was all of Fish's crew missing body parts? And why?
"Yeah, it's me." Cat grinned sarcastically, cracking her neck by jerking it to one side. "Fish wanted me to check on the truck delivery. I see you found a stowaway."
The man growled. "You know, for a minute, I thought you were someone I should fear. But nope, you're just Fish's pet cat."
"Let the girl go." Cat said, her voice stern.
The man just laughed. "I'm getting kind of tired of taking orders from this little punk." his companion didn't say anything, and the man took his cue to keep taunting Cat. "How about I put a bullet in your forehead and tell Fish that you tripped and fell on your gun? It's a lot better than listening to a ten year old girl give us orders."
In the blink of an eye, Cat cocked up her shotgun, pulling the trigger and shooting the man in the leg. He fell to the ground, screaming and bringing his hands to his new wound, while the man with the eye patch held his hands up in surrender.
"I'm fourteen," Cat growled, looking as if she could spit at the man on the floor. "And a hell of a lot smarter than you." She turned to the man with the eye patch. "Get him a splint and a bandage, and tell Fish her truck is here. Don't say anything about the stowaway."
He ran off, helping his friend up and out the door, while Cat helped Ivy out of the truck. She lay her shotgun down on the floor and brushed Ivy off, embracing her in a hug.
"Ivy, what are you doing here?" Cat asked, the anger in her face melted away. "You can't be here, it's too dangerous."
Ivy sighed, "I'm not here by choice."
The two let go of each other, and Cat looked around in case anyone was listening. "Ivy, you have to go right now. I'll get someone to drive you somewhere safe. People are going to die here."
"People are dying everywhere."
Cat nodded, looking down to think. "You should go to the precinct. You'll be safe there until this is all over."
"What about you? Are you in danger?"
"Cats always land on their feet, remember?"
Cat gave Ivy one last hug for good luck and told her to wait. She left out of the door she came in from and Ivy stood still for a few minutes until a man came back out, this one wearing a black beanie and walking with a prosthetic foot.
"You're the one I'm supposed to drive?" he asked, gruffly. Ivy didn't say anything, thinking it was sarcasm, and just followed him into a car. There were three cars parked there, one red, and two green. The man got into one of the green cars, Ivy following him. Without any kind words, they were off.
Ivy had eventually reached the conclusion that the man driving her did not like her at all. He didn't say a word as he was driving her, much slower and more carefully than her first driver, and stared straight ahead the entire time. There appeared to be a road jam ahead as they entered the main district and the precinct began to creep closer over the fog.
Bang! A crash through the window and a wet splatter from the man's forehead happened near simultaneously as he fell forward onto the steering wheel and the blood from his bullet wound dripped onto the carpet floor. He made the car jerk forward, making a sudden right turn and heading straight into the side of a building with the force of an atomic bomb.
So this is how I die. Ivy thought, sitting completely still and staring her death in the face. At least it'll most likely be quick.
There were a lot of things to think about in that moment. Cat, her parents, what was going to happen to the city, but for whatever reason, the face that came into mind as she started to black out from fear was that of Victor Zsasz.
There was a sound like metal bouncing off of glass. The piercing chink jarred Ivy awake, where her eyes snapped open and she was suddenly aware of everything. She was lying on the floor of a house on a carpet, a corner of the house in shambles, possibly from combat. There was a faint pain in her temple, where she brought her hand up to feel her ache and brought it back down with a dab of blood staining her fingers.
The metal sound resonated through her head again, like a needle penetrating her brain. She just wanted it to stop. With all the effort left inside her, she turned her head towards the sound to find a man kneeling next to her, flipping a coin. He seemed friendly enough. He was smiling at her, and she wasn't dead, alluding to the idea he was an ally.
"You're awake." he smiled with warmth. "It wasn't you who drove that car through the bottom floor of my office, was it?"
Ivy shook her head, making him chuckle.
"I'm just kidding. What's your name?"
Ivy didn't say anything until another set of footsteps lightly tapped on the floor, and a familiar face kneeled down to smile at her. It was a woman, with long black hair. "Hi, Ivy. Do you remember me?"
Ivy didn't remember the woman. If she did, it was from a long time ago. Ivy kept silent, which might have made the man with the coin worry a bit.
"It's me, Renee." the woman spoke softly. "Do you remember? I investigated the death of your dad."
"My dad, he-" Ivy started, making the man with the coin chuckle.
"I'm sorry." Montoya said. "I didn't mean to bring up your father."
"You had me worried for a second there, Ivy." said the man with the coin. "It's good to see you can still talk."
The two adults stood up and started pacing around the room. Montoya handed Ivy a pill for her headache, which she swallowed whole.
"Can she stay here, Harvey?" Montoya asked.
Across the room, Harvey looked up from his files, reading, 'Assistant District Attorney.' He looked like he was thinking. "An ADA's office isn't a good place for a little girl. It's too much of a target. Can you and Crispus take her somewhere safe?"
Montoya laughed a bit sarcastically. "I don't think there is such a thing anymore."
"Well, we're not putting her back in danger." Harvey sighed, turning the volume up on his television. It was news covering the gang war. The bar at the bottom read that Don Falcone had been captured and Oswald Cobblepot was gone. Some of Maroni's forces were shooting up Arkham Asylum and Falcone's men were fighting back. Spotted at the Arkham shootout were Tommy Bones, Richard Knemmitz, and Victor Zsasz.
Victor. Ivy had no idea why she felt so compassionate for him. He had saved her once, but what would she have to do for him. And not caring about something was different than a hollow favor.
"You have to help Victor." Ivy said, the loudest she had spoken since the car crash.
"How do you know about Victor Zsasz?" Montoya asked, looking questioningly at Harvey.
Ivy sighed. "He saved me from the hospital."
Harvey chuckled in disbelief and muttered to himself a bit too loudly, "Victor Zsasz saving small children from hospital shootouts? What, did he give you a lollipop and a balloon too?"
Ivy ignored his comments and just turned to Montoya, waiting for her to respond. Montoya pretended to think for a while and sighed heavily, obviously not happy with the idea of sympathizing with Victor Zsasz. "Crispus and I will look into it."
Montoya's lying skills were pitiful. "Take me to him."
"Ivy, Victor Zsasz is a bad man. And he's at a shootout in Arkham Asylum, I can't take you-"
"Monty." Harvey said, cutting her off. "The truth is, if we want to keep her safe, no one in the city can do it better than Zsasz."
Montoya walked over the Harvey, obviously flabbergasted. "She's a little girl. For all we know, she just thinks that Victor saved her. For all we know, it could've been another man that looked like Victor, we don't know. But sending her to Victor Zsasz is tantamount to handing her to the devil."
Harvey flipped his coin, catching it on the back of his hand and looking at the face up. "Victor Zsasz could've single-handedly killed everyone in the hospital. The face that she's alive is a testament to his mercy."
"We're really going to test Zsasz's sense of mercy? Have you lost your mind?"
Harvey held up his coin to show Montoya the head that landed face-up. "Just half of it."
"He said he wasn't always a monster." Ivy said, commanding the adult's attention for a long time.
Harvey finally picked up his phone and dialed a number. Harvey held it up to his face and started, "Crispus, we're sending a civilian towards you. Take her to Victor Zsasz at Arkham. Don't leave her until you're sure we can leave her with Zsasz."
Montoya helped Ivy onto her feet and down the stairs. She could see the place in the wall where the car had crashed into it, the room in shambles. Allen was waiting in a car and opened the door for Ivy to get in. Montoya came in after her in the passenger seat, and as fast as he could, Allen started the car towards Arkham.
"So, Vic Zsasz saved a little girl's life?" he asked.
Montoya sighed, "I guess everyone's got a soft spot for something."
Soon, the car was driving over the road and Arkham was over the horizon. There were guns and explosions, creeping closer and closer, scraping away at the courage of her drivers. Most of the gunfire was from the inside, and there was evidence the door had been blown open with a bomb.
"Ram the gate!" Montoya yelled, ducking below the dashboard. Ivy followed her example and ducked below the seat in front of her, making herself as small as possible. A large impact jerked her into the air and made her fall on her side as a huge metallic sound vibrated in her head for a while and the entire car shook. As soon as they entered the grounds of the asylum, a bullet struck the side of the car, making a dent and a sharp cracking sound. It was only the warning shot.
More bullets came from the door, and Ivy peeked up from the window. A spray painted M on their lapels marked them out as Maroni's men, but they were too unkempt to be regular mafia. They were probably renegades still loyal to their Don.
Montoya rolled down her window enough to stick her gun out and start shooting back. She got one in the shoulder, but was forced back down by reinforcements.
"I'm so stupid." Montoya groaned, turning to her partner. "How the hell are we going to find Zsasz in this?"
"We have to go!" Allen yelled, letting Montoya take one more shot at the men. "I'm sorry, Ivy."
He leaned back up and pressed the pedal with his foot as fast as he could to start to drive away with a sharp right turn, momentarily heading straight towards the men before turning away. Ivy looked out of the back window, watching the asylum fade away in the fog when the men that were attacking them were shot down. Victor Zsasz ran out the front door, watching the car fade away.
Ivy didn't think about what she did next. She didn't think of any consequences or moral boundaries. All she wanted was to go back to Victor. She jumped forward from her seat and suddenly pushed Allen to the left, making him tug the steering wheel as far to the right as it could. The car screeched below them and veered to the right at almost ninety degrees before spiralling out of control. Allen did his best to try and put on brakes, but the car was skidding on its tires.
I have to leave now. Ivy thought. She reached for the side door beside her and pushed as hard as her arms would let her, making it swing open. She simply let herself fall out of the car before it smashed into the wall of the asylum, the force shaking the ground and flipping the car on its side and finally its roof.
Ivy got up, her head ringing and her shoulder burning from her having landed on it. She stood up on the grass, waiting for the two detectives to come out. She waited one second, five, ten, an entire minute, but nothing happened.
She had just murdered two detectives.
A gentle hand rested on her shoulder and she turned to see Victor. He had an open gash on his forehead, and his right sleeve was rolled up. A series of small cuts that resembled tally marks riddled his arm, a few so new they were still dripping blood. Had it been broken glass?
"What are you doing here, Ivy?" he asked, his voice as tender as last time.
"They brought me here." Ivy said in her wispy voice, pointing to the wrecked car on the green. For sure the two were dead. If they had survived, they would've crawled out.
Zsasz stared at the flipped car, absolutely no emotion in his eyes. "We have to keep you safe."
"That's what they said too."
Zsasz nodded. "Come with me."
Ivy followed him into the asylum, through the smashed doors and into the dark hall. The gunfire seemed to be distant, but Zsasz kept his gun ready. Ivy looked around for any men. One of Maroni's men turned the corner, holding a machine gun, and looked shocked at Zsasz.
He didn't even get to blink before Zsasz put a hole in his chest, sending his tumbling to the floor. Ivy watched as his machine gun dropped to the floor and Zsasz rolled up his sleeve further, taking out a pocket knife and making a slit in his arm beside the other ones in the shape of a tally mark. Zsasz didn't look like he felt anything.
"What's that?" Ivy asked.
Zsasz snapped out of his daze. "Something a little girl shouldn't know about." There wasn't any anger in his voice. If anything, there was empathy.
There were more footsteps, and Zsasz pulled Ivy behind a corner and put his finger on his lips to tell her to be silent. He peered around the corner, his breaths not even visible, and finally burst into action, bringing one arm up and letting two bullets rip. He didn't miss a single one, two grunts coming from around the corner and two thumps as the bodies fell to the floor.
Zsasz held Ivy back in case any more men were coming after them. He carefully looked around the corner, waiting, with one hand holding a gun and the other tenderly on Ivy's shoulder. It was the arm with the scars.
Ivy took a shard of glass off the ground and cut into Zsasz's arm. She cut twice, one for each man that just died, starting a new tally. Zsasz didn't look like he was in pain, he just looked back at what Ivy was doing. He saw his new scars and seemed to smile just the slightest bit.
"Thank you, Ivy." he said, his tone now lukewarm.
"How many do you have?"
"Fifty seven. Fifty nine, now."
Ivy didn't have any emotion left to spare, but there certainly wasn't anything in her against Zsasz. Was that what a father was like? Was that what a father was supposed to be? Before Ivy's father was shot, he was much colder than Zsasz. Could she stay with him?
Zsasz shot a few more people, not missing once, until there was a long silence, and Zsasz dragged Ivy along with him down the hall, over the bodies, and locked the door behind them. It looked like they were in a cafeteria for the inmates. They weren't alone, either.
"Hello, are we interrupting?" a voice said with a sinister sneer. "She seems a little young to be crazy, right?"
Jerome was the most recognizable person in the asylum. Of course, after all the inmates had escaped, he would stay. Next to him was Aaron Helzinger, whose electrode wounds on his forehead were beginning to heal. Jerome's orange hair was wild and oily, his trademark grin wide. He was only in the paper once, but it sent chills into Gotham for weeks.
Zsasz stood in front of Ivy to protect her, and Jerome burst out in huge, evil laughter. The bodies of Maroni's men lay at his feet, blood on their faces and on Jerome's hands and face. "Oh, admiring my work? I'm strangely territorial. And I've been served some hella good meals in this cafeteria; I just hate to have it blown up by Don Macaroni."
As quick as a magician pulling out a playing card, Zsasz whipped out a gun and shot at Jerome. With the reflex of a cheetah, Jerome jerked to the side, letting Zsasz's bullet hit the wall behind him, and pulled a gun out of his straitjacket. Jerome's grin grew ever wider as he laughed hysterically, shooting like crazy at Zsasz and Ivy.
Zsasz pulled Ivy back behind a table and flipped it on its side to block Jerome's bullets with. Ivy winced as the bullets hit the table with loud cracking noises. Zsasz peered over the table and fired off a few shots to keep Jerome on the other side.
"You have to go, Ivy." Zsasz sighed. "I'll open the door and you have to run as fast as you can."
"Are you coming with me?"
"I can't. My duties to Don Falcone still stand." He fired off a few more shots, one making Jerome howl in pain. Ivy didn't look, but Jerome kept shooting.
"Gotham is changing." Zsasz said with a tender hand on her chin. "The battle is in flux. No one knows who'll end up on top, but that can be good. I know you're smart enough to make your way to the top."
"Why did you help me?" Ivy asked, determined to find out before she left Zsasz's side.
Zsasz was silent for a long time until he finally breathed, "Because you remind me of my daughter."
As fast as lightning, Zsasz leapt up and swung the door open, shooting madly at Jerome and Aaron. Ivy took one last look at her saviour and dashed out the door, running down the hall and back into the light outside, where it was night time. The gunshots faded into the distance, and if Zsasz won, he'd be looking for another battle.
He wasn't always a monster. Ivy thought, her running turning into a fast walking pace as she left the courtyard and turned onto the street. He had a daughter.
Somewhere, in the distance far away, there was a faint scream. I'm the king of Gotham! It screamed, the wind carrying the voice along the streets so everyone could hear. Zsasz was right. Gotham was changing, and anyone could end up on top. The next queen of Gotham could be Ivy Pepper.