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Chapter 4

'When you told me about your brilliant plan about saving Gotham I didn't call the men in white only because of one reason: Because you said, it wasn't about thrill.'

'It isn't.'

'And how you would you explain this?' he asked and pointed on the TV which showed the car chase from Batman.

Bruce looked at it closing his shirt. 'Really good entertainment.'

'It is a wonder that nobody got killed.'

'I didn't have time to show respect to the traffic rules. It was Rachel's life that was in danger. She is downstairs and sleeps and I want her to bring her home...Is Fox still here?'

'Yes, sir. And Valentina wanted me to tell you that she could only come later. She had some work.'

'I know' Bruce said and went off. Bruce entered the party and the crowd began to sing.

'What was the plan, Crane?' Gordon asked and turned the Scarecrow mask in his fingers. He looked up to the doctor who was tied up in a white vest on the chair. He didn't seem to have lost his mind but was unwilling to cooperate.

'How was the poison supposed to get into the air?' he asked. He needed answers. Why giving a toxin into the main water supply if it is only toxic if it's inhaled?

'Scarecrow' Crane muttered.

'Scarecrow' he said in a creepy voice.

He lost his mind, Gordon thought. 'For who have you worked, Dr. Crane?' Gordon's voice got louder. Scarecrow looked at the floor and then he looked directly with his cold light blue eyes into Gordon's face.

He smiled his evil triumphing smile that showed his advantage. He knew that he won. He was vaccinated and nobody could harm him in any kind of way. He wasn't crazy. And his boss already was in town. Nothing could stop him anymore, not even Bruce Wayne. The moment before Valentina had run up the stairs to 'save' herself, she had whispered it to him. Shortly before he had jumped on Batman.

Bruce Wayne, the rich inheritor. It must have been so clear. She went out with him because she knew. She was an evil snake, that was what he liked on her. She betrayed everybody, only he was the one she loved.

And he knew that it was the truth when she told him that she loved him more than anybody else in the world.

'Oh, it's too late. You can't stop it' he hissed in his creepy voice with his Irish accent and did this typical licking his lips that cannot be described.

He tried not to burst out into laughing when he watched Gordon became angrier. As he had studied psychology he knew what such a man thought. Gordon stood up and rushed out of the room.

'Here' he pushed the Scarecrow mask at the guard's chest. He took it.

'And you, thank you for this…thing.' Lucius turned around. Bruce stood next to him, smiling.

'You're welcome' he answered. 'I know that you'll use it wise.'

'I already did. How long would it take to produce huge amounts?'

'Weeks. Why?'

'Someone wants to spread the poison with intoxicating the main water system.'

'Only, water wouldn't be any useful through an inhalation.'

'What?'

'Except they would have a microwave transmitter which could vaporize the water inside the main water supply. Like the one that Wayne Enterprises is currently missing' he said with a concerned face.

'Missing?' Bruce asked.

'Earle fired Valentina and me because I asked too many questions.'

'You need to go back to the facility and produce more of the antitoxin.'

'I don't have any access anymore.'

'But that can't stop you, can it?'

'No' Lucius laughed.

Bruce walked through the crowd when an elderly woman stopped him. 'Bruce, here is somebody you have to get to know!'

'Not know.'

'Come on. Do I pronounce it right when I say Ra's Al Ghul?'

Bruce turned back just to see Ra's Al Ghul looking at him. 'You're not Ra's Al Ghul' Bruce said astonished.

Well, of course not, there weren't any similarities. 'I watched him die.'

'But…is Ra's Al Ghul immortal? And does he have…superhuman forces?' a voice behind him asked.

Slowly Bruce turned around. Ducard stood in front of him, smiling.

'Or is it a cheap trick to protect one's own identity, Ra's?' Bruce slowly began to understand.

Ducard/ Ra's smiled. His pupil was good, he was the one who had taught him. But the master didn't decide for a success, one's own decisions did. 'You owe me your life.'

'I have warned you from pity, Bruce.'

'This is just about both of us. Let me tell the guests to go' Bruce knew that when Ducard arrived, something bad was going to happen.

'Of course I want you to explain them this' Ducard said waiting for Bruce to invent any lie.

Bruce turned around to Ducard. Most of the people were leaving through the grand door, only a few servants stayed, men of Ra's Al Ghul. Bruce looked up the stairway. A person walked down, she wore black clothes and a black mask. The little Ninja, Bruce thought. Of course, it had been her.

She wore her latex costume again, no gadgets, she was fast and flexible enough to resist any attacks. She was trained to perfection. 'How much I missed you' Bruce murmured ironically. He was sure that she smiled under her mask. She came toward Bruce and Ducard.

She was, of course, smaller than the two men, but far more dangerous.

'Amusing. But also senseless' Ducard judged. 'None of these men will live anymore soon. Your jokes in the nuthouse forced me to act.'

'So Crane did work for you?' All three started to walk through the chateau.

'His poison is developed out of a substance that can be earned of our blue poppy.' Bruce started to remember when Ducard told him.

'He made a weapon out of it' the Ninja girl explained.

'How old are you know?' Bruce asked out of interest.

'Nineteen' she answered.

'Crane is no member of the society of the shadows' Bruce declared.

'That's right. He thought our plan would be to blackmail the city' Ducard continued.

'But you want to air Crane's poison in the whole city' Bruce finally saw the consequences of the plan. It would be fatal for whole Gotham city, they would all kill each other.

'And see, how Gotham destroys itself by angst and panic' Ducard stopped, next to her the Ninja girl. Bruce turned around.

He didn't know that at the pretty same moment, the doors of Arkham Asylum were opened and the nuts were free to go out.

'You will erase hundreds of lives' Bruce said.

'Only a cynical person would describe this as a life' Ducard decided sharply. 'Crime, desperation and doubts, people were never supposed to live like that. The society of the shadows has been preventing for over thousands of years that the humanity gets distracted by corruption. We balance everything out.'

'Gotham can still be saved' Bruce declared his point of view.

The ninja girl next to Ducard slightly nodded. She seemed to disagree with her master.

'We could infiltrate every single infrastructural layer of this city without any toil' Ducard said. He thought of Valentina next to him. She had Crane, a doctor and leader of the nuthouse, who now was there as a patient, and Bruce himself, the richest man of Gotham and the Batman who didn't know that his girlfriend was his greatest foe.

The two police guards threw the Scarecrow mask on his knees. Crane looked up smiling crazily and evilly. 'Time to play' one of the guards said. Crane knew what he had to do. He was resistant but nobody knew about his vaccination. He didn't lose his mind although he knew that nearly about every single person in this city would do pretty soon.

'When I have found you in the prison, you were lost' Ducard said. 'I didn't believe that you would master the training. But she did. And because of her, I kept on training you. I was the one who wanted to kill you because you were worthless. She told me to see the best in you. And unfortunately, she is right. And you should now stand here to my side and save the world.'

'I think you do have somebody to your side' Bruce responded drily. 'And I stand where I do belong to. Between you and the people of Gotham.'

'Nobody can save Gotham' Ducard decided strictly. The other members of the society started to lighten up the building.

'When a wood grows too quickly, a cleaning fire cannot be prevented' Ducard explained. 'Tomorrow, the citizens have to watch, how their biggest city destroys itself.' (At that moment the DVD stopped and my computer started having problems…I know, fascinating information…^^)

'And now, we will succeed and no poor idealist can prevent it this time' he barked sharply.

The Ninja girl calmly watched the scene. The wood around started to burn brightly. 'I will stop you' Bruce screamed when another ninja attacked him from behind. He knocked him out and Ducard took a sword.

'You never learnt to watch your environment' he hissed and pushed him backward. A burning piece of wood fell down on Bruce.

He lost consciousness.

'Let us go' Ducard told his man who directly ran. 'And make sure nobody gets out' he added and walked toward Valentina who was staring at unconscious Bruce.

'Come on' Ducard hissed.

he turned around and looked into his face. 'I'll follow later' she said shortly and without any emotions.

'Why? You love him?' Ducard said angrily.

'No, I just wanna see him die. For my own satisfaction…and for yours' she said and removed her mask. Her black eyes stared at Ducard who started to smile.

'Okay, but make sure you get out in time (haha, In Time^^).'

'Just continue. I know where you'll be' she answered and watched him go. She stared at the burning wood. She looked around to make sure that Ducard and his men were out.

Then she kneed down and tried to push up the piece of wood that covered Bruce.

'How many from the maximum security prison?' Gordon asked when he reached the big hole in the wall.

'All of them are gone. No exceptions' his partner answered.

'They should take up the bridges. Nobody of them is supposed to get away from the Island.'

'Pull the bridges up? After I brought in every available unit who is searching after them, I should pull up the bridges?' he answered snappily.

'I hope you're not a member of the firefighters' Alfred said and knocked out the Ninja. He walked through the burning door and looked around.

'Alfred!' he heard a female voice and turned around. The Ninja was kneeing there, trying to push the piece of wood away. Alfred was puzzles, she didn't wear his mask.

'Valentina?' he asked and ran toward her.

'Help me!' she said and put back her mask. Together they threw the wood balk away and Bruce got conscious again just in time.

'Don't tell him' Valentina whispered so that only Alfred could hear it and he looked at her black mask.

It has always been her, he thought with fascination.

Valentina grabbed Bruce under his arm and they fled to the working room. Alfred did the combination at the piano and the bookshelf opened. The Ninja, he and Bruce went into the elevator and more broke down. When they reached the cave bottom, they all looked up.

It was a yellow-orange explosion, the whole chateau seemed to have caught fire. Unbelievable, Alfred thought.

'What did I do?' Bruce asked. 'I wanted to save Gotham but I failed.'

'Why do we fall, sir?' Alfred asked. 'Because then we learn, to stand up again' he added smilingly.

'Bruce, we can still save Gotham' the Ninja whispered.

He looked at her. 'Who are you?' he asked.

'Just a shadow' she answered and stood up.

Meanwhile, chaos had broken out in Gotham City. Police officers chased the criminals and crazies from the nuthouse. Crane still wore his white jacket and his Scarecrow mask. With it, he felt himself stronger and scarier. Nobody took notice of him while everybody ran around in sheer, bloody panic. Crane thought that he had nothing to lose anymore, police had caught him and they knew about his double-life, his secret identity, the feared Scarecrow.

And soon they would know about the experiments with his patients and everything would be clear, they would hunt for him. But nobody of them lives long enough to do so, Crane thought and walked on. He was resistant against the poison and he would keep a clear mind. But one it was aired, everybody else went crazy and attack him. Crane was scared, he had to admit this.

He had heard that the bridges were pulled up but he didn't care. He wasn't fast enough. He watched one of the police officers fall down from a horse. That brought him to an idea.

He took the reins of the horse and jumped on it. On the horse he was much faster. He noticed the lawyer Rachel Dawes. He smiled. She seemed so scared. He rode toward her.

'Crane?' she asked screaming.

'No, Scarecrow!' he said in his deep, creepy voice. 'You don't need to fear anything…except for the fear itself!'

He lost her a few streets further and just laughed about how he must have scared her and the little boy. He knew that she was vaccinated but he didn't want to imagine what the little child has just hallucinated. He rode back and a few streets away from his goal he let the horse go and walked the rest of the way.

He arrived at his destination, the house of Valentina.

She had told him to get there and not to leave under any circumstances until she got there, too. It was the only place where he was safe and nobody would get in there to attack him, hopefully. Crane pulled out the key she had given him and opened the door. He had been there before, in the far too small apartment. It wasn't in one of the best districts of Gotham and he wondered why she had chosen it. She seemed to be attracted by evil and bad. He double-locked the door and closed the curtains of the two small windows.

He searched the louver and let it down. He switched off the light in the bedroom to be sure that nobody saw that someone was in there. He was goddamned scared. Usually he was the one who scared the others. He walked to the kitchen and sat down. Valentina had told him to wait but what should he do? Sit there and wait until she got killed by any mad citizen?

Well, it seemed far distant that anybody would succeed to kill her. He had seen her fighting his own men in the nuthouse and she hadn't even done the best because Bruce had been there. She had knocked out a 150-pound man with one hit. That was really impressive and Jonathan wondered where she would be right now. She had told him, that Ra's Al Ghul wanted to visit Bruce, which meant that the Batman would die.

But on the other side, she had reassured him that he would not and that she tried to save the city from destruction. She needed something to play with. And Gotham and innocent Bruce were perfect for her evil and crazy mind. That is what she makes so attractive, Jonathan thought and smiled.

He hoped her to come soon.

All bridges were pulled up and nobody could leave or enter the Island.

'Hey, what was that?' Rachel asked angrily when the 'police officer' pushed away the small boy.

'It is time to 'spread' our message' Ducard jumped out of the car. 'And the message is: Panic' he activated the microwave device and all at once, the water in the water system began to vaporize.

Ducard put on his mask and smiled. It got foggy, the water went gaseous and the poison was in the air. It started to show its effects immediately, the people began to panic, hallucinate.

Batman and the Ninja went into the car and drove toward the city.

'We need backup' Gordon said. 'All back-up already is in there. We have nobody' that was the answer exactly in the moment when the Batmobil jumped over the river. Gordon looked around. Batman and his shadow got out. 'The people tear each other apart' Gordon explained. 'They went crazy.'

'I'm gonna search Ra's Al Ghul' the Ninja whispered to Batman. 'He thinks that I am still on his side but you need to help. They will kill me if he suspects that I changed sides.'

'Be careful' Batman didn't know himself why he cared. But somehow he liked her. Batman turned to Gordon and started to explain his plan.

'I told you he came' the small boy said.

'Wait. You could die' Rachel walked after him.

'Tell me at least your name!'

Batman thought. 'Who I am, isn't important. How we act, shows who we really are.'

'Bruce?' Rachel asked astonished but Batman already jumped down.

'Oh, you took my advice on staginess really literally' Ducard said ironically astonished.

'It ends here and now' Batman decided in his deep voice.

'For you and the citizens of Gotham perhaps' Ducard said. Ninjas went down on the ropes behind him.

'Didn't you tell me he died?' he asked the female Ninja next to him.

'At least I thought so. I was sure' she answered. He turned around to her.

'This isn't what a 'surely' dead man looks like.'

'Then let me kill him now' she hissed. 'No. We've got a town to destroy. They will take care' Ducard said and the four Ninjas started to attack.

'Four of your Ninjas won't stop me' the Batman said.

'We'll see' Ducard answered and he and the Ninja girl went up to the Wayne train.

Valentina and Ducard entered the train and he started it. 'Why did you let him escape?' he asked angrily.

'I did not. He must have freed himself after I went out, too. I though he died in the fire' she explained herself.

'The same thing he had thought about you' Ducard answered.

'Your four Ninjas won't stop him' she said.

'When he comes, I'm ready. And I hope, you are ready to kill him, too' Ducard answered and stood in front of Valentina. He was about one head taller than her.

'Can I count on you, Valentina?' he asked with a harsh voice.

'You always could. You have been like a father for me, Ra's' she said in low voice.

'Have been?' he asked surprised. In exactly that moment Batman jumped in through the broken window.

'You wanted it like this' Ra's Al Ghul pulled out his sword and walked toward the Batman. Valentina rolled her eyes which couldn't be seen under her mask. Typical men, she thought. Crane is different.

'Familiar. Don't you have anything new?'

'What about this?'

Valentina leaned against the glass and watched them fighting. Ducard's sword was just thrown to her feet. She picked it up and examined it. She continued watching. The train gained speed. Ducard threw Batman on the floor and sat on top of him.

'You're pathetic' he hissed and hit him again. Batman moaned because of the pain.

'Don't be afraid, Bruce' Ducard hissed and didn't notice Valentina slowly coming nearer. 'You're just an ordinary man under a cape and you can't do what is necessary and that is why you can't stop this train' he hissed evilly.

Valentina stood right behind him.

'Who said anything about stopping?' Bruce said in high voice, he nearly could breathe.

Ducard looked up, exactly in the moment where Valentina stabbed his own sword right through his heart. He screamed loudly and yelled in pain.

'You?' he turned around. The Ninja just stared at him, he stared at her mask.

'Betrayer' he said with his last words and fell aside, not moving anymore.

'Let's get out of here' she said.

'You killed him' Bruce said.

'Kind of satisfaction' she muttered. 'He taught me to kill. And now I did' she said. Kind of irony.

They both saw that the next part of the rail road was missing, Gordon has succeeded.

'Grab a hold on me' Bruce said. She clinched him and he jumped out of the falling train. He opened his wings and they started to fly over terrible looking Gotham downtown. The train collapsed and the microwave device was completely destroyed.

They landed on a roof. 'Thank you' the Ninja girl said.

'I am the one who should thank' Batman declared. 'You killed Ra's Al Ghul.'

'If I weren't there, you would have done it.' Bruce was sure she smiled under her mask.

'Now, excuse me, I have an appointment' she said, turned around and jumped down of the roof. He watched her disappearing in the crowd. He thought what she was about to do? She killed her master and she had to start a new life.

Perhaps she would stay his shadow and prevent him from losing or turning evil.

The Batman knocked on the metal.

'Nice' he judged. Gordon turned around. Batman and the Ninja stood right there.

'I couldn't find any Mafia bosses' the police officer explained. 'You really started something. Bad cops running scared, hope on the streets. Unfortunately we weren't able to pick up Crane. He's gone. We were at his home, nothing left.'

'You will find him.'

'They are always exaggerating. What we start, they do already do' Gordon explained.

He didn't see hope but he was hopeful to see it one day. 'And you're both wearing masks, jumping of roof tops…take this guy.'

He pulled out a calling card and showed in to them. Batman took the card and turned it around.

'Armed robbery, likes theatrical performances, like you' Gordon explained. Batman and the Ninja looked at the card.

The Joker.

Well, as Crane is still part of the next movie, I think this FanFiction will go on. And Valentina is still there...sleeping with both Scarecrow and the Batman...what about the Joker? ;)

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