Just a short chapter to let you know I have not abandoned this story. I do not own Batman or Star Wars, just my story.
WARNING This chapter will contain scenes of unsuitable material for younger readers, hence the rating for this story, a message will be posted before it starts.
(ARKHAM CITY/JOKER'S HIDEOUT)
Grievous continued to monitor the progress of his drones deployed within Wayne Manor. He was confident they would be successful in locating the entrance to the secret facility housing all the billionaire's weaponry and gadgets.
While his optical implants scanned the footage sent by the drones his audio receptors listened for the usual traipsing about of the resident psychopath in her room upstairs. Today there was nothing, he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Much as he despised her constant chatter he could at least tolerate it due to her ability to control the mindless and seemingly endless number of grunts within the facility. Were they better armed and trained they could have been a somewhat decent attack force, instead they seemed incapable of defeating a trio of humans armed with staves and an assortment of gadgets.
"So you got all this thingy you wanted." Harley gestured to the equipment as she strode into the room, "You got everything you need?"
Grievous moved from the monitor to examine the stolen technology, "Yes."
Harley sighed, "Good, now we gotta talk about killing Bats."
"I assume you want a dramatic and pointless manner of killing him." The cyborg rolled his eyes.
"It has to be perfect!" she shrieked, "Perfect just like…" her eyes watered, "Mistah J." she mumbled sadly.
Grievous looked around for Ivy to take over, but she had gone outside to visit her garden. Apart from himself there was only two of Harley's goons standing by the door and they had less intelligence than his battle droids.
"Stop crying." He growled, "You are not a child."
Harley looked up at him, and he sighed at her make-up running, her wobbly lip, and her pigtail blonde hair, "Perhaps I was mistaken." He muttered.
"I ain't a kid." She retorted.
"Then get a grip on yourself." He turned away in annoyance.
As he focused on his project he sensed movement out of the corner of his eye and caught sight of Harley jumping into the air. He only started caring when she landed on his back with her legs wrapped around his waist, one arm around his neck and the other over his eyes.
"Yee haw!" she cheered.
"Get off me!" he snarled and reach up wildly, looking for some part of her to grab. He backed away from where his project was and consulted a map of the room he stored in his memory files. Imagining their exact position in the room and factoring her height he ran for where there was a low hanging beam. At the last second he ducked his head down and flung her face first into the beam, there was a sickening smack as she collided with it and crumpled to the floor.
Grievous seized the back of her neck and lifted her up to his eye level, "Listen to me…" he trailed off as he realised, thanks to his implants, that she was unconscious. Instead of delivering a threat that likely would have no impact on her whatsoever he flung her over a shoulder and carried her upstairs to her room. The room was full of pictures of her deceased boyfriend, along with what appeared to be a pregnancy test indicating positive, on the floor was another test only this one marked negative.
With one claw holding her in place the other drew back the sheets of her bed. He carefully deposited her on the bed and pulled the sheets up into place.
Feeling oddly sentimental about the grief-stricken female he performed a quick scan to confirm she would suffer no lasting effects and that rest was all she required. He gently patted her on the shoulder as a way of apology before leaving and closing the door.
Outside he found Ivy waiting with a conflicted expression on her face.
"How much did you see?" he asked bluntly.
"Since she hit her head." She replied, "Glad to see you are not incapable of being nice." She stretched up and kissed his mask before walking away.
He had a sudden flashback to when Ventress, his former ally in the Sepeartists, had flirted with him during an attack on Kamino, "Females." He muttered.
(THAT NIGHT)
Grievous and Ivy were deep in discussion about the flora of his universe. He projecting hologram of the plants along with their genetic structure and properties, she enthralled by them.
"Such beauty." She whispered softly, "Such life."
"My offer still stands," he looked down at her, "But I will need an answer before my project is complete."
"Only if Harley can come." She looked up, "That is my condition."
He closed his eyes for patience, "Fine, but odds are she'll be dead within a week. My galaxy is not as pleasant as this one."
"A new world might be exactly what she needs." Ivy looked up at the ceiling, her voice clearly conveying sympathy for her friend.
Grieovus frowned, "How long has she been upstairs?"
"Since you knocked her out, why?"
"That was eight hours ago."
"Maybe you did more damage than you thought."
He shook his head, "I conducted a scan when I put her to bed, she should have regained consciousness."
Striding from the table he consulted the monitors, his drones had already escaped from Wayne Manor after not being able to locate the hidden lair within thirty minutes to avoid being discovered and having removed all evidence of their presence.
He flicked the screen over to a camera he had planted within Harley's room.
"You put a camera in her bedroom?" Ivy was definitely unsettled.
"Security measure." He ignored her implications of his actions.
The room empty. He quickly scrolled through all other camera within the hideout and its external territories. There was no sign of her anywhere.
"This is Grievous to all forces." He announced over the intercom, "Locate Quinn at once, all stations on alert."
"Where would she go?" Ivy's hands started fidgeting, "She has no reason to leave here."
"She seeks the destruction of her enemies," Grievous turned, "Which means…"
They both looked at each other in shared realisation.
"Batgirl!"
(APARTMENT BLOCK)
As repairs were underway at their home Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara, also known as Batgirl to her team, were residing in an apartment. Needless to say the two were more concerned about events than their accommodations.
A team of police officers were posted in the building, two in the lobby, one by the lift, and another two posted in the hallway outside their door. This had made it almost impossible for Barbara to sneak out anymore and could only do it once her dad left for work and she snuck out her bedroom window as Batgirl.
"Stealing technology from Wayne, planting a bomb at our house, freeing Quinn and Ivy," Gordon poured over reports, "We still don't have the manpower to launch an assault on Arkham City and take them by force."
"Relax dad," Barbara handed him a mug of tea, "They haven't come after us since we moved here, it's likely they just did that one time to scare us."
There was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," she kissed her dad's forehead and moved across the room to the door.
She opened it and felt time halt.
(DISTURBING MATERIAL TO FOLLOW)
Harley Quinn stood in the doorway, her face covered in blood from the police officers she had just killed with the knife clenched in one hand.
In the other, Barbara noticed, she held a gun pointed squarely at her.
Their eyes met. One transfixed in fear. The other twisted by madness.
A thunderous crack filled the air.
Barbara was only faintly aware she was falling and that her dad's howl of anguish rang in her ears. She felt her shoulders collide with the floor but everything else was going numb as blood poured from her wound. Her hands, shaking, tried to apply pressure.
Her dad was currently being restrained by four of Harley's thugs as the deranged woman used her knife to slice his arms and legs. Harley's face was fixed in a grin, whether out of joy or her own madness asserting itself to fulfil her agenda, Barbara wasn't sure.
Turning from the man Harley knelt beside Barbara and waved the knife in her face, "You got a choice, tell me who Bats is and I let your daddy live."
Barbara froze, her eyes darting between her dad and Harley.
"Leave her alone Harley!" Gordon yelled, before one of the thugs bashed him across the face, "She has nothing to do with this."
The grin widened, "So she never told you, even after your house?"
A sudden grip lifted in Barbara's hair lifted her head up towards her father, "You don't see it! Look at your daughter and tell me you don't see it! You don't see Batgirl after all this time!"
Gordon held his daughter's gaze before turning to Harley, "I think I would know if my own daughter was sneaking out to fight crime, and I think Batman would have told me."
"Well then you're hardly good at playing cop." Harley cackled as she dropped Barbara's head onto the floor, "So here's the deal, one of you tell me identity of Bats, and you get to live, the other dies."
One of the thugs moved to Harley, "Someone will have heard the gunshot; more will be on the way."
Harley shot him in the head without hesitation and kicked his body aside.
"Anyone else!" she screamed, "Anyone else got somethin to say?"
When there was no reply she casually walked over to Gordon and held her knife just below his jaw, "Ten seconds Batgirl, tell me Bats name or daddy dies."
Barbara felt tears streaming down her face as she watched, unable to move through the pain now coursing through her body, the lack of feeling in her legs, and as her heart and mind fought each other. Her heart screaming to tell Harley the truth, the mind saying that her dad was dead no matter what she said.
"I love you Barb." Gordon smiled, his mouth a bloody mess.
Harley bashed the gun into his head, his eyes rolled as he passed out.
Barbara closed her eyes.
There was a moment of struggling before everything went quiet. Then the thud of a body hitting the floor.
Only when she felt warm breath on her face did Barbara open her eyes to find Harley's face staring down at her.
"Deliver this message to Bats." She whispered, then seemed to reconsider, "Actually I'll tell him myself."
The gun moved into view, pointing squarely at Barbara's face.
Harley pulled the trigger.
One down, two to go. I assume some of you may recognise the final scene as being similar to the events in which Joker kidnaps Gordon and paralyses Barbara which leads to her becoming Oracle. I think it was the Killing Joke, I am not an expert on Batman timelines but I assume that's how it went.
Okay short chapter but it is mostly to keep the story moving so I can think up more ideas for how I want it to turn out. Please review, and much as I love people telling me to continue the story I would like constructive feedback, what about the story makes you want me to keep writing it, pros and cons, that sort of thing.