a/n: I did say that we were going to get our reunion this chapter… (but I didn't say it was all happy)

The air hummed with uncertainty as Selina stepped out of the creaky old elevator to the floor of her apartment. The door was closed, but that didn't mean anything. She'd feared that it had been broken into, and when she tried the handle her fears were confirmed. Slowly, rolling her suitcase after her and setting her duffle on the ground next to the door she looked around. The main room was dark, and she flicked the light switch out of habit, even knowing that there would be no power. The window let in a little moonlight and her eyes took in the sight of upturned furniture, a broken Tiffany lamp she'd 'collected' earlier in the year, torn books and the clothes she'd left in the closet were all off the hangers and laying on the floor. The mattress of her old bed was ripped open, the springs and stuffing showing like a poor gutted animal. She swallowed her tears and closed the door behind her, leaning against it for strength.

She'd expected the worst, and was only thankful that Holly's dead body did not greet her as well. Slowly, she made her way to the kitchen, her boots crunching on the broken glass of the only three glasses she owned. Her fridge sat open, no cold air in it and rotten leftovers stinking up the room. She'd left it full and the half empty state told her that the young girl had been here for at least a short time. The thought that she'd been the one to trash the apartment never crossed Selina's mind as she reached into the back of a cupboard for a box of stale crackers. She slipped out of her jacket and laid it over a chair after she set it right up again, stretching in the tight purple leather and wondering if she should change out of her suit. Whoever had been here hadn't found whatever they'd been looking for. No one, not even Holly knew the combination or location of Selina's safe. Which was where she'd hidden everything that she might have needed if she ever came back to Gotham.

Four crackers later had her walking over to her bedroom and stepping into her closet. The shelf was high enough for her to stand beneath but no one taller than six feet, so in her boots she had to bend a bit. She pushed aside a few boxes of shoes and tapped the wall, sighing in relief at the hollow sound. She moved the false plywood away to reveal the shiny dark green safe and rolling combination lock. With slightly shaking fingers she glared at, she spun the brass knob and heard the calming click. Behind the door she found various pieces she'd stolen, quiet a healthy stash of money and a small, plain wood box she refused to pick up. She hadn't touched it since the day she'd put it in there; the day she moved in. Her mother's jewelry box held no monetary value and nothing inside would even have been bought by a desperate pawn shop but she secretly cherished everything inside it all the same.

Taking the money and the real pieces from their velvet boxes, she shut the safe and stepped back. She replaced the fake wall and stepped out of the closet, ready to walk back to the door and never return to her apartment, but the air was suddenly chilled and she stopped dead in her tracks. The moonlight shinning through her window hit the blade of a knife, making it glint. A slow, dark, voice came from the shadows along with a figure that she feared almost more than death itself. She remembered those dark eyes, would never forget them, nor the mask that was made from this man's father's very own coffin. "Good evening Catwoman."

"Roman?" Her blood turned cold as her mind flashbacked to a night she would rather not remember. Her sister, her brother in law's corpse. All the blood, and then the straight jacket that followed. She'd chased him off a building that night, and thought he was dead but he wasn't and she'd been waiting every minute of every day and night for him to return.

"Miss me?"

Selina took a look at the scar on his jaw and grimaced, remembering when she'd shot him. When he had come back and tried to do to her what he'd done to Maggie. "Seems like it, care to see if my aim has improved?"

"I won't make the same mistake this time around Catwoman. I know your no kill rule was thrown out the window. Let me ask you though, why did you come back to Gotham."

"I heard about everything that's been going on. I figured I would collect the rest of my things before you all managed to turn this city into ashes." She wanted to move, get out of the corner he'd trapped her into but he was blocking half the doorway and she didn't want to be a inch closer to him.

"Are you sure? You didn't come back for the Bat?"

"What have you done with him?" she took a step forward at that, another voice freezing her once again in her tracks.

"See Roman, I told you she cared." The rest of the doorway was filled now with the broad, tall form of Thomas Elliot.

Selina's heart started racing. She'd heard of Hush before, remembered the stories of his twisted mutilation plots. He did not like her very much either, since she'd been the one to bring him in once she discovered he'd been going around with Bruce's face and laundering money from his global accounts. He perhaps wanted Batman's head on a platter more than most of the underworld, and believed it was his right. She'd never understood why but then again she'd never bothered to give it much thought. Half the time these criminals that she knew, or knew through others were off the rockers. "Hush."

He hummed the lullaby he was named for, making it sound menacing and twisted as she stepped into the room and circled her slowly. "I see you came dressed for the part."

"A girls gotta be prepared. She just never knows when two gentlemen will stop by and pay her a visit."

Black Mask smirked at her sarcastic description and fingered the blade of his knife, looking between her and it with twisted glee. "Come now Selina, cooperate with us and it will all be over soon. All we want is our revenge. You can fight, but in the end we will get what we want."

"I'm not going to just let you kill me." She didn't flinch when she felt Hush's hand on her shoulder, only shook him off and stepped to the side. "Sorry to disappoint you boys."

She threw the money at Roman, and the jewelry at Hush before moving towards the window, but before she could get within arms reach of the sill she felt a hand tangle in her curls and tug a fistful of hair. She fell back, looking up at a woman. Selina felt her skin crawling and probably would have felt sorry for her if she had not been the one to keep her from escaping. "So this is who Bruce has been sharing a bed with…"

Selina couldn't take her eyes off the hole in the woman's forehead, so much so that she almost missed the connection. Then suddenly, the realization that she'd been blind to all along slammed into her like a freight train and if she hadn't already been on her ass on the ground she may have ended up there. Suddenly it all made sense; all of it. The connection she felt with Bruce, why she'd been unable to leave him that morning in the hotel until she'd had him. The way he made her feel, the color of his eyes, that voice he'd used in the morning. The familiarity in the kiss that she'd refused to believe had even been there. The scars all over his body. The fact that Hush and Roman had it out for him. The Wonderland attack at the restaurant he'd funded to rebuild, only to make a public announcement the following day that he would once again restore it.

And then last night, he'd been seen at the Iceberg Lounge as Oswald was being taken away. She felt sick, she felt relieved. The man she loved was the man she couldn't resist. The man she loved was Batman, and Batman was Bruce Wayne. She didn't have to choose because choosing one was choosing both. And even though she was currently in the middle of three very angry looking criminals she smiled for just a split second. Then her face hardened and she was no longer Selina Kyle. She was not trapped in her apartment and she was not wondering desperately what she was going to do. She was Catwoman, and she had a plan. She was going to make up the plan as she went along, but a plan to make a plan was still a fucking plan. Quickly she got to her feet, not sure who to strike first.

Hush still held her money in his hands, seemingly amused by it. He'd always been a greedy bugger and while his taste for Bruce Wayne's money had been his weakness, two grand was two grand. "You can keep it." Selina shrugged.

"She's only saying that because she has more hidden somewhere." Roman closed a bit more of the distance between her and himself. "Probably in those bags out there."

The blonde haired woman took a step to the side, giving Selina apparent space to run, but it wasn't for that. Before she could move toward the window again, or back out into the main room Black Mask dropped the jewels to the ground and wrapped his strong hands around her shoulders, picking her up and tossing her on the broken bed. He went after her, pinning her down so she could feel the springs digging into her back. The mattress had been uncomfortable in its prime, but now the metal coils literally cut into her back. She felt the sting as the sharp points cut through her new suit and into her skin but she kept the hiss of pain to herself, knowing that the man above her would only use it against her.

"Give it up Roman." Hush said, stepping forward and picking up the blade that had been dropped when Black Mask had lunged after her. "We're not going to kill her yet are we? I thought we were going to wait until Batman got here, so he could watch me cut out her heart."

"What were you going to do?" Catwoman asked, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out as Roman shifted above her, the springs cutting into her again. "Feed it to him Roman? Like you tortured my sister? Are you going to turn him insane to?"

"Yes, he is." Black Mask sneered, leaning in close to whisper in her ear. "And then, I'm going to kill him, slowly. While he watches the blood drain out of you."

"What makes you think he gives a damn about me?"

Finally the woman spoke up again. "He's been looking for you."

"Shut up." Hush glared at her and she cowered back. She wasn't much of a villain yet, and Selina certainly hadn't heard of her.

"Absence here is a little, new to the scene. You'll have to forgive her."

"Absence?" Catwoman thought back, remembering a woman Harley had mentioned once. She was an ex-girlfriend of Bruce's that had been infatuated with him, even after their breakup. She'd discovered he was Batman and tried to follow him one night, but had been caught in the crossfire. He hadn't even seen her get shot. "How did she survive?"

Hush smirked, almost proudly. "I have many talents Selina, you should know that. I can make my own face into Bruce Wayne's. I can remove someone's heart and keep both the organ and the body alive. Certainly a little gunshot wound is nothing to worry about."

"Don't take all the credit." Black Mask warned. "Strange would kill you if he heard you were giving out the impression you were in that operating room alone."

"Hugo might as well have been handing me the scalpel for all the help he gave me!" Hush's voice rose, but he saw the humorous glint in Catwoman's eyes and retracted. "Enough, all of you. She's trying to distract us, buy time for her lover to get here and rescue her."

"I don't need rescuing."

Selina tightened her legs around Roman's waist painfully tight until he cried out, and then when he sat up, she wrapped her legs around his neck, twisting and throwing him off the bed. She jumped up, hissing this time as the spring ripped a long tear down the back of her suit. Perhaps she should have bought a backup instead of three corsets she wasn't sure were even going to fit. Then she lunged for Hush, really wishing she still had her claws. They fought for the knife, and she'd just gained control of it, holding it to his throat when she felt Absence's fist in her hair again. She turned slightly, digging the blade into his throat as she backhanded the woman against the wall.

"Is that seriously all you've got?" she sneered, watching the woman slump down; still conscious but holding her head. It was clearly her weak point, and she'd smacked it pretty good, falling against it. Hush's hands were free and he wrapped them around Selina's waist, throwing him off her and pinning her down against the floor. He was much stronger than her and she writhed beneath him, but he only put more of his weight down and she had to gasp for air.

"What do you think would break Bruce's heart more hmm?" he asked running the flat side of the blade from one side of her throat to the other, pressing the tip into her collarbone and up to her chin, tracing the lines of her lips. "Watching you die and feeling powerless to stop it? Or getting here just too late to save you and have you already be dead?"

"He won't find me here. He doesn't even know I'm back in Gotham."

"Are you sure about that." Black Mask stood from where she'd thrown him, rubbing the back of his neck and coming to glare down at her. She suddenly felt very small and very scared. One idiotic psycho she could take on, but three; or rather two and a half? After weeks of being out of the shadows and days out of town? She could barely remember the last time she'd fought hand to hand other than Batman and that was only half hearted flirting. When she punched or kicked him it was only to show him he wasn't the boss, not to hurt him. She was out of practice, and it pissed her off. "Give me my damn knife back Thomas."

Hush held it to him, sitting back on Selina's knees so they bent the opposite way. She swore, but he only smirked and set more of his weight on her joints. "What do you want to do with her?"

"You said she was mine!" Absence cried from against the wall, seemingly brave enough to speak up. I only came along with you two because you said you wanted to take the Batman. She was bait, and then I could have her."

"Do you see the Batman here?" Black Mask towered over her, showing her the blade of his knife in the moonlight. "If you don't keep your mouth shut, I'll cut it open and you can have a bitch fight with Harley to see who the Joker wants more."

"Leave her alone!" Selina hissed, forcing her legs to relax so that Thomas's weight didn't hurt her as much as it would have if she kept struggling. "She's not like you. Can't you see that?"

"Shut up!" Roman turned back to her, kicking her in the jaw with his boot.

Selina's head snapped to the side and she tasted blood, grimacing when she spit out a tooth. She felt Hush lean over her and sighed at the relief of her knees being freed, but then he lifted her head by the roots of her hair and smiled down at her. The smile was so evil it literally made her shiver. "I think we should go with option two." Then he slammed her head down against the wood floor and everything went black.


"Master Bruce!" Alfred called, not giving a damn about decorum as he raced through the entrance to the BatCave. He knew he would find Bruce there, knowing the man hadn't left the computers as he was still searching for Selina Kyle. "Master Bruce!"

"Not now Alfred! I have to find her. The hotel said she checked out already. She could be anywhere."

"She's here Sir. In Gotham. Jim Gordon just called and said that one of his officers got noise complaints from the apartment building Selina lived in."

"What does that matter?" Bruce had looked up at the first words, but now he seemed only disappointed and frustrated at the interruption. "That doesn't mean it's her! There are at least fifty apartments in that building."

"The caller also reported seeing a man in a black mask enter her apartment. Think of the riddle. The ones that come next will be the ones you've let down. Who hasn't come for you yet? Who would be the most likely to hurt you, and use her to do it? Who in the underworld has it out for you, as well as her?"

Bruce looked back up at Alfred slowly. "Roman."

"There's more. You shouldn't go alone."

"There is no one to go with me and I can't sit here and wait either. He will kill her slowly, and he will take pleasure in it."


When Selina opened her eyes again, she had no idea how much time had passed, but Absence was…absent and she found herself tied to her kitchen table like a sacrifice on an altar. Carefully, she tried to test her bindings without making a sound but she found that her ankles were secured well to the legs of the table and her wrists were pulled tight above her head in the same fashion. He couldn't move more than an inch and the rope had no give at all. She was seemingly alone for a moment, though she could hear the two men whispering in the main room. "Why are we playing around? Just go in there and kill her. Screw the game! Oswald is in custody and even if he gets out we'll never get that money now. He'll use it to rebuild his precious club. Even if we bring him Batman on a silver platter neither of us will see a dime of that money."

Black Mask swore and punched something, probably a wall from the sounds of it. "If you want to go, you see the door. I've already had one of you run out on me tonight, I can finish this myself."

"Why, so you can shoot me in the back like you did with her?" Hush sounded disgusted. "You can go to hell."

"This is hell Elliot! Look around! We're in Gotham City where the rich get richer and we sit here looking for scraps. You and I, we had it all. Could have had it all if it weren't for Wayne. Remember that!"

"I won't ever forget that!" Hush growled, and stomped back into the kitchen. Selina considered closing her eyes and pretending she was still out, but she didn't have time. "Seems someone woke up from her cat nap."

Black Mask followed him, sliding a gun back into the inside of his jacket. "So I kill her and you take the Batman? Like we agreed?"

Hush looked down at Selina thoughtfully, considering and then nodded. "As much of a pleasure as it would be to take your heart and watch your eyes as you realize what I've done I think I'd rather be the one to take out the last remaining Wayne. She's all yours Roman."

Black Mask moved closer to the table, leering over her form and pulling the knife out once more. She tugged a little more desperately at the ropes, but it was useless. He ran the blade from her throat down to where the zipper stopped showing skin, and then he hooked the tip of the knife in and pulled her suit the rest of the way open. "Do you know how to gut someone Selina?" he didn't wait for her response, only set the sharp pointed edge beneath her bellybutton and dragged slowly up. He didn't apply enough pressure to break skin, but enough that she could feel it and hold her breath; waiting for the first cut. "You slit them open, from groin to sternum."

The blade reached the base of her throat and he dug in further. She felt it then, the pain and she couldn't help it. She cried out, the sound only giving him more pleasure. The cut was small, but it was sensitive and he twisted the blade as he pulled it out. "If the Batman does find you, he will hunt you down."

"And what?" the Black Masks eyes were all she could see, but she could imagine him sneering behind the wood. "He won't kill me, he doesn't believe that death is justice. At best I'll be sent to Arkham with the rest of them, and let's be honest. How long before I break out? Next time I'll sneak into his bedroom and cut him open before he even wakes."

Selina growled, pulling violently on the ropes, wishing she could get her hands around his neck and strangle him. He was one of the few men that really made her think she was capable of murder. The other was leaning against the door frame watching the scene with interest. "If you kill me, he won't care about justice."

"Are you sure about that?" Black Mask wrapped his fingers through her hair, tugging her scalp so her throat stretched out, causing the tiny wound to open a little more. "Are you sure you mean enough to him that he would break his entire code of ethics? He cares, but does he care that much? Does he care enough to kill for you?"

Selina wrapped her hands around the lip of the kitchen table, her fingers brushing something cool and she had to bite back the smile. They hadn't found her knife. She'd taped it there months ago just in case she was attacked. But ripping it off would only call attention to what she was doing, so carefully, quietly she worked the razor blade out of its case and let it drop into her palm. She squeezed tight around it, praying it wouldn't fall and let out a sigh of relief, even as it cut into her skin. Black Mask laughed and released his grip on her, going back to his torture. He was too busy explaining to her in detail how he was going to cut her up, to notice that she was slowly sawing her hands free from the rope. If Hush noticed, he didn't say anything. She could feel the blood pooling from the wound in the center of her throat, doing her best not to move too much so she wouldn't end up opening it further.

"I thought you said we were going to quit playing games?" Hush asked, a little bored simply standing on the sidelines.

"I don't need you telling me how to do this. I won't be coaching you when you kill Bruce Wayne, so back off." Roman glared at his 'partner' and turned the knife on him. "You saw what I did to that whining brat before. There's still bullets left in the gun."

"I'm just saying, hurry it up before the Batman gets here."

"I know what I'm doing!"

Selina couldn't resist sighing in relief when her hands were free and she sat up, a smirk on her lips as she scooted down the table and wrapped her arm around Black Masks neck, holding the razor blade to his throat. "Are you sure about that Roman?"

"Bitch." He cursed, his head tilting back, but she only pressed the serrated edge closer to his skin. "Help me Thomas."

Hush held up his hands. "You were pretty clear that you had this under control. I need a smoke."

Selina watched as Thomas Elliott backed out of the room. He wasn't going to assist her, but he wasn't going to take part in helping the man that had just insulted him either. "What am I going to do with you?" Selina purred into his ear, taking his knife from his other hand.

She held that to his throat instead, using the razor blade to release her feet. "You've already tried to kill me twice. What makes you think you can do it again?"

"Third time's the charm." Selina shook the rope from her ankles and slid up on the table, wrapping her legs around him in a vice grip, keeping him against the table and his back tight to her chest. She pressed the blade he'd been torturing her with closer to his throat, creating a similar wound on him that he'd made on her. Sliding her free hand into his jacket she took out his gun and held it to the back of his head and then pressed the sharp top of her heel against his spine and pushed him away. Roman turned to face her, his eyes on fire. "You're always underestimating me Roman. When are you going to learn that I'm not some dumb bitch in a leather catsuit?"

"I always pegged you for more of a scared little girl trying to be something she's not. You're not strong Selina. You couldn't save your sister, and you couldn't save yourself. I made you into a murderer. That only gives me great pleasure."

Selina lowered her eyes at him, her stomach churning. This is what he wanted; for her to kill him. For her to do what she swore never to do again. She didn't believe in the same kind of justice that Batman did. There were some kind of people that did not belong in this world, and Roman Sionis was one of them. He brought no good. She knew that if Batman was here he would talk her out of it, he would calm her down and make her see reason, but she didn't care. She didn't want to be logical or reasonable. When she looked past the mask, into the eyes she saw only blackness. Evil and dark and hell. He didn't not deserve to breathe, not when her brother law's corpse lay mangled in a grave and her sister sat insane somewhere staring at a wall with that same dead look in her eyes.

"I won't kill you cold blooded Roman. You don't deserve to die with a smile on your face. I'll let Batman get here and take you away. I can only hope that someone in Arkham will find out what you've done and leave you to choke on your own blood."

She stepped back and lowered the gun slightly. There was fight left in her, but she didn't want to prove him right. She didn't want to let him change her. It would be so easy, to aim the gun and pull the trigger, but taking a life…could she live with that? He took her moment of weakness and lunged for her, but her instincts had her ready and she felt the knife slide into his gut. His blood was warm on her hand and it made her sick, but she held on, twisting the blade around and up, looking into his eyes. "I win." He said, chocking a little on his words.

"I said I wouldn't kill you in cold blood. The way I see it, you attacked me. Self defence, is not murder."

He stumbled back, his hands around the handle of the knife and she let him, watching as he fell back against the fridge. "Whatever lets you sleep at night." He slid to the ground and she moved closer, standing over him.

"I'll sleep like a baby now, knowing that you're dead. And this time, I'm going to watch the light fade from your eyes and it's going to be what I see every time I go to sleep. It won't haunt me, it will calm me." Already he was bleeding out and she pulled the knife out of him, letting the wound take its full effect on his body.

Hush came back into the kitchen then, smelling like tobacco and taking in the sight of Roman dying and Selina standing over him triumphantly. She pointed the gun at him, holding the bloody knife at the ready in case Roman decided to try for her again. "What the hell happened?"

"You missed the show."

"I see that." Even he couldn't hide sounding impressed. "How do you think Batman will feel about his girl committing murder?"

"Let me worry about how Batman will feel about things." With the gun still aimed at him, and one eye on her last captor she knelt next to Roman's body and lifted his chin with the tip of his knife so she could look into his eyes. "Still with us?"

His voice was slurred, but she understood him. "You haven't escaped me. I'll come back for you."

"Not likely."


Batman landed on the roof of Selina's apartment, having honed in on her window from the next building over. He'd seen her, standing there with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. Her back had been to him so he hadn't seen much more, save for the cuts her new suit were sporting. He wondered how else she was injured. Then he heard a lone gunshot and for one moment his heart stopped. He shot the grappling hook onto the ledge and jumped down, swinging through her window with a crash. She jumped, looking at him, her body ready for a fight. Her apartment had already been broken into by three lunatics tonight, so what was one more? His body tensed, wondering if she would shoot him too. He quickly took in the scene. Black Mask was up against the fridge, either dead or close and Hush lay on the kitchen floor, a pool of blood spreading beneath him.

She seemed to relax slightly when she realized it was him, but her shoulders were tense and her jaw was tight. "You bastard." She shook her head and glared at him.

"Selina, what did you do?" he asked, his tone the same dark one he used in the suit, in the morning, and occasionally in bed. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up but she shook away her relief at seeing him and focused on the anger.

"One's dead, the other should be just about there. A girl in my living room is supposedly dead to, but I didn't shoot her. You've got Roman here to thank for that. Save me the lecture for now and see if your childhood friend is still breathing."

She tossed him the gun, stepping over Roman's legs and walked out of the kitchen. He heard her gasp when she entered the living room, but didn't follow her yet. He checked the body he knew could still be alive and found a faint pulse at his throat. "You're lucky Thomas." He whispered, checking the wound in his chest. "If she'd been two inches higher you'd be dead."


When Selina heard footsteps she looked up, finding Batman standing in the doorway between her kitchen and living room. She stood from checking the body of the blonde woman. "Her license says Una Nemo. Name ring any bells?"

Selina tossed him the wallet and stepped toward him. He saw the dried blood on her mouth and the already forming bruise on her cheek. He wanted to comfort her, ask if she was alright, but she didn't seem all that ready to be coddled. So he looked down at the id instead and shook his head. "Should she?"

"I don't know, shouldn't Bruce Wayne remember all the women he's slept with?"

"Selina, what-"

"Enough, enough lies. Take off the damn mask. I already know it's you."

He hesitated, looking from the dead body next to them, to her. How easily could that have been her laying there cold? Slowly, he pulled the mask off, looking up at her. She nodded, no smile on her lips, but she stepped forward and lifted her hand to his face, letting her palm rest against his cheek softly. "Selina, I'm sorry."

Then she reached back and slapped him hard, turning on her heel and marching into the bedroom.

a/n: I thought about having her run into his arms and having sweet romantic music playing, but if I was her I'd be pretty pissed so I'm having her be pissed. Plus, hey…angry make up sex is never a bad thing. Which may or may not be coming in the next chapter.