Disclaimer: I do not own any of the DC Universe's characters, only the ones I have created.

Chapter 10: Scary's got a smile

The room was in complete silence; nobody dared to speak. Harley had popped her gum bubble and slowly got off the table she was sitting on whilst her eyes kept moving back and forth between me and Waller.

Even Flag looked stunned. If it weren't for the situation, I would have teased him about it. Instead, I kept my eyes on Waller.

"1976, Chicago, Illinois." Her eyes revealed nothing. "Forty years isn't that long ago if you're me. I may be old, but my memory works fine."

I wasn't completely telling the truth. I remembered almost nothing from my childhood and the longer ago it was, the more I tended to forget.

Her dark eyes were still glued to me, completely ignoring Flag and his team of soldiers wondering what the hell was going on.

No, this was between her and me. "I would think so."

I crossed my arms and let out a humourless laugh. "So, what's this all about then? You've been trying to find us all these years after we left?"

Her jaw clenched and I knew I had hit a sensitive spot. "What? You couldn't handle the fact that we left without saying goodbye?"

A smile pulled onto her lips and I knew I was wrong. "You don't know what Sarah did, do you?"

At the mention of her name, my whole body went rigid. A cold feeling settled in my chest and my insides clenched painfully, even after all this time. I wanted to lash out at her but kept my feet firmly planted on the floor.

"Don't talk about her." My voice was dangerously low and I heard Killer Croc respond to it by emitting a rumbling sound from his chest.

Waller only smiled. "It was your sister that showed me your family's secret. It was an accident sure but she should have known that little girls like to eavesdrop."

An accident? Suddenly my mind brought me back to Arkham Asylum, the day I accidentally revealed my secret to the Joker during our fight.

I clenched my fists and distracted myself by pressing my fingernails painfully in my skin.

"Then right after that you were all called away to Paris and you left me wondering what exactly you were. Of course, nobody believed a nine-year-old girl telling everyone her former babysitter wasn't human and I was in for years of therapy." She smiled bitterly and I wondered how she knew about Paris.

"To think that I mistook you for some kind of superhero."

Anger rushed through me and I took a step forward.

"Little brat, Sarah took care of you whenever your grandmother couldn't," I spat out and was pleased to see that I had hit a nerve. She glanced at Rick and only now seemed to notice how caught up she had gotten, but I wasn't done yet.

"What is it that you want from me?" I took another step forward and so did Rick. "You want me to apologize for leaving you without any explanation? You're right about Paris. We were called away because our father needed our help." My voice got louder while I got angrier.

"You have no idea about the shit we've been through."

She grimaced. "I've never stopped looking for you, your sister and your brother. Even after all the therapy sessions as a kid, I knew what I had seen your sister do was real. So you can believe my luck when a few years ago I stumbled upon two death certificates with your sibling's names on them from Paris." She chuckled and I noticed Harley had stopped chewing her gum entirely.

"I suppose that is the 'shit' you're talking about? What happened in France? Or should I say who happened?"

My fingers were trembling, almost as if I knew what was coming.

"The so-called gravediggers as you like to call them?" She smiled smugly at the look that appeared on my face.

"Who do you think they work for, Miss van Helsing?"

It was as if being punched in the face all over again. All blood had drained from my face and a high buzzing sound filled my ears, blocking out all other sounds. I didn't realize I had released my powers until the very moment I blinked in front of her and wrapped a hand around her throat.

All soldiers turned to me in a second. Flag was the only one who hadn't touched his gun. Instead, his finger hovered above the touchpad on his arm.

"Let her go," he said warningly.

I ignored him and kept my eyes on her. "You have chosen the wrong person to threat, Manda." She blinked her dark eyes and I saw a hint of fear flash through them.

"I'm not my sister. I'm not as kind as she was. I'm not even my brother."

My heart clenched painfully when even mentioning them but I needed her to understand. "I'm not as forgiving as he was."

"Van Helsing, I'm warning you!" Rick yelled and I vaguely noticed the other squad members shuffling uneasily behind me. "I will press this button if you don't let go of her right now."

I laughed. "You think I give a fuck, Ricky?" I glanced at him. "I've lived a long enough life to welcome death, and really staying dead, with open arms. But I will tell you this," I strengthened my grip on Waller's throat and cocked my head sideways.

"If you press that button I will take her down with me."

He clenched his jaw, but before he could reply, Waller did. I don't know where she found the strength to speak, with me clenching her airway shut but the words were loud and clear:

"I know where your friend Eric is."

I closed my eyes. Dammit. I opened them only to see that the smug look had returned on her face. All trace of fear was gone now. We both knew it was her who had me by the throat. I removed my hand from her neck and stepped back.

She rubbed her skin and straightened her jacket. She actually chuckled at the defeated look on my face.

"After I found out what happened in Paris, I contacted the gravediggers and send them to look for you." I just looked at her, while slowly putting the pieces together.

"My my, was I lucky when they found you in Gotham City."

I gritted my teeth and felt another wave of anger surge through me when I realized it had been her who made me flee Gotham. She was the reason why Lisa was dead. Poor Eric.

Trying to suppress my anger and keeping myself from doing something rash by crossing my arms, I asked: "Why haven't you gone after Eric yet? If you know where he is. I suppose you've got the gravediggers watching him with hawk eyes."

She smiled and suddenly it clicked. "Ah, you're hoping to find more of us? That he will lead you to them?" I chuckled and brought my face close to hers. "He's not that stupid."

I wasn't going to tell her that there weren't any more of us left. That Eric and I were the only ones with these ruins carved into our skin.

She shrugged. "We'll see."

After Flag gave me the stink eye once more, I stepped back again and still oblivious to everyone listening I asked: "How did you even got them to start working for you?"

She grabbed her suitcase from the floor and whipped her hair back. "Money of course. Who do you think pays for all their toys?"

She had me under her thumb. My legs felt like lead and a wave of fatigue rushed over me.

As if finally sensing my defeat, Rick dropped his arm and with that the threat of blowing my brains out too. He flexed his neck and looked from me to Waller.

"You ready to go home now?"

Boomerang, who had kept quiet all this while, stepped forward, his eyes trained on Flag. "Yeah, that sounds good. You guys wanna go home?"

He then glanced at each of us and rubbed his chin. "Or you wanna go back to prison?"

Harley who had seemed to pull her teeth loose from the gum scoffed. "I'm not going back to prison."

Boomerang looked at me. "How about you, Eva?"

I glanced up at him, having been in a sort of trance. I felt sick.

Katana unsheathed sword and moved forwards but Waller held her back.

"Don't get high-spirited on me and a ruin a good thing," she threatened and held up a mobile phone which displayed all of our heads the same way Flag's tech did.

Killer Croc growled again and threw his hoodie over his head. Flag cleared his throat and nodded towards the door. "Let's move out."

Before Waller could walk by me, however, I grabbed her arm and brought my head close to hers.

"I'm only going to tell you once, so listen carefully."

She flinched and Rick who was already by the door, yelled: "Van Helsing, cut the shit!"

"It was a bad thing for you to show your face today. Now that I know it's you who's behind the murder of Eric's wife, I will make you pay and if one of your men even lays as much as one finger on him, I will make you suffer too."

Flag cursed under his breath and moved towards me.

"You're gonna wish you were dead, little Manda," I finished before Flag pulled me off her and Harley laughed at the startled look on her face.

"That's cute," she said to Waller, clicking her tongue. "You think you're scary. But lady, I've seen scary and you ain't got his smile."

~.~.~

When we got to the roof, it wasn't long before the helicopter arrived to come pick us up. I was moping quietly under my breath at the thought of another flight on of those things. At the same time, I was a little distracted because of the big reveal from before. Amanda Waller.

I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it was her who had the gravediggers wrapped around her finger. The gravediggers were there for as long as I could remember; passing their knowledge of our existence on from generation to generation and now they've started working for the government?

It was crazy. Especially since they used to be against everything that had some sort of authority over them. They liked to be in control, free to experiment and to learn the secret of our immortality. I guess once money became an issue for them and they couldn't afford any more of the newest weapons or any equipment to hunt us down, they had no other choice.

I wondered what deal Waller had made with them. Would she hand me off as soon as she was done with me and it was their turn?

Floyd pulled me from my thoughts by nudging me. "I'm sorry about your family."

I was surprised but shrugged it off. "It happened a long time ago."

He looked ahead and pursed his lips. "Doesn't make it any better."

Droplets of rain fell on my nose. "No," I agreed. "No, it doesn't."

Swallowing away a lump, I glanced sideways at him and nudged him back. "Thanks."

"Our bird's been jacked," Flag suddenly called out and while frowning, I glanced up at the helicopter above us, my hair whipping over my shoulder at its whirling blades.

Flag and his team opened fire at the aircraft and together with Flag, I took cover as soon as the helicopter started shooting back with a machine gun on board.

"What the hell?" I muttered, carefully glancing up.

Suddenly a loud and very, oh so familiar cackle of laughter resonated from within the helicopter and a chill ran through my bone.

Harley, who had taken cover next to me with her fingers in her ears to block out all the noise, pulled out the mobile phone from her pocket. She glanced at it briefly before she looked up at me with stunned eyes and a wide smile stretched her lips; exposing her white set of teeth.

She grabbed a hold of my hand and her skin felt cold.

"I'll come back for you!" she shouted in my ear above the noise of gunfire. I was speechless and I didn't understand what she was talking about.

Her eyes were sincere and she planted a firm kiss on my cheek, before standing up, oblivious to the bullets flying by her head.

Was it really him up there? I watched as she moved towards the helicopter and I saw a flash of green throwing down a rope.

The son of a bitch.

A/N: This was a difficult chapter for me to write... I got from a comic that Waller was raised by her grandmother in Chicago and wanted to put it in there. Anyways, more of the Joker next chapter! Thanks to everyone for reading and for the follows and favourites! They motivate me a lot!

luna lily moon: Gah, you bring a smile to my face every time! But don't worry! I'm really introverted as well haha, but I'm glad you're getting out of your shell a bit! I really like our little so called talks haha and I'm happy that you're still reading this story. Yeah, I was really nervous too haha! Each time I get notified of a review, my heart does a little flip and I'm scared it's going to be a negative one haha.. Btw, let me know whenever you feel like posting one of your stories on here!