If you hate the villains in this story, I hope to change your mind with this chapter. :) Also, I'm having trouble deciding if I should rate this story T or M. After reading this chapter, feel free to let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!
Batman stumbled out of the dining hall. The effects of that powder the woman had thrown at him was beginning to wear off, but still left him dizzy and disoriented. He lumbered through the corridors, trying to chase after the "Mother."
He heard footsteps coming from around the corner and his heart sank. He couldn't handle a fight right now, not when he could hardly walk. He saw a shadow on the wall and tried to take a defensive stance.
"I got here just in time, didn't I?" said Gordon as he ran to help Batman. "What happened to you?"
"Mother," was the only word he could muster.
"Where did she go?"
"Tracking her," he said between heavy breaths. He handed Gordon the device to locate the woman. Gordon could see a little red dot on the screen representing her moving down the roads of Gotham.
"I'll send every man we have after her, but we've got to get you back on your feet first."
"No. I'll be fine. Find them first. Take this." He handed Gordon a black walkie talkie-like object. "Go."
"You sure you'll be okay?"
"Go," Batman asserted. And Gordon ran to chase after the three criminals in hot pursuit.
Ruby applied more lipstick as Jonathan drove them away from the charity event. "I feel tonight went well, boys." Ruby set the lipstick back in her bag, but her hand touched something unfamiliar in her bag. She pulled out the bat-shaped tracker from the bag and held it up. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here. It seems the Batman isn't as stupid as I thought."
Jack nearly jumped out of his seat with excitement. He shoved his way to the driver's seat and pushed Jonathan out of the way. "Time for a good old-fashioned car chase!"
"No, no, Jack. There's an easier way." Ruby rolled down the window. Seeing the car driving next to them with its windows also down, she took the tracker and tossed it into the backseat of it. At the next intersection, both vehicles drove off in opposite directions.
And Ruby's was not the vehicle that was trailed by a fleet of police cars just a few moments later.
As Batman came to his senses, he made his way to the Batmobile. He zoomed down the city streets (with many stares and gasps from pedestrians he passed). He followed the sound of police sirens until he came to a street totally full of police cars surrounding an old van. An old man stood outside of it, looking absolutely bewildered and petrified at the police with their guns pointed at him.
Realization dawned on him. "Of course," Bruce thought, "She created a decoy." He sped off in the Batmobile to search the rest of the city.
That's when the sound of gunshots filled the air. which the Batmoblie chased after moments later. As the Batmobile turned the corner and saw a car with a man in a purple suit hanging his head out the window, firing shots into the air. The car was coming to the outskirts of the city, and pulling into what looked like an abandoned warehouse. He contacted Gordon on the walkie talkie.
"I found them. They're in an abandoned warehouse outside the city. The man you've been tracking was a decoy."
"Alright, I'm on my way," said Gordon.
Batman stepped out of the Batmobile and quietly followed the three into the warehouse, going unnoticed.
"Jack! What the Hell were you thinking?" he heard the woman shout. He carefully listened from behind tall stacks of empty crates.
"Oh, I smell a Bat," said the woman. "Come out, come out wherever you are," she called out in the warehouse.
Batman was not about to give himself away yet.
"I'm only going to say this once: this is your last chance to surrender. If it's peace you want, then you'll show yourself now," said Ruby. All she got in return was silence. "Okay, I see you need some convincing. Boys, drop your weapons."
Jack and Jonathan did so, emptying their pockets of all items meant to break people.
"All of your weapons, boys."
And they dropped what knives, explosives, etc. that they had tried to hide. However, Jack had many pockets, many places to hide weapons. He took several grenades from his coat pockets, a few knives from up his sleeves, and many more various weapons one after another, from various hiding places in his clothes. This whole ordeal took a few minutes.
Footsteps of police officers could then be heard coming to the warehouse. Batman saw this as his perfect opportunity to come out of hiding. He held up a gun and aimed at her boys.
"That will be the last thing you ever do," warned Ruby.
He fired, and before Ruby could blink, her boys had darts in their necks, and they were tranquilized like wild animals. She sensed the next dart coming for her, and stopped it midair with her mind. Gotham policemen dragged her boys away.
"Don't touch my children!" With a wave of her hand, the cops started coughing up blood. Batman grabbed her and held her back. She used no spells, no tricks, just raw power, and burned through Batman's sleeves with her hands. She broke free of his grip. She ran to her boys, until two dozen officers arrived with their guns aimed at her.
"Ma'am, it would be in your best interest to surrender now," said the Commissioner.
"Make love, not war," said Ruby. She grabbed Batman, pulled him close and planted her kiss on his lips. His body went rigid as the spell took over. His muscles twitched in spasms, the result of a battle between Ruby's spell and Batman's will to keep control over his own body.
It was a losing battle. Batman took an explosive from his belt and threw it at the police. It sent the officers scrambling to take cover. Amidst the thick smoke and small fires that had broken out, Ruby tried to find her way to her boys without being seen by the police. And then she was stopped by a hand pulling her back. She looked over her shoulder and saw none other than the Dark Knight himself, clearly resisting her control now.
She tried to reach into her bag, but Batman grabbed her arm first. She slipped out away from him and pulled out from her bag a small, red capsule. She crushed it in her hands. She rubbed her hands together for a second, and when she pulled them apart, they held orbs of fire which gave her no burns. She threw some of the fire at the Bat, which he dodged quickly. She then threw as much fire as she could at him, all at once, in an attempt to distract him.
While the Batman was occupied with avoiding the flames, Ruby went to find her boys. The smoke was dissipating, making it much easier to see and breathe. Ruby went to the spot where she had last seen Jack and Jonathan, but they were nowhere to be found. She looked all around, but couldn't see either of them anywhere.
"They'll be taken to Arkham, where you should be," said Batman in his gruff voice, no longer surrounded by fire.
Ruby, almost entirely ignoring his comment, pulled a smoke bomb from her bag and disappeared into the night.
Ruby stormed home and got out her cauldron. She scrambled around grabbing ingredients left and right, everything she needed for a healing potion. Her hands were shaking with worry. If anything happens to them…
No! She wouldn't let anything happen to them. She had to get to work. Her boys were depending on her.
She tossed the ingredients into the cauldron, saying the incantation as it brewed.
"Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen"
She silently prayed to whatever being might be out there: please don't let my boys get hurt.
As soon as it was done, she quickly filled two vials of the potion and stuffed them in her bag. She strapped a gun and a knife to her hips. Not even bothering to waste a second to put on her mask, she fled to Arkham Asylum.
She simply shot her way through the back door and let herself in. She paid no attention to the shrieking or confused people she passed as she searched for her children. She only stopped once or twice to prevent someone from raising alarm. She might've beaten a couple of nurses unconscious; she wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing.
She broke her way into the room where they were keeping Jonathan. He was lying on the floor. His face was bloody and his eyes were unseeing. For a moment, she feared the worst. She thought she had lost him, until he took a struggled breath. He didn't even seem aware that she was there. He made not a single movement; he just stared into space.
"Oh, baby," she said. She ran to her child. She swallowed the coming tears. "It's alright. Mother's here. I'm taking you home. You'll be safe." She tried to provide all the comfort she could, unable to imagine what he had just been through. She shuffled through her bag and found the small glass bottle of the potion she had prepared. All it took was a few drops in his mouth.
"Mother?" he said, gradually coming out of whatever trance he'd been in.
"That's right. I'm here. I'm getting you out of here."
He sat up with Ruby's help. His whole body felt heavy and weak.
"Where's Jack?"
"Probably in the East Wing."
"Come with me." With some difficulty, she helped him stand. He was shaking all over. Ruby thought he would collapse, but somehow he pushed on. She had to help support him as he walked.
They made their way to the East Wing, where Ruby threw someone against the wall and demanded to know what room the Joker was in. With just one intimidating look, she had her answer.
Jack was strapped to a chair, bleeding and unconscious. His shirt was unbuttoned, so Ruby could see all the cuts and bruises on him. Someone had carved the word "FREAK" on his chest.
"Jack, wake up. You need to wake up. Mother's here. I'm taking you home." She unstrapped him and applied the healing potion to the cuts.
Jack began to mutter something incoherent. Thank goodness— a sign of life. They helped him stand as well, although he seemed unaware of what was happening. They helped him walk out of the room as Ruby heard the security guards running down the hall coming for them. She reached into her bag and pulled out a little, glass sphere. Just as the guards came in sight. She smashed the sphere to the ground and flames erupted from it, completely blocking the guards from the three of them. Escaping from the asylum, Ruby made a silent vow that Hell would come to Arkham, which had caused her boys pain.
Ruby and Jonathan helped Jack get into the house and into bed, as Ruby insisted. Jack's wounds had stopped bleeding, so all he needed were some bandages. Afterwards, she put Jonathan to bed too. In his bedroom, she hung a dream catcher off the ceiling. "You'll probably need this."
"You know those don't actually work."
"Believe me; they do when a real witch makes them." She pulled up the blankets over him, and he was exhausted enough that he didn't protest. "Get some rest. I love you." She closed the curtains, and by the time she left the room, he was asleep.
She returned to him to wipe the blood away and clean the scratches on his face. While her boys were sleeping, she decided to make a dream catcher for Jack as she sat at his bedside. She twisted the string around and around, and hummed an old lullaby she knew.
Some time later, Jack began to stir. "You wanna know how I got these scars?" he asked. Then he burst out in hysterical laughter.
"Ooh! I've always wanted to know what a scalpel feels like!"
"Baby, what's wrong?" Ruby asked him. She leapt out of her chair to be at his side, just as he began violently thrashing on he bed.
"I'd love to see what you can do with that knife!" he shouted.
Ruby was horrified and confused for a moment, then she whispered under her breath, "He's hallucinating," as it dawned on her. "JONATHAN!" she screamed. She attempted to hold Jack down, and talk him out of this mad rage, but he was too strong.
"Can we try the waterboarding again? It was refreshing," he said in his hysteria. It would make Ruby sick to imagine what he was seeing right now.
Jonathan came into the room, with recent sleep still apparent around his eyes. "Help me hold him down!" Ruby screamed. Suddenly very alarmed, Jonathan did as he was told.
"Jack, listen to me. Everything's okay. You're home now," Ruby tried to talk him into sense, but he didn't hear any of it. Ruby then ran into her kitchen and went straight for her cabinet of potions and other tonics. When she found what she wanted, she bolted back to Jack. Jonathan was still wrestling with Jack.
"Why don't you make that knife a little sharper? That'd be more fun!" Jack shouted between maniacal chuckles. Ruby took her potion and poured it onto a rag, which she used to cover Jack's mouth and nose. As he inhaled the potion, he began to relax, and Jonathan didn't have to hold him down anymore.
"It's okay, sweetheart," Ruby said comfortingly.
Jack said as the potion dragged him into a delirious sleep, "You think you're pretty smart, don't you? Collins thought he was smart. Look where that landed him. You're all dead. All your little worlds are about to come to an end, and it won't be pretty. Believe me, I know what's coming for you, and it'll make you scream until you all loose your minds: my mother." And he closed his eyes.
Ruby stayed with Jack and did all she could to make him comfortable, and she began to grow curious of what his hallucinations had made him see. After consulting her spell book, she decided to use and old trick to see into his mind.
"Scrutans mens, considerandam praeteritum," she chanted. She put her hands on Jack's head and focused on clearing her mind. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths until she reached into Jack's memories.
The images of memories flashed by: Arkham nurses waving knives and scalpels in front of Jack's face and laughing, their fists meeting his face, his blood dripping to the floor.
Back in real time, Ruby had to bite her tongue to keep herself from screaming. She clenched her fists. She looked at Jack, who was now just like a scarred, peacefully sleeping child. How could anyone dare hurt him? Well, they certainly weren't going to get away with it.
She thought of the countless people who had seen this man on the news, seen the blood, seen the fire. That man had been a symbol of terror for the city, an incarnation of everyone's childhood nightmares. He'd seemed to be invincible, although many wished he would die. Now that very same man was entirely dependent on Ruby for survival. That very same man was now tucked in bed, in danger of his own nightmares. If the people of Gotham could see him now, what would they think? If they could see him now.
Another Note: the first spell in this chapter is from the song "No Good Deed" for all the Wicked fans. This is sort of Ruby's No Good Deed moment. If this chapter seemed confusing, explanations are coming in the next one.
