"If I had never lived, that which I love

Had still been living, had I never loved

That which I love would still be beautiful

Happy and giving happiness. What is she?

What is she now?-a sufferer for my sins

A thing I dare not think upon-or nothing."

"Manfred," George Gordon

Jack thought he was prepared for every eventuality. He'd thought there was nothing left to surprise him. But now he found himself rooted to the spot, struck speechless by the terrified blue eyes staring into his. Everything suddenly made some kind of horrible sense now.

All these years, he'd been whispering his secrets indirectly into his enemy's ear. He was the ultimate mole, all on his own. But where he was frozen, Pam was not. She flung her vines forward in a desperate attempt to rip her friend from Wayne's grasp. He merely slashed them apart with one quick movement of his claws. Then he deliberately drew a claw down Harleen's cheek drawing a thin line of blood.

"I'd watch yourself witch unless you want her to lose a few limbs. I need her alive, not intact."

"You monster! You'll pay for this." Pam's rage was so great, Jack was surprised the walls weren't being torn down yet. He forced himself to move to face Pam when all he wanted was to tell her to rip the place apart. They couldn't risk Harleen's life in a direct attack and they still didn't know the whereabouts of Aaron or the two other Bat-Demons. They needed to wait for the right time.

"Stand down, Ivy. That's an order."

For a moment the glare of hatred on her face was directed at him and he was reminded of the days he'd faced her as an eco-terrorist before she'd reformed. The metahuman took a few steps back as though she didn't trust herself to be this close to Wayne without retaliating and then what was left of her vines pulled in close to her body and stilled. The slashed ends were already growing new tips but if Pam had felt any physical pain from the monster's claws, she didn't show it.

"Please, Red. Don't get hurt for me." Harley looked at Pam with the same sad look she'd given Jack. She looked resigned to her fate. Jack couldn't even fathom how much of a horror it had been for her to sit locked in her own body, unable to move or talk as her friends kept coming to visit her. Now her mind was free but her body was still trapped by the bat-demon looming over her.

"I'd take this entire city down if I thought it would help you, Harley." Pam looked somewhat composed again but her voice betrayed her rage. Wayne chuckled lowly dragging their attention back to him again.

"That's my job. But perhaps it would be amusing to see you turn against your handlers on my orders. Or maybe I should tell one of my minions to set the park on fire again. I didn't get to see your reaction in person last time."

Somehow, Pam was able to keep herself from responding in any way. Jack took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. They still had the upper hand here, despite what Wayne thought. This didn't change the plan in any way.

"You should make this easier on yourself Bruce. Let her go and surrender yourself."

"Are you kidding me? You still think you're in charge here? You're going to order your men to back off and let me go or Harleen here is going to start losing body parts. It's your choice."

"No." That one word seemed to echo in the vast room. Wayne actually looked confused, his demonic face was more expressive than it looked.

"What do you mean 'no'? Do you think I'm bluffing? I will dissect your wife in front of you and there's nothing either of you can do to stop me."

"Yes, there is. I'm sorry Harley. I love you but I came here prepared to sacrifice both of us if there was no other option. There will be no compromise and no negotiations. If you kill Harley, you're dead. If you attack me, you're dead. Your only hope for survival is to transform back and surrender."

Wayne looked stunned and then a look almost of glee passed his face. He took a step back from Harley and pulled out a small controller from the belt around his waist.

"You want to go to war, Jack. Fine. We'll go to war." He pressed a button on the communicator and spoke into it. "Helena, Timmy, operation 'Prometheus' is a go. You know what to do."

"What was that?" Jack wanted to act so badly. He wanted to shoot Wayne, destroy this place, and leave with Harleen and Ivy. But part of the plan was drawing out Wayne's allies and if that meant he waited to see what Bruce would do, then he would wait for as long as it took.

"Prometheus gave fire to mankind. I'm just following in his footsteps." Eddie would be listening in on the drone and would have alerted everyone, especially the Fire Department to be on alert. "So you're just going to stay here while your city burns, Jack?"

"My only priority right now is you. My people can handle your minions."

"We'll see, Jack."

The Narrows had been a poor section of the city for decades. The buildings were old, often crumbling, and they lacked many safety features present in newer sections of Gotham. But they were also people's homes and businesses. It was one of the places that would have been slated for renovation after the threat of the bat-demons had been dealt with.

The older of Wayne's minions received his signal. She emerged from the top of a crumbling, empty building in the heart of the Narrows, and took to the air in broad daylight. Eddie's drones spotted her almost immediately and his computer pinged with the sighting. Chief Nygma frowned at the images he saw. The bat-demon was heading straight up which seemed odd as it made her a bigger target but more worrisome was the container strapped to her back.

Emergency personnel, alerted by Eddie, shifted towards the Narrows and sharpshooters moved into position but they were too late. She unstrapped the silver container from her back and flung it towards the nearest cluster of buildings. It exploded in mid-air raining fire down upon the buildings below. In the confusion, she dove out of sight before anyone was in a position to take a shot at her.

Across the city, in the heart of downtown, the other bat-demon emerged near the ruins of Wayne Tower. He climbed up the side of the office building with another canister strapped to his back. The office buildings were all closed and empty due to Jack's order to shut down the city. Tim Drake thought he could enter the building before anyone discovered him.

But when the drones alerted Eddie to this new threat, he didn't waste time. They couldn't afford to use caution. The newer drones were weaponized. Under Nygma's direction, they converged on their target but before they could get into place he smashed the glass windows on the ninth floor and threw himself inside. The drones opened fire but the bat-demon disappeared into the hallway beyond the room. Eddie held his breath, waiting for flames to erupt but when nothing happened he moved some of the drones to follow.

There were droplets of blood leading across the room, proof that at least one of the bullets had hit its target but there wasn't enough for it to be a fatal wound. Eddie radioed the SWAT members to stand by out of range of any possible explosion. Then he sent three drones in after the demon. They were all equipped with heat sensors and weapons. Hopefully they would find the demon before he could set off the bomb.

Eddie monitored the fire in the Narrows while keeping an eye on the situation with Jack and Ivy. The revelation that Harley had been chipped this whole time had shaken him as well. Part of him wanted to open fire with the drone hovering in the ruined theater. Wayne loomed over Harley and Eddie could have easily shot him in the head.

The only thing that held him back was the need to follow Jack's plan and the real fear that if the shot didn't take out Wayne right away, he could still kill Harley before he fell. Eddie had to wait for Jack's signal but he hoped he was the one to take out the bat-demon once and for all.

The fire in the Narrows was still raging out of control. Information was coming in from dozens of drones all over the city but most of the data was shunted into a folder allowing him to focus solely on bat-demon sightings. The computers would inform him if there was anything else he needed to see.

Something was nagging at him. It felt like he was missing something. Chief Nygma had always been driven by the need to know everything. He'd excelled at his job because he could see patterns and anticipate areas of trouble but now he felt like he was missing something. Both bat-demons had been out in the open without any attempt at stealth. They could just as easily have set off the bombs remotely or started a fire and then snuck away before anyone even knew what was happening.

Either they were getting overconfident or perhaps desperate as their numbers dwindled, or maybe…The realization hit him with a sudden horror. This was all part of Wayne's plan. The minions had allowed themselves to be seen. They had drawn out the response crews for a reason and even now Eddie was moving more of his drones towards the two known sightings leaving other areas sparsely guarded.

"Get out of there now. I think it's a trap." Eddie was frantic as he began to consider all the possibilities. Maybe the bag on Drake's back had been a decoy. Maybe there were already bombs planted around the city and the minion's purpose had been to lure emergency personnel closer to the real danger. There were terrorist groups who specialized in two-part attacks and with Wayne, it was likely to be worse.

"Roger that." In the Narrows, they began moving back anyone who wasn't needed immediately. The SWAT team downtown began to move their position back from the building at what seemed like a slow pace and still that itch at the back of his neck intensified. The drones were finding a trail to follow but it all felt too easy. The heat trail led into the air ducts and he sent two of them down the narrow shaft while the other hung back until it was needed.

Something beeped on his feed and he brought up a view of the downtown area only to see a flaming wreckage where the SWAT teams van had been. He played back the footage in horror. The team had been heading towards their truck when the ground ahead of them had simply disintegrated. A fireball had gone up, presumably from the sewers, destroying everything within ten feet. At least three of them had been close enough to be caught in the blast but the rest were staggering to their feet, bruised and dazed but still alive.

Another alert made him look at the feed from the Narrows just in time to see the explosion that occurred almost on top of the remaining emergency personnel. Again, the ground beneath them collapsed, spilling bodies and at least two fire trucks into the resulting hole. He wasn't even sure how many had just died. Eddie wanted to scream when he realized there was nothing he could do.

Well, there was something he could do. The drones were still tracking the bat-demon in the office building. They cruised through the air ducts and emerged in a dark room filled with typical office furniture. As they surveyed their surroundings, the heat signature was nowhere to be seen. Both drones split up and began a search pattern but it was the third one he'd left behind who caught sight of the bat-demon as he raced back for the open window.

Somehow, the minion had laid a false trail and then doubled back to make his escape. He hadn't counted on Eddie's paranoia making him cover all the bases. As the bat-demon raced towards his freedom, the drone opened fire, not with bullets but with darts containing the reversal drug. Three darts hit squarely in his back and he reeled back and wavered before collapsing.

Eddie observed the painful transformation with satisfaction. That was one life he'd saved. The two drones were flying back to join the third one and together they used their mechanical arms under his typed directions to strip any weapons off the unconscious boy and secure his wrists and ankles with cords.

One of them removed a small headset from his ear. This was how Wayne communicated with his followers and Eddie used the drone to jack into it. Hopefully, he could block the signal Wayne was using to set off the bombs. The emergency personnel were rescuing their own from the carnage in the Narrows but there was no telling if there was another bomb set to go off nearby.

Eddie worked feverishly to crack Wayne's signal at the same time one of his agents was telling Jack and Pam over their earpieces what was going on in the city. He knew the Commissioner would feel just as helpless and angry as he did but Jack's intent was to keep Wayne contained in this one location so it was up to the rest of the force to take down the other two demons.

The signal was hard to find, seemingly weak and buried under others but he recognized it for what it was and blocked it. He relayed this information to Jack and waited for the next crisis. There was bound to be more.

"The offer still stands, Wayne. Surrender and you get to live." It was hard for Jack to stand there while sections of his city burned and people died but he'd gambled everything on this strategy and he couldn't back out now.

"Getting bored, Jackie? I'm just getting started. Do you remember that Wayne Technologies provided so much of your equipment? All those electronics in your precious helicopters and drones are mine which makes them mine to control." He typed a command into the device held delicately in his massive claws and then glanced up at the drone expectantly.

A frown passed over his mutated face as the drone kept hovering and then Jack knew he had him. Eddie had successfully blocked the signal which meant Jack needed to take him down now before he figured out a way to get around it. They had captured one of the minions and the other one's general location was known to them. Aaron's whereabouts would have to be determined later. There was no better time to act than now.

Jack looked into Harley's eyes. For a moment, they stared at each other and he saw recognition in her face at his determined expression. She nodded faintly and that was all the acceptance he needed. Wayne looked up from his controller to glare at him in hatred. He knew something was wrong.

"Ivy. Take him down."