Fear Will Be Your Enemy Chapter 26: Taste Of Your Own Medicine?
The video camera was still rolling and pointing right at Batman, who was unbeknownst to Scarecrow and the rest, was slowly starting to wake up due to him winning the battle that just went on inside his mind. Scarecrow then stood right in front of the camera and said, "You see Gotham, my toxin has the power to make the strongest and most sane person go mad from immense terror. Even the great Batman.". Scarecrow then grabbed a gun out of his pocket. "Also, I'd like to show everyone how even just firing a gun can make anyone cower in fear.", the villain said before firing the gun in his hand at a glass beer bottle. The bottle shattered to pieces and everyone except Nightwing and the thugs, jumped back in fright. "See? Even just a sound like that or something being destroyed can scare even the bravest of people.", said the villain. "You know, you're also demonstrating how much of a madman you are, Crane.", said Jacob. Scarecrow then turned around upon hearing this and said to him, "You still have flare in you, Jacob. I'm impressed. I'm not insane. I am simply stating facts on how fear works on a person's mind, soul, and heart. I do sense that there is something else that is angering you.". "You know what that is. You killed Elsa! You're not gonna get away with that or unmasking Batman!", he said. "Here's another demonstration of my toxin's power, Gotham.", said Crane before he filled his syringes up and injected Jacob again in the shoulder. He screamed in pain and then fell to the floor as the toxin started to fill his mind. "Jacob, no!", screamed Anna. They tried to help him, but Crane's goons still had their guns pointed at them and they prevented them from helping their friend. "Stay right where you are!", said a guy in a skull mask. Scarecrow watched as Jacob started to succumb to the toxin. "What are you seeing, Jacob? Is it your fear of vampires, again?", he said. Jacob started to not see vampires, but instead seeing Elsa dying from when Crane gave her that fatal dose of fear toxin. "No! Elsa, no! Please, no! Fight it! God, this is all my fault! I should never have had dragged you and the rest along!", said Jacob. Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, Sven, and Nightwing heard this and realized that he did have feelings for Elsa. Scarecrow and his goons obviously heard this too. "So, it's not vampires now. You're scared of seeing Elsa getting hurt. You care for her. How interesting. I know she felt the same way about you. I saw it by how she reacted the first time I dosed you. Sadly, your fear came to life and now she's dead. Because of you.", he said. (You'll notice the parallel to Frozen here just like when Hans told Elsa that Anna was dead because of her.) You dragged her and your friends along on this little mission of yours and you failed them and her. She trusted you and you failed her. And your failure led to you and your friends getting captured, as well as her death. Nothing hurts like losing someone you care about. Knowing that there is no one to blame, but yourself.", said Scarecrow, who was currently observing Jacob. "Leave him alone!", warned Anna. Scarecrow then turned his attention to Anna. "Perhaps I should. Maybe I should turn my attention to you. You're just as guilty as he is. Elsa was your sister and you let her die. You were supposed to protect her and now she's dead.", said Scarecrow, as he moved towards Anna. "You don't scare me!", said Anna. "Shhhhh! It's okay to be afraid.", he said to her as she turned her head away because she was repulsed by his frightful appearance. "Don't you dare touch her!", said Kristoff. "Yeah! You heard him!", said Sven. "I'd advise you to be quiet. Unless, you want some, too? The same goes for you as well, reindeer.", Scarecrow said first to Kristoff, then to Sven. "Why are you so mean?", asked Olaf. Scarecrow bent down to talk to Olaf and said, "My dear snowman, what I'm doing is not mean. It's necessary. To show how someone can easily be crippled by their darkest demons. Just like your friends were. I must admit I had no idea that Elsa's powers were strong enough to bring snowmen to life.". Batman fully came to and the rest, including Crane noticed this. "Welcome back to your finale. Tell me, what did you see? What is the great Batman terrified of?", Crane asked. Batman looked at Crane with anger and said, "I'm not afraid, Crane!". Scarecrow couldn't believe what he just heard. "Impossible!", he said. He then cocked and pointed his gun at Batman's head and said, "Without fear, life is meaningless!". Batman just stayed silent while the gun was pointed at his head. Anna bent down to snap Jacob out of it like before on Stagg's airship. "Come on, Jake! Snap out of it! Everything's okay! Fight the toxin!", said Anna. "Yeah, bud! You can do it!", said Kristoff. Within a few seconds, Jacob snapped back to reality and saw his friends clearly. "Damn it! He did it to me again!", said Jacob. Anna and Kristoff helped him back on his feet. Scarecrow looked over his shoulder and saw that Jacob was back to reality. "I see you're back now. Good. Then, you can watch the unveiling!", said Crane. "It's time!", Crane said as he pointed his gun away from Batman and backed away from him as well. "Jacob, I would like you to do the honors.", he said. "Never! I'm not taking any orders from you!", said Jacob. Scarecrow then pointed his gun at Jacob and was about to shoot him. But then he pointed it at Nightwing and shot him in the stomach, not to kill him, but to just hurt him and send a warning. Nightwing fell down in pain and agony due to being shot. "You bastard!", he yelled while he bent down to help Nightwing. "Take off that mask, or my next shot will kill him!", he demanded/threatened. "It's okay.", said Batman. "It's not okay! Do you realize what this means?!", Jacob said. "It's the end.", Batman said. Jacob got up from Nightwing and walked towards Batman. Anna and Kristoff replaced him to help the former Boy Wonder. "When they find out who you are, there will be no hiding!", said Jacob. "You need to trust me, Jacob.", said Batman. Jacob was pondering what to do. The others were wondering what he would do, even Nightwing, who was still in pain and agony from being shot. "Now!", demanded Scarecrow. Jacob knew he didn't have a choice. He walked until he was right in front of Batman. He motioned to pull off Batman's mask and then had his hands on both sides. He was slowly starting to pull it up and off his head. He continued until he heard an icy blast. That icy blast hit Crane's hand and made him drop the gun. The gun became completely frozen to solid ice and shattered into pieces once it hit the ground. Crane held his hand because the blast made his fingers go numb and cold. He looked to where that came from and said in disbelief, "You?!". "Jacob, stop! I think he looks good with the mask on!", said Elsa. They all turned around and couldn't believe that they were seeing Elsa. "You're alive?!", said Anna, who, along with the rest, were beyond happy and relieved. "How is this possible?! My concentrated dosage should've killed you!", said Crane in disbelief. "Please, I'm a lot harder to get rid of than a common cold.", said/punned Elsa. "How did you beat the toxin?! It's impossible!", said Crane. "Actually, it's not! I was able to beat it because I did something that I should've done long ago: I overcame my fear!", said Elsa. Anna, Kristoff, Jacob, Sven, and Olaf were really happy to hear this. "Liar! You can't just simply stop being afraid!", said Scarecrow. "I did! You're finished, Crane! You're going to pay for what you've done!", said Elsa with an angry look on her face. "Kill her!", Crane ordered his goons. "You knocked out my buddy and gave him a cold tonight. I'm going to enjoy killing you.", said a thug. They had their guns pointed at her and were about to fire, but Elsa easily knocked them out with her icy blasts before they could. She then went over to the rest and asked, "Are you guys okay?". "Yeah, but Scarecrow shot Nightwing.", said Kristoff. "Oh, God!", she said in worry. Elsa then bent down and used her magic to ice Nightwing's bullet wound and it seemed to help a bit. Anna then hugged Elsa, as did Kristoff, Jacob, and the rest. "Thank God you're not dead!", said Anna. "Of course not!", reassured Elsa, even though it was obvious that she of course wasn't dead. "Trust me, Nightwing, you'll be okay.", she said. "Thanks.", said Nightwing. "Of course.", she said smiling."I'm just glad you're alive, well, and already kicking ass, or freezing ass.", said Jacob. They all laughed at that pun. Unbeknownst to them, Scarecrow grabbed his scythe and was moving towards them. "Look out!", shouted Sven. Elsa and the rest turned around and saw Crane with the scythe. Scarecrow swung the scythe at Elsa, but she easily dodged it. "I'm sorry, Elsa. But you're about to become cold cut!", said Scarecrow. Scarecrow then swung at Elsa again, but failed again. Jacob was going to help her and stop him, but Anna held him back and said, "Don't! Trust me, she's got this! She can take care of herself!". The next swing made Elsa lose her balance and she fell on a table. Crane took this opportunity to kill her, but she dodged it by rolling over on her side. She kicked his braced leg which made him kneel in pain due to Croc breaking that leg back at the asylum. She then punched him in the face and then finally used an ice blast to knock him a few feet from them and made him drop his scythe. Elsa then froze the scythe and she broke it in half with her heel. Scarecrow then got up and said, "I'll unmask him myself! You won't stop me from doing this!". "Think again! I got you, Batman!", Elsa said as she blasted and froze Batman's restraints and he easily broke them open. Scarecrow saw this and tried to stop him, but Batman easily grabbed him by the throat and grabbed his syringed hand. Scarecrow was struggling to get out of his grip, but couldn't do it, due to Batman's superior strength. Batman made Crane fill his syringes with toxin. "No!", said Crane as he was struggling more. To help Batman and to make sure he got dosed, Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff grabbed Crane and held him in place. "Get off of me!", he demanded, while still struggling. "Just shut up and have a taste of your own medicine, doctor!", said Anna. Batman eventually made Crane inject himself in the neck and didn't stop until the syringes were empty. Scarecrow's eyes turned orange and was starting to panic. Batman saw the fear in his eyes as well as the color of them and said, "What's wrong? Scared?". Batman, Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff let go of him and he tumbled back, knocked over the video camera, and pulled his syringes out of his neck. His own toxin began to take over his mind and said, "No!", as The Master of Fear began to see his greatest fear. Unknown to everyone else, even Batman, he had Chiroptophobia, fear of bats. He began to see hundreds, maybe thousands of bats flying around the warehouse, all swarming around him. Scarecrow was constantly whimpering as the bats were screeching and flying around him, even some coming at him. He kept seeing them and kept whimpering. He then saw a giant demon bat in the center of the room that the other bats were circling around, which was really Batman. The giant demon bat opened his wings and revealed his fangs, as well as revealing a burning bat symbol in the center of his chest. "Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!", Scarecrow screamed like Hell, due to being scared out of his mind from what he was seeing. He turned to run, but Jacob easily knocked him out with a single punch to the face, like how Anna punched Hans just once and knocked him out in the movie. Scarecrow fell on the floor unconscious. Even though Scarecrow had knocked it over, the camera was still rolling and all of Gotham could still see good. They saw everything that happened and was continuing to see everything that was going on. Jacob felt good after doing that and went over to his friends. He bent down to comfort Nightwing and saw that Elsa's ice helped the gunshot wound a bit and said, "He's strong. He'll be alright.". "I know.", said Batman. "Thank you. Thank you all for everything. You all did good on protecting this city and your kingdom tonight. You're all good people. As well as reindeer and snowman.", he said, while slightly smiling. "Thank you.", Jacob said smiling, as did the rest. Elsa then said, "Here you go. I thought you might want this back.", as she handed back his utility belt that Scarecrow made him take off. Batman hooked the belt around his waist and said, "Thank you, Elsa.". Olaf saw the camera and picked it up and now the whole city was seeing the walking and talking snowman. "Hi, Gotham! I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs! These guys are my friends!", he said as he introduced himself and then pointed the camera at his friends. "Can I have that for a second, Olaf?", asked Jacob. "Sure thing, Jacob!", said Olaf as he handed the camera to his friend. "Just so all of Gotham knows, Scarecrow is no longer a threat and to the scum of this city, Batman wasn't unmasked, so ya'll better be laying low because The Dark Knight ain't going anywhere anytime soon.", he said right before he turned off the camera. "So, what are we going to do with these guys?", asked Sven. "I'll inform the GCPD to pick up his goons, but we must take Crane somewhere much more secure, in which to keep him from hurting anyone else.", said Batman. "And where's that?", asked Olaf. "Arkham Asylum.", answered Batman. Batman used the intercom speaker in his mask to communicate with Alfred. "Alfred, inform the GCPD to pick up Crane's goons in the warehouse at Falcone Shipping Yard. Crane got dosed with his own toxin and is no longer a threat. We're going to be taking him to Arkham.", said Batman. "I know, sir. I saw the whole thing happen on Vicki Vale's show. Is Master Grayson going to be alright? I saw that he was shot.", said/asked Alfred. "He'll be fine.", assured Batman. "I see that your friends came in handy with saving Gotham and their kingdom.", said Alfred. "Yes, they did. I'll talk to you soon, Alfred.", said Batman. "Very good, sir. Your parents would be so proud of you for the man that you've become.", said Alfred smiling. That made Batman smile slightly before he took Alfred off of his intercom. "Come on. Let's go.", said Batman as he picked up Scarecrow. Jacob and Kristoff helped Nightwing walk and then all of them left the warehouse.