Several weeks had passed since Jervis' arrival. Over that time Angela and Jonathan spent much of their time going over notes about his toxins. She'd learned some of the formulas and had even been able to assist him with making a batch from one of his earlier formulas. Whenever they weren't studying his toxins, they were sparring or training. It had been grueling and intensive, but she felt like she was getting a much better hold of her athletic skill. Sometimes they would train on the sparring mat in the lab, and sometimes Jonathan would bring her down to Wonder City to practice running and parkour. Over time, Angela discovered that she had some skill in parkour, and decided that she preferred it greatly over hand to hand combat with someone who was clearly more practiced than she was.

Jervis had settled in to their hideout quite nicely. He had yet to mistake Angela for Alice since the day they had met. And for that she was grateful. They had even been able to make amicable conversation from time to time, though she still felt weary of being left on her own with him.

Edward Had been busying himself with engineering his own robotic army, and a few of the aluminum soldiers were already pieced together and standing sentry in his workroom. After much begging and flattery, Angela had gotten him to agree to help her with some of her studies. There were even times when he would help her practice her sparring. She was surprised to find that he was an extremely attentive tutor on both fronts, considering how he had treated her with such disdain in the past. Yet here she was, passing her courses, and getting closer and closer to being able to win a sparring match against Jonathan.

Though things were starting to settle, and Angela was beginning to feel more secure, she still refused to sleep in the same room as Jervis and resigned herself to sleeping on the sparring mat in the lab.

Angela turned over on the sparring mat and groaned. Her night of sleep - if it could even be called sleep - had left her with a dull ache in her joints, and the stark white lighting of the lab did nothing to alleviate her tired eyes. As she stretched she felt some of her joints crack satisfyingly.

"You know you snore in your sleep?" She heard Jonathan say. He was already up, or perhaps he hadn't gone to sleep at all. She was never sure.

"I do not," she grumbled.

"You absolutely do."

"Shut it," she said as she slowly stood. "I'm going to go take a shower. Hopefully it'll help with this soreness."

"I'll need that vial of toxin I gave you the night we visited the lounge," he said without turning from his work.

"It's in my coat, just grab it."

She walked out of the lab and headed into the dormitory. Edward was still asleep, his silk eye mask firmly in place. Jervis was seated on his cot, sipping at a warm cup of tea. The moment she entered the room Jervis flinched as if she had startled him. The tea in his cup sloshed and threatened to spill onto his hand, but he quickly steadied it.

Angela placed a finger to her lips, telling the hatter to stay silent. She didn't dare wake Edward during the rare occasions that he actually slept. She also didn't want to deal with Edward's snark first thing in the morning. Jervis simply smiled and nodded in reassurance. She guessed he knew the consequences of waking Edward better than she did.

Angela grabbed a change of clothes from her duffle bag and headed straight to the bathroom. She sighed with satisfaction as she turned the knobs on the shower and steam began to fill the room. As she stood under the water she let the tension melt away from her muscles. She closed her eyes and let all thought vanish from her mind. That was, of course, until she could hear a commotion coming from the other side of the door.

When she heard a loud bang in the other room she quickly washed the rest of the shampoo from her hair and turned off the water. She couldn't make out what was being said, but she could hear that Edward was very clearly upset about being woken up. She rushed to dry herself as she heard Jonathan shouting. Just as she finished dressing she heard a loud banging on the bathroom door.

"What is it?" She asked, feeling a bit shaken.

"Open the fucking door!" She heard Jonathan shout from the other side. She had never heard him talk to her like that, and she had never heard him so angry. He hardly ever lost his composure. Something must have been terribly wrong.

Angela felt her heart racing in her chest. Her feet were cemented to the floor. She knew she should open the door, find out what this was all about, but a voice in her head told her to stay put. She could hear Edward now. He was telling Jonathan to calm down and was trying to pull him away from the door. She could hear them scuffling. In the end, her worry that one of them would kill the other won out.

She opened the bathroom door to find Jonathan holding Edward by the collar of his silk pajamas, ready to throw a punch.

"What the hell is going on!?" She shouted over the commotion. Meanwhile, Jervis was still sitting on his cot, practically hiding behind his teacup.

The moment Jonathan noticed her presence he pushed Edward aside, causing him to stumble over one of the cots and fall painfully. Angela gasped and took a step back as Jonathan encroached on her personal space, but she immediately found herself with her back against the wall.

"I hope you've got a damn good explanation for all of this," he growled as he caged her in.

"Jonathan, stop. I don't know what you're talking about." She tried to push him away but he quickly snatched one of her wrists and twisted harshly, causing her to cry out as she fell to her knees.

"Don't play dumb with me, Angela," he hissed. "You wanted me to find out, didn't you? You wanted to drive a steak into this cold, wretched heart of mine, but you didn't have the nerve to do it yourself!"

She squirmed from the pain in her arm and tried to pry his hand away. "Jonathan, I-" she began, ready to tell him that she still had no idea what he was talking about, but then realization dawned on her. The note.

"Ah, yes. There it is," he sighed in feigned delight. "Glad to see we're on the same page now." He suddenly released her, and reached into his pocket to reveal the note Don had left her at the lounge. He must have found it in her coat when he was looking for the toxin. She had completely forgotten about it. "Don't keep me waiting all day, dear. Go on. Tell me all about how you lied to my face, about how you were so sure that you wanted to stay."

"It's not what you think, Jon. Just give me a moment to explain, please."

"Why should I!?" he roared as he turned and flipped one of the cots over. The loud clatter was enough to keep her pinned to the spot. "I've given you everything!" he shouted as he turned back to her, clearly becoming undone. "I bare myself to you and this is how you repay me?" he said as he held the note in front of her.

He was seeing red, and all he could do was think about all of the things Don had said about him in that note. He'd called him a monster. A freak. A creep. And worst of all, he believed Angela had lied to him. She'd told him that she'd made the choice to stay. Yet here she was, planning to run off with that idiot bartender. He felt like a fool. Her deception brought back horrible memories from his early life and he just couldn't bare it. He'd promised himself he would never let himself be deceived like that again.

His hands shook in anger, but his next words were spoken with an eerie calmness. His eyes darkened sinisterly and Angela found herself frozen to the spot. "You think I'm a monster? I'll show you what a monster really is."

Edward had finally gotten up from his fall, and he saw Jonathan reach into his pocket to reveal a syringe of orange toxin. As much as he disliked Angela, he couldn't let her fall victim to that strain of toxin. He recognized it as one of Jonathan's more potent strains, and he couldn't let Jonathan make a mistake he would surely regret. Edward launched himself towards Jonathan and tackled him to the ground. He was surprised to find that Jervis had stopped his cowering and was quickly by his side to help restrain the mad scientist.

"Let me go!" Jonathan roared as he struggled to get out of their grip.

Edward knew they couldn't restrain him for long. He looked up to see Angela still stricken with fear. "Run, Angela!" he shouted. That broke her out of her catatonic state, and she was on her feet and out the door in seconds.

Angela pounded her fist against the button to the lift, but from the sound of scuffling going on in the other room, she suspected it wouldn't arrive on time. There was only one option left. She ran into the lab, snatching a gas mask off of the wall and a scalpel off of the medical cart. She slipped the mask over her face and kept moving. She could stay there and attempt to barricade the door - locking it made little sense since Jonathan had the key - but it would only be a temporary fix. Her only option was to keep running and hope that he would give up, or see reason.

Angela flung open the door to the underground tunnel, threw the switch for the light, and ran. She was glad she had had enough time to fully dress. The route she took would have been unbearable without her sneakers to cushion her feet from the dust and rubble.

Though she was far into the tunnel now, she kept running at full speed. She couldn't take the chance of letting him catch up to her. Before she knew it, she heard a whispery, metallic voice call out to her. "Angela," it called in a melodic tone, "come on back, child. I won't hurt you, I promise."

Angela shuddered at the sound of Scarecrow calling out to her. She could hear footsteps coming towards her, and they were coming fast. She didn't dare to look back. She couldn't risk it, and she didn't want to know how close he was. She kept running, over the bridge Edward had installed, down the stairs, until she finally reached the crevice in the wall she would have to squeeze through. At every step she heard him drawing closer. Every now and then he would taunt her with an echoing whisper of her name.

As she shifted to squeeze into the crevice she dared to look back down the corridor, and there he was. They locked eyes, and Angela felt the icy touch of fear course through her veins. She began struggling as her shirt got caught on a rock. The Scarecrow took his time now, and slowly scraped the metal claws of his gauntlet against the stone walls as he approached her.

"How precious," he hissed through his mask, "like an animal caught in a trap." He was so close. His gaze was intense as he watched her eyes dart around wildly. He could see the fog of her heavy breaths clouding the plastic of her gas mask. He smiled behind his mask. He was sure she was proud of herself for bringing the mask, especially after noticing the canisters of fear gas strapped to his thigh. Unfortunately, it would do her no good. He could practically hear her heart hammering away in her chest as she tugged helplessly against the fabric of her shirt. "Come on out, child, and I promise I'll make it quick."

"Fuck you!" She screamed as he finally reached the opening. He didn't like that very much, and lunged towards her, gauntlet first. Angela narrowly avoided his grasp as she finally tore the fabric that was stuck and squeezed herself out of the crevice. Her skin scraped against the rock painfully and left scratches against her stomach and her left arm, but she had gotten out.

The Scarecrow still stood at the other end of the crevice, hollow black eyes drinking her in and staring through her. She quickly turned away, not wanting to take her chances, and she kept running.

Behind her she could hear a high pitched cackle, and him shouting after her, "You go on, little Rook. Don't you worry now, I'll catch up!"

AN: I cut a lot from this chapter, simply because the point I got to didn't seem to be wrapping up in the way I wanted it to. But I wanted to get something out and this felt like a good place to stop for now. Been having a rough go of things with work lately, but things are finally starting to look better. So hopefully I should be able to update soon.

Thank you so much for your continued support, and as always, reviews mean the world to me.