Sorry about the last chapter: the errors have been fixed.
Chapter 37
He paces the length of his new cell from side to side. They left him alone in this freezing white prison hours ago. It's a small cell: roughly ten feet by twenty feet. The calls are all solid white except for the front which is made up of thick glass. Outside his cell was a larger room, empty and grey. Two locked mechanical doors at each side. Even if he could somehow escape his prison, he'd only be trapped in another one.
He sighs: this may be harder than he had originally thought.
…
The door swishes open with blinding speed and someone races wildly into the room and the lean figure ducks as a huge metal table is hurled at them.
"Nice try." The figure comes to a stop in front of the glass and pants. "But it looks like you missed." She draws in a deep breath and exhales. "Again."
With a roar, the assailant rushes forward to tackle her to the floor but she dodges easily and Khan catches a glimpse of her face: Ze'eva. Her attacker slams hard into the wall, bending the metal in a little. Angrily, he rises to his feet and glowers dangerously at Ze'eva but she holds his gaze easily, a single eyebrow raised.
"You know; we don't have to fight. You can still walk away." She offers calmly but he ignores her and charges again, this time running into the glass.
It doesn't even crack.
Khan is on his feet and he slams his fist next to the boy's head.
He doesn't even flinch.
"Go, on." She challenges. "Try it again: I dare you." She squares her shoulders and Khan yells at her to run. She doesn't seem to notice. Furiously, the boy runs at her again and again she dodges nimbly out of the way. Another boy enters the room and Ze'eva looks at them both coolly. As the first goes to tackle her, she dodges and he flies into the first one, rendering the newcomer temporarily disorientated as his head snaps into the hard floor.
"Get out of here." Khan warns her. "Run!" But again, she doesn't seem to hear his words.
The boy obviously had genetically enhanced strength and had no qualms whatsoever about killing her. Frowning, Khan looks at the glass closer before shaking his head in irritation: it was a one way mirror. He could see and hear her, but she could only hope for the same thing. Right now, he may as well be a ghost with all the help he's doing for her.
"You will regret that!" The first boy rises to his feet and helps his friend stand as well. The two glare at the girl and tower over her. Ze'eva pants a little but she holds her ground.
"Will I now?" She asks, tilting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes in mock joy. He goes to punch her and she moves to the side, easily avoiding the blow.
"Nope. Guess I won't," She says.
He tries to kick her this time and misses yet again. His friend joins in but even with their combined numbers they are unable to lay even so much as a finger on her as she twists and steps easily out of the way of their well-aimed blows.
"Very sloppy. Who taught you how to punch—a little girl?" She mocks. Khan can feel his stomach turning to lead. This will only enrage them farther and make them more dangerous! Is she insane? What is she doing?
Very slowly, she's luring them towards a wall and she stops when her back comes in contact with it. They have now trapped her in a corner. Unable to run, they'd make quick work of her, snapping her bones and crushing the life out of her in an enraged frenzy. Look at what you've gotten yourself into now, Khan thinks.
But she doesn't seem worried in the slightest.
"What's wrong?" She asks him after a few minutes. "Can't hit a girl?" She sneers.
The boy's arm shoots out and she twists out of the way and behind him, running towards the other side of the room as his hand comes in contact with a large metal box Khan had not noticed before: a fuse box. Electricity courses through him and he drops to the ground, barely breathing. The friend races after her and she turns quickly on her heel to kick him hard in the jaw. He falls to his knees and she delivers a savage blow to his forehead and watches as he slumps to the ground unconscious.
"Well," Ze'eva pants. "That wasn't too bad."
Slowly, she sinks to her knees and looks around her at the cold walls, her eyes coming to rest on the glass and, for a moment, Khan wonders if she can see him before quickly dismissing the idea.
"What now?" She yells up at the roof. "I've run your stupid maze a thousand times, given a few dozen quarts of blood, and outwitted your best soldiers! You about done, yet? This is growing tedious, old man!"
Even through all her bravado, Khan could see the fear that shadows her sinewy form. It whispers in her voice and presents itself in her tensed body language. It lurks in her wide eyes and erratic heart beat and permeates the very air.
…
Khan is returned to the cell block that night and he stares evenly at Ze'eva. She is asleep with her right wrist clutched to her chest. Her body is curled into a ball and her brow is furrowed in worry. Purple bruises kiss her skin and her lip is split. Dried blood presents itself as that bottom of her nose and Khan feels another firestorm of rage igniting within his very core as he watches her shiver violently, and Khan wonders just how long their immune systems will be able to fight off illnesses in these glacial and damp conditions. Cassie cries silently: her shoulders shaking with quiet sobs, her head buried in her knees, her arms crossed over her chest.
"We will get out of here." He says softly and he sees her shake her head. He sighs. Even a trained assassin was useless if they had lost the will to fight. He considers saying something to buoy her spirits…but he is Khan Noonien Singh: blood thirsty murderer and madman—not exactly the person who went trying to make people 'feel better' about their problems.
His eyes shut and he drops off to sleep, dead to the world.
…
Creak.
Khan ignores the sound and furrows his eyebrows as he tries to go back to sleep…when something hard and metal slams into the ground and screams loudly. His eyes fly open and he sees Ze'eva dropping to the ground outside her cell via air duct.
"So, remember when I said I was a ninja? Well, I lied. I'm actually Batman." She opens his cell door and moves quickly to let Cassie out. "And I'm in need of a Robin…but you're kind of crazy so…would you be the Joker to my Batman?"
"It is my understanding that they are enemies." Khan says, fighting back a smile as she rushes towards one of the consoles on the wall.
"Well, you're mentally unstable and kill people randomly and so does the Joker…"
"Correct…" He drags the word out to prompt her to continue with her train of thought.
"Bite me." She types furiously into the device before grabbing Cassie's arm and breaking into a sprint. Apparently, her train of thought crashed violently into a cliff, fell off a bridge, and exploded. Epically. "Come on, gramps! There's no time to grab the wheelchair; we're hoofing it!"
He matches her stride for stride as they race through deserted hallways and she runs through them as if she'd ran them a thousand times before…and who knows? Maybe she had…
"Where are we going?" Khan asks as they take another right turn and she quickly opens the door, allowing sunlight to wash over them.
She smiles widely at him: "Is the outside world good enough for you? Or were you hoping for Gotham?"