FASTER KILL PUSSYCAT

Everything good must come to pass and everything must end. No love story is ever perfect. There's no such thing as a Hollywood happy ending in real life. Usually things end terribly, messy. Bitter, bloody, and horribly unfair. Someone's bound to get hurt. There's just no escaping it.

Sometimes things don't work out the way you've wanted them to. Sometimes things don't go according to the grand plan of things. Screw fate. We carve our own path. Write our own destiny. In her hand she holds the future. The detonator that will define an all new era. For better or worse, this is what she's chosen.

Tonight should have been a happier reunion and perhaps in another world, another time, it is. But this universe's revelation is met with bitterness and seething anger. Where there should be tearful hugs, warm hearts and smiles, instead there's melancholy and ominous despair. Something terrible's about to happen.

Klarion remains silent, partly out of regret. Perhaps if he had told her sooner, been more honest with her and hadn't betrayed her trust, this never would have happened. It wouldn't have come to this. And yet as the three so-called heroes quarrel, he remains quietly diligent. He's been trying to reach out to her, to access her mind, but can't. He can't even focus on her aura. It's as if she's completely blocked off from him. Like there's a firewall between them. Something rendering his magic useless against her. Some sort of charm or another hex perhaps? He's still so exhausted from his earlier bout of time travel, not to mention teleporting the Bat and Cat, as well as himself and Teekl here. Trying to impregnate her defenses is futile, causing him to break a sweat. He can't do anything but stand and listen. Useless. A fly on the wall to their heated discussion at best.

"You say you only want what's best for me," The girl in black shouts, "but did any of you ever stop to ask what I wanted?"

"You want love. A family. I know because that's all I ever wanted." Selina cries in return. "And you do, baby. A big one with so many brothers and sisters. A father. A mother. A whole extended Bat Family who all love you very much, Helena."

"They're not my family. Because I'm not Helena." The girl growls. "I have no name. No identity. I may be your daughter, but I'm not HER. Not yet." She readies the detonator. "Truth is, I have no idea WHO I am. Who I want to be. Hero? Villain? So what do you say we all find out together, shall we?"

Finger on the trigger, she pushes the button.

With bated breath, all expect the room to burst into an explosion of flames at the push of the button, but such devastation never comes. Seizing the moment and taking a chance, Batman charges forward and knocks the trigger from the girl's hand. Swinging high, she goes to strike back, but he grabs her arm firmly. She becomes still in his grasp.

"It's over Helena, you've lost." He growls. The girl grins in his stronghold. Something about the fact she doesn't fight his restraint unnerves him. Had she been any other perp, he'd have knocked her out cold.

"Just because it hasn't gone off yet doesn't mean you've won."

"Yet?"

"It's called a timer switch, MORON! Or should I call you Dad..."

The Batman spins the girl around to look her in the eye. He needn't even say a word, she readily provides the information he needs.

"9 minutes. One for every life a cat like me's got in this world. So, tick-tock, Daddio. Times a wastin'. Oh! And one more thing..." She grins. This is the part she's been waiting for all night. "You've got two choices. Let Falcone fry and I tell you where the hostages are. Or we ALL burn together. So what's it going to be?"

His grip tightens around her wrist. The word 'hostages' is enough to send chills down his spine. To make him see red.

"WHERE'S THE BOMB?"

"Bomb? As in singular?"

Klarion's eyes burn with red magic, scanning the room. The entire building. The scene that unfolds around him is enough to make him gasp. His skin chills and blood turns icy. It's terrifyingly frightening.

The walls are packed with C4 explosives to the point of insulating the entire mansion. It's obvious that she's been at this for quite some time now. Sneaking in and out, hoarding explosives as if she were a squirrel readying for winter. Padding the place for probably as long as she's been back in Gotham. Certainly longer than he's known her. Hiding it away in every last crawl space and nook until the home's very well bursting with said plastiques. It's most likely the very reason why she was shot in the first place. She'd been caught breaking into Falcone's territory and suffered for it. He most likely thought she was stealing from him, and perhaps she had been to fund this endeavor, but it's likely he'd never expected THIS.

Both Klarion and Red Robin had spied her working with an arms dealer, that Slovak guy whom she had wrapped around her little finger. The guy Red Robin said sold the sort of weapons that liked to go BOOM. How had he not seen this coming? He'd been so wrapped up in their little love nest he'd completely forgotten about that bar dealing. Turned a blind eye to her late night adventures. Though she'd been so content to stay indoors lately, to domesticate herself around him. She'd seemed so happy and most likely she was. Enough to veer from this path of icy vengeance. Whatever it was that transpired tonight with Uriah or otherwise has ultimately pushed her over the edge and back on track to her path of destruction.

"Bruce? Batman... Sir?" Klarion squeaks. The mood is so tense. He hates to be the bearer of bad news. "The walls... The whole manor is set to explode. It's one giant bomb all wrapped together. There's no diffusing it all. Certainly not in time."

With such a simple movement, nothing more than a spin and the flick of his wrist, Batman retrieves a set of cuffs from his utility belt and fastens them to the girl in his grasp. He plants her down on the floor, a hand on either shoulder as he glares down at her. She glances up at him, a smirk on her face as if proud. A growl escapes him.

"THE HOSTAGES." He bellows. More a demand than a question.

Klarion scans the entire perimeter with no such luck. Whatever charm she's using to block him from accessing her inner psyche is tampering with his magic to see outwards as well. He can spy the explosives in the wall but not past it. His powers are dampered.

"I can't tell." The warlock shakes his head, eyes remaining that brilliant red. "I can't get a positive on any living signatures aside our own. The walls are too densely packed to see. Something's inhibiting my magic. I can't -"

"Get it up?" The cat girl cracks darkly, her voice a suggestive purr. "Performance anxiety?"

None find the same amusement. She sighs and rolls her eyes.

"Second floor. Master bedroom. I believe Selina knows the layout. Right, Mom?"

All are in battle-mode, forgoing lines and familiarities. Lover. Mother. Father. Daughter. It doesn't matter. The job comes first. There's still so much bitter blood to resolve, years of dirty laundry to air out, but that must wait till another time. There's always tomorrow. Nothing like a ticking time bomb to get everyone in motion. Selina springs into action. Rushing towards her target. Separating from Bruce and Klarion and company.

"Consider it a gift." The cuffed girl mews. "Don't say I never gave you anything. Not like you ever did the same for me..."

The Batman releases his hold on her to turn his attention towards the sedated crime lord. He replaces the cowl upon his head, covering his face and returning to a much darker persona.

"Selina will secure the hostages. I'll grab Falcone and you take Helena." The Dark Knight instructs the warlock standing by. He keeps his orders short and simple. "We're leaving. The building's a loss. Judging by the explosives you can spot within the walls, can you determine a blast radius?"

The warlock nods slightly.

"It's hard to say, a mile or two perhaps? The proximity is mostly woodland, so civilian casualties shouldn't concern us." Klarion answers in a way so unlike him, almost militant. Being around the Bat can have that effect. "I should have just enough strength to teleport us all to safety."

Untying the man from the chair, Batman hoists him up and over his shoulder, taking the man's weight upon his back. With somber eyes and a heavy chest, Klarion makes his way over to the young woman seated on the floor. She watches him curiously but he dare not return her gaze. Filled with such anger, loss and confusion, he can't bring himself to look her in the eye. He reaches down for her to take his hand so that he can raise her to her feet. She accepts.

"Why are you doing this?" Klarion asks her sadly. He makes himself quiet enough so that only she can hear.

His words echo something he had heard before. Batman had asked the very same thing of her after that fateful bank heist. Her response was nearly suicide.

She smiles up at him with that same twisted grin as before, though her eyes give her away. They look back at him almost regretful. So sad.

"Identity." She replies simply. "You gave me life, but that doesn't mean you get to tell me how to live. You don't get to define it. Only I do."

"And THIS is how you define it?"

"No. But it's a start." She smiles, bittersweet. "Or maybe this is the end."

Hand in hand, they stand together, facing one another in the moonlit dining room. Explosives all around them just waiting to go off. It would almost be romantic, if not for the situation. They say love is like fireworks going off. In their case, it's a half ton of dynamite and enough accelerant to leave anyone's head spinning from fumes.

Batman groans, the man still strewn across his back. He seems impatient.

"What's taking her so long?" He growls, ready to go searching.

As if on cue, the Catwoman rushes in. No one accompanies her. Perplexed, the Bat's eyes narrow, awaiting explanation.

"I searched every room." Selina pants, out of breath. "There's no one here."

All eyes turn to the grinning girl, the mastermind to the whole operation.

"I lied."

She turns towards Klarion and smiles warmly. A look of serene farewell that sends a pang of worry through him.

"Kaboom."

It would be weeks before the Batman could sort through all the rubble to piece together the facts of what it is that transpired that night. To find that she lied about the hostages, it was all a ruse. A bit of information that would put his heart more at east. The fact that his daughter had never placed innocents in danger... There also was no timer. The detonator was all for show. A power play. Nine seconds or minutes or hours. It didn't matter. They had just as much time as she needed. As she allowed them to say their goodbyes. The bomb was on a verbal command. Once spoken, all hell broke loose. And hell it was indeed.

Chaos is the word for it. The very definition. A small explosion erupts from perhaps a room or two away, the pilot light to what would easily become Dante's inferno. Then several more ring out. A chain reaction all around them, bursting with flames and destruction. And panic.

The foundation shakes. Dodging debris, both Catwoman and Batman with Falcone in tow hurry towards the warlock, knowing they must be within range of contact for him to teleport the entire group. They all gather round, huddling together as the world falls down around their ears.

The rest happens so fast, though he'll never forget that sight. As long as Klarion lives, he'll have nightmares of it. That look of peace. Of tranquility. That smile in her eyes as Helena lets go of his hand.

It isn't so much that she looses her grip on Klarion, but that she shoves him away forcefully, purposely breaking contact. Like a fist full of sand, she slips from his grasp. Helena mouths something, but it becomes lost to the moment and the thundering noise. One second she's there and the next he's not. In the blink of an eye and the swirl of red, he's teleported the entire group a safe distance away. The entire group, save one.

Their travel leaves them on a grassy hilltop several miles away, yet close enough to witness the destruction of the estate. To feel the heat of the flames on their faces. The ground rumbles from the falling timber and decimated mortar. Klarion falls to his knees, wide-eyed and shaking.

"I can go back. I can save her." The witch mutters to himself before shouting. "I can go back. I need to go back."

He quickly and desperately rises to his feet. His magic is so completely drained and worn that he hasn't the ability to stop this moment. To return. To teleport. To do anything of worth or use to save her. And yet he deludes himself he can. Even if it means running into the flames after her.

Dropping the weight on his back, Batman grabs the witch before he races off to certain death. Klarion claws at his armor and screams incoherently, demanding and begging and pleading for the man to let him go. Rabid and torn until all pain subsides and numbness takes over. Tears streaming, his body slumps in the older man's grasp.

They stay in that spot for hours, for what seems like all of eternity. Time has no meaning. The Earth continues spinning, but his world has come to end. None say anything, they're all too devastated and shocked to speak. Even if they could, what exactly would they say to one another? What could possibly make this moment better? He feels as if a part of him has died.

Another eruption. A gas line perhaps. And then silence. Nothing but the hiss and crackle of flames, overpowering the estate as if it were nothing but dry kindle. Laying waste to the one thing in the world he'd ever held dear.

By the time the sun rises, the flames have begun to dwindle. All that's left is but a smoldering mess. The silence has filled with the roar of great engines and screeching sirens. Red and blue flashing lights. Men with bright uniforms. All hurrying about. Like fast little ants in a great big jar...

One by one, they each go their separate ways. Batman to turn Falcone in to the GCPD and then brood in the isolation of his cave. Selina perhaps to take comfort in a bottle or any other means necessary to take her mind off of things. And as for Klarion, the wayward wanderer knows not. Wherever the wind takes him. He finds himself back where he'd started. Alone.


Take a bow and roll the credits... I hope you all enjoyed this roller coaster ride of emotion. Of love and friendship. Torment and chaos... Please put away those pouty faces and stick around for the epilogue, won't you? Coming up next!
XOXO