Brujería. The practice is regarded as "mystical sect coordinated to the male witches, primarily based in the Southern regions of Argentina". The ancient paganism was believed to have branched off from Mesoamerican originations. The practices were, for the most part, feared beyond comprehension. There were many tribes of this sect, notably infamous names being the legend of Kalku of Chile and so on to the more extreme forms of their work, with dabblings into herbally based spells and objectified powers, transmitted through the channels of physical objects.

One sect of the Brujeria, of course, originated in the jungles of Brazil. A group of powerful warriors, bent on an almost daily worship of their believed "god", Cambiar. Cambiar, meaning "change", was a dark, false idol of malevolent intentions involving the human race. Cambiar was truly a demon, or so says the legend, that had developed a several centuries old game with the local tribe known as the "Come Agua", meaning "eats water".

The Come Agua believed that Earth, but by their tongue, Madre de Verde, was a living being bound in chains, enslaved by the peoples of the world who did not worship her name. In other words, outsiders to their tribe, the six billion other inhabitants of the planet. Madre de Verde was a mother to all that was green and all that gave green their heeding, and loved them well, supplying them with abundance in wondrous detail and taste. But all the same, she was still bound by the chains of the humans who crawled about her back and stole from her body what was rightfully belonging to the people of the Come Agua.

In this, the Come Agua developed a belief system that, to save Madre de Verde, the desolation of the peoples of the world was in order, and this was brought to reality in the form of cannibalism and ritual sacrifice. The men, strong warriors trained to be battled hardened by the cruelest means imaginable, would be sent out into the wilderness to hunt for outsider humans, sometimes to the point where they would raid local villages and kidnap man, woman, and child alike as they slept. These humans would be drug back to the village of Come Agua and feasted upon without hesitation, or else given a sacrifice to the statue of Madre de Verde constructed in their village square.

And so, as legend tells us, it came to be that one night, a young man of the village who had recently lost his father in one of their raids, walked about the village alone, the burning fire of the recent meal still flickering low as the young man circled about the statue of Madre de Verde. Legend, of course, tells us this:

And as the young warrior, his tears falling by the loss of his father in battle, walked about the stonework that worshiped the idea of the Madre de Verde, it was, with an unexpected suddenness, that the stone woman began to speak to him. She moved not a mouth, not a fragment or so, but her voice was as clear as any living being made from flesh and bone. The young man, taken by her most beautiful voice, fell to his knees, gazing lovingly up at the statue as it spoke to him:

"Ujut," the statue whispered, for this was the warrior's name, "Ujut, why do you shed tears upon my Earth, for have I, queen of this body, called upon the rain of humans? Why do you shed tears without acknowledging my permissions?"

"Oh, goddess, forgive me," the young man had plead with his false idol. "My father has passed in battle this very evening, and the pain of it is far too much to bear, for in my human weakness, I share not your strength."

"You have but one bout of strength, and it is that you hear my voice, do you not? Is it not that you can feel the wind as my words, and the grass as my hand, holding you as I speak? You, warrior Ujut, have been graced with an honor unlike any other. To hear perfection itself, speak with words upon you like a promise, as lover's kiss, even."

"If you have chosen to speak to me, then I am to serve you in any way that I am called to?"

"If you are to serve me, then you must first put away all thoughts of your father's passing, for he has died in my service, taken by his love for me that so did drive him to kill those worthless parasites that crawl upon my belly and steal from me my health. Instead, you are to focus on the future, for that is the path I walk. And what future awaits me with the parasites of the world?"

"Blood, my goddess, as you have commanded of us."

"All too true have I commanded it. And your people have done well to follow it. But now, there is a change in the lower-fields of my body. The lower-fields where the fires never die."

"Beneath the grace?" Ujut had heard of the lower fields of never ending fire, beneath the grace of the Madre de Verde. It was a place of evil, housing the most malevolent beasts.

"They writhe in fury, clawing through the flames to reach out and devour the parasites for themselves, but in doing so, reject that it is for my own purpose that this must take place. And thus, in this, I have found among the beasts of the fire only one suitable to this cause. Only one who has given his worthiness to be freed from the flaming prison below, that he may shed the blood of parasites in MY name, and my name alone."

"Surely, then, this creature would seek kingsmanship over our home!" Ujut fearfully proclaimed.

"By my will, I have given him that right. Cambiar. Worship the name Cambiar, for he is my servant and my servant will lead the lower swords, that under Cambiar, you would bring about blood to the parasites, and my worship would be forever revered across the ten thousand nations. Cambiar lives because I allow him to live, that I told the keys to his chains, and with his chains he will come to lead you, that they remind him of his service to me. I send him now, in this very moment, that when he comes, he will truly know your people for what they are. He was acknowledge your peoples' dedication to me, I as Madre de Verde, that I am to be worshipped beyond the ages. That the parasites who are not one with Madre de Verde have only one destiny that will be commanded forever and ever: the mass eliminations. Speak this to your people, Ujut, command of them to worship the King Cambiar who comes to help you shed the blood of those who oppose me, those who insult me by existing upon my grasslands and my mountains."

"I will do this, Madre. I will serve you!"

"Indeed, you will, for it my will that this world be purified."

Dark legends always involved some intense form of manipulation. As humans, we are able to be pushed into these manipulations because the Enemy has one desire: to see us, within ourselves, be given to mass eliminations. We are, in ourselves, everything that the Enemy despises: choice wielders, being those who are able to choose between our animalism and our God given will to do what is right. Demons hate this sort of thing, and would give everything imaginable to see us torn from the threads that we share with the Creator, the one true God who holds us upright.

Because of this, demons enjoy the idea of masquerading as God Himself, to be worshipped as supreme idols, despite that they have little power beyond deception. In this, the demon Cambier was no different, mocking the coming of Christ with his "own coming", upon the people of Come Agua, for in their eyes, how could he not be a king, to be worshipped? How could he not be a "god", to be given submission in every way imaginable, through every order deemed appropriate to that goal? Did Cambier manipulate the minds of the Come Agua? Of course. For he was change. An evil change that wore a false mask. Cambier the demon was dependent upon the evils that humans could produce, for to manipulate them, he had to be as they were. It was how a lustful man came to be more drawn to the scantily clad, or how the fearful Christian may see the same fear in others and lose hope. Demons knew how to reach into the minds and souls of men, knew that they could have a hand in dragging that person down. Such was the tragedy of the peoples of Come Agua.

Cambiar came to the peoples in the form of a human woman, whose beauty was far beyond comprehension, leading to a strong sexual worship of her fertility. Lay with her they did, as was Cambiar's command, but far more, woman, as its form, became dominant to command that "she", more "it", would bring mass murder upon the peoples who "Madre de Verde" had sanctioned "parasites". Of course, none of the people of the Come Agua had known the truth: that the young man Ujut had not spoken with the Madre de Verde (she not existing in reality), but instead, had been tricked by the change of Change. The disguise that Cambiar had taken on that night, when he had spoken to Ujut through the statue of the Mother, had been little more than the demon's way of reaching into Ujut. Manipulation and deception. Lies. Uselessness. It was all that demons and false idols were good for. Ujut had not bore the integrity of Elijah, who could see through the falseness and condemn the obviousness of it: "perhaps he is in deep thought…perhaps he is sleeping…"

And so it was that Cambiar the demon changed into that which the Come Agua sought after, that physical manifestation of beauty: hair flaming the most intense red in color, for this was the demon's favorite disguise: the utterness of fertility, the lustful intoxications of mankind. And the skin? The most elegant shade of ivory in nature, sleek and shining, worshipped as goddess and feared as overlord, for under Cambier's rule, under the demon's disguise, orders were given by the masses to the extinction of the human race, with those of the Come Agua never thinking that Cambiar intended to have themselves commit ritual suicide upon the end of their world-long conquest. Then, he, the queen of lust, the idea of sexuality in his disguise, would rule "Madre de Verde" forever in solitude, accompanied only by the corpses of the billions. A worldwide mausoleum for nature's worship, for indeed, the curse of Cambier had not only affected those he had tricked into worshipping him, but also himself.

For Cambier, like the other fallen angels, lived in the curse of its own wretchedness: that it not only deceived man, but himself as well. Cambier could rarely take on a disguise for long, because in doing so, his minded merged with the idea of the deception. After a long time hidden inside of the flesh, Cambiar would come to believe that he was exactly what he disguised himself as. Disguising himself as a frog, for instance, would eventually lead Cambier's mind into believing that he himself was a true amphibian, and to break free of this trance was next to impossible: the spirit could not be released to find another form and another mentality until the physical body died, and do frogs truly have a concept of intentional suicide?

So it was that Cambier came to believe that he was the goddess, she being Madre de Verde, and that her words and commands were law: that the human race was required to be wiped away from the face of the planet, that she was to rain in solitude as the creator of her own race. A race that would be called the Come Agua, the water eaters, in form of that which Madre de Verde loved most dearly: nature itself. This split personality lost Cambier from himself, developing a need to both kill and make those around her love her to an obsessed state. Worship, through force. Murder, her pleasure.

When the peoples of the Come Agua had come to their final days, proceeding the consequences of foreign conquest, Cambier had come to love his existence so much that the demon could not bear the thought of living without the body, mind, and "soul" of Madre de Verde. So as not to lose this form, so as to be permanently bound to the lovingness that was the self, Cambier forced his people to seal him inside of the body that had become a physical spirit, that the mentality would forever be his, that the existence as the "goddess" Madre de Verde would be the essential clue to his aspirations of "purifying" the world. This was the promise that had been made for the inclinations: that he, it, or she, could not exist without the ideas of the beliefs of Come Agua.

The Come Agua succeeded in sealing the demon inside of the spirit body of Madre de Verde, burying her alive inside of the stones that made an underground mausoleum beneath the village grounds. Soon after this, the conquests of the Spaniards led to the complete desolation of the Come Agua, and the land above the mausoleum became barren for many, many decades to come. Centuries, even, in a couple.

The same lands would later be given a completely new purpose, as the early nineteen hundreds brought on a deforestation project that would eventually lead to the old ruins of the Come Agua setting forth the foundation of an arboreal preservation project, funded by Wayne Enterprises. A great castle lab was there built upon those same foundations, the arboreal preservation outpost crown to the grave beneath its foundations that housed the remains of the body that Cambier had taken during his time there…as well as his dark spirit, a creature who had refused to leave the presence of his beloved body that had so strongly been named to the idea of perfection. The demon would be there waiting, patiently, for someone new to come. Someone that he could reach out to, influence through the deception he was famous for…and eventually, through an exotic form of luck, he would be able to take possession of that individual, and return to the old work that he had become dedicated to so very long ago. The demon Cambier had needed an individual who he could take form of as the new Madre de Verde… a complete copy of the original individual, poisoned by the spirit of Madre de Verde, to create something so beautiful, and so terrible, altogether….

Of course, this had all been just a legend…. Right?

"Stand aside," Poison Ivy, true as she could it…or it could be, commanded of the three guards stationed before the stairway leading up to the level where Bruce Wayne was, at this very moment, presenting the massive telescope funded by Wayne Enterprises before a wild crowd of star worshippers.

"I'm sorry, maam, you can't go up these stairs without an appointment or a pass. Your name?"

"My name is Pamela Isley and I am demanding that you move out of my way," the demon hissed, trying to push past them, but they barred her way so stubbornly. She shook with the most fiery rage, the most passionate hatred. The impulses to kill had risen in her heart again, but no! She could not do that here, not in the witness of a large crowd such as this. Eden would never be realized if she was imprisoned for murder…

"You're not set up to go up these stairs," the closest guard snapped at her, leering down at her with irritation. "Please, Miss Isley, back away before we have you removed…"

But she moved with a sudden burst of speed, her head bent downward in a bull's charge as she forced her way forward and broke through the lines, sending two of the guards wobbling to the side. Such strength…

"Just don't point it at my bedroom," Bruce Wayne finished jokingly, and lame as this was, it got the large crowd below chuckling. The worshippers of the wealthy cared little for true humor. If Bruce Wayne said anything remotely funny, or even inclined to be funny, then social norm commanded them to showed humored approval. Such was the way of the lowers serving the highers.

"Hey, stop!"

Ivy ignored the guards pelting after her, but when one of them caught up with her and threw themselves before her, even going so far as to grab at her arm, she jerked it away angrily and snapped loudly, "Out of my way, you fascist bulldog!" By now, Bruce Wayne and the crowd of rich superiors surrounding him had noticed the young woman and her accompanying guard making their way towards him, and he, along with the beautiful blonde woman around his arm, stared in question as the odd scene approaching them.

"I'm sorry, sir, she doesn't have a pass!" the guard who tried to block her plead with Wayne, but the billionaire only smiled softly, nodding at her as he returned, " They're overly protective, miss. You're not going to hurt me, Miss…?"

"Dr. Pamela Isley," Ivy stressed strongly on her title, giving the guard beside her a venomous glance with a soft smirk. The guard look annoyed, but stayed rooted to the spot, glaring at her. Take that, she thought to herself. Wayne's not going to turn down a flower such as me…

"What can I do for you, Doctor?" Wayne asked her calmly, an eyebrow cocked with some sort of amused, mockery of politeness. She could read him like a book. He nowhere wanted this to be happening at the moment as the guards did, but he was in public, and had to make kind presentation. Ivy gave him a soft smile, something that suggested an invisible flirt.

"Actually, I already work for you. Or did. Your arboreal preservation project in South America." She cocked an eyebrow, to make a pointed note of "You had better know what I am talking about, Mr. Chairman" sort of look. Wayne nodded, his face suddenly darkening, and the man knew at once why this woman must be here. Demands to know why funding had been cut… He may as well be honest with her.

"We cut our support. A conflict of ideologies. Dr. Woodrue was a lunatic." Lunatic? Really? Had he just said that word with such unprofessionalism? He cleared his throat loudly, glancing at the wall opposite him awkwardly. Ivy lowered her eyes, keeping her voice calm. Just the mention of Woodrue's name brought up the memory of when she had murdered the man. But now was not the time to be focusing on mental pornography.

"I see you knew him," she almost laughed, as to show Wayne an understanding of his reasoning (for of course, she agreed about Woodrue's lunacy), would gain points in this game of Planetary Roulette. Oh, the irony. They wanted to focus upon the stars, and she needed them to focus upon her, in all that she was, the Madre de Verde….

"Yes I did. That lab recently burned down to the ground, I'm glad to see you escaped…"

Now was the time. She whipped out the golden ticket from his coat and held it up before the chocolatier. Her proposition.

"I have here a proposal showing how Wayne Enterprises can immediately cease all actions that toxify our environment." She practically forced the report of proposition in his hands, and as he looked down at her written work uncomfortably, she continued with the speech that she had prepared for this moment. "Forget the stars. Look here, at the Earth, our mother, our womb. She deserves our loyalty and protection. And yet…" The sudden madness of inspiration, as had been show, ceased. As several onlookers began to stare up at her with odd looks on their faces, she felt the fiery hatred rise up inside of her once more. Passionately did she imagine herself killing every man down there in that sickening crowd of parasites. Beautifully did she think of what those finely dressed rich snobs would look like with vines wrapped around the throats of their corpses… "… you spoil her lands, poison her oceans, blacken her skies! You're killing her!" Tears were actually falling down her face when she said the words, her heart breaking as she thought of the pain that these creatures had inflicted upon her body, she being Madre de Verde, and of how many of them were still alive, as sickening as the idea was.

Bruce Wayne now looked up from the report, having finished reading the proposition at a great speed, but his face was less than happy. When she saw the darkness in the billionaire's expression, it almost broke her heart even more. She wiped away her tears quickly as he began his response (which was fueled by no less than a mixture of disgust and hesitation, as this woman before him seemed truly passionate about protecting the world). "Your intentions are noble, but no diesel fuel for heat. No coolants to preserve food. Millions would die of cold and hunger alone."

Ivy clenched her fists. "Acceptable losses in the battle to save the planet!" she argued back.

Bruce shook his head, handing her back the proposition. She took it in hand, her face filled with a hurt expression as he said, "People come first, Dr. Isley."

But inside, she was pleased. This was exactly how she had expected it to go. He had just made himself a man before media press cameras that he was not going to do what it took to save the planet. That he was not even going to raise a finger. The degradation of his reputation had begun! And so too must her final speech.

"Mammals. So smug in your towers of stone and glass. A day of reckoning is coming. The same plants and flowers that saw you crawl blind from the primordial soup will reclaim this planet. Earth will be a garden again. Somehow, some way, I will bring your man-made civilization to its knees and there will be no one to protect you!" Her passion, the appropriate hand gestures, the fierce power behind her words, it was all so perfectly presented! Craft, dear girl, craft! The signature of an artist! Brilliant, bravo, well done, winner of the best performance in this year guilty trap palooza! Yes, yes!

A word of caution to this tale…

"You must be new in town. In Gotham City, Batman and Robin protect us. Even from plants and flowers." This was said by a strange looking woman in the crowd, a reporter holding a fat microphone in hand, her hair done in a stupid twist of cotton candy craft, her insect-like glasses sheening in the sunlight as she looked up mockingly at Ivy. The crowd around her began to laugh, their humor smelling strong of mockery and dismissal regarding the planet. Ivy smiled too, showing them she was in on the joke, but her mind was suddenly reeling. Who the hell are Batman and Robin? She thought this to herself and frowned at the thoughts. Protectors? This city had protectors beyond the useless police force?

"Perhaps you'd like to meet them," Bruce told her, and he too produced something from his own jacket pocket. Ivy took what he gave her and studied it closely. An elaborate, jungle colored invitation to a Flower Ball that would be taking place soon as the Gotham Arboreal Museum, with "Special Guests: Caped Crusader and Guardian Bird Batman and Robin to participate in the presentation of a diamond give-away to the winner of a costume contest…" SAVE THE RAINFOREST was printed in large letters across the top. Her eyes widened as she read the promises contained within the false inclinations of the invitation. This was beautiful. Beautiful, and filled with limitless potential. So, these protectors would be giving public appearance soon…and much more than that, there were diamonds, expensive diamonds, involved with this mockery of nature's heroism…

"The caped crusaders are helping us auction off a prized diamond to raise money for the Gotham Botanical Gardens," Bruce told her assuringly, trying to put some form of kindness into his voice, acknowledging her disappointment. " Just a few mammals doing what we can for our world's plants."

And with that, giving her a fine smile and bidding farewell to her, her waved a goodbye to the crowd before him and saddled off with his blonde mistress in hand, who glanced around one last time at Ivy, a frown still on her face. She stood there for several seconds, rooted to the spot as her mind tried to comprehend with everything that had just taken place.

She turned slowly on the spot, her mind reeling, pushing once more away from the guard who tried to escort her off as she began to descend the staircase, slowly, her brain suddenly alive and pumping with venom as she thought upon the potential that this invitation in hand offered her.

"Batman and Robin," she said softly to herself, a hint of disgust in her voice. "Militant arm of the warm-blooded oppressors. Animal protectors of the status quo." And then, as she said it, inspiration. A new challenge upon the uprising, a secret task bequeathed unto her by Madre de Verde herself that called for desolation, demanded removal of those opposers by the force of all that she was: beauty, and desire. "First, I'll rid myself of the fur and feathered pests. And then Gotham, will be mine…for the greening." She took off her fake glasses as she said it, a dark smile upon her face as she thought of things she could do and would most likely enjoy doing. Her heart was inspired, poetry by the prospect of bringing down Gotham's protectors. It was a game of Venus fly Trap and Fly. She had to ensure that her appetite would do well for two flies.

She pushed her way out of the door and made her way back to the limo, where Bane waited patiently at the driver's seat. When she opened the door, the businessman's corpse's hand poked out of the door, and she quickly bended it backwards, jumping in and slamming the door shut behind her. She kicked off of her shoes and rubbed her feet against the dead man's back to massage her, for the climb up the stairs had been quite painful in these annoying heels.

"We have a new agenda on the rise, Bane," she whispered to him, Bruce Wayne's face still burning freshly in her mind. "Let's me, you, and Smelly down here drive off. There's little time to prepare for what's coming, Bane. There's a ball coming up, and me and you have been invited. "

"Ball?" Bane growled in question, as he put the car into drive and they began to take off.

"Yes, Bane, Ball," she replied, tossing off the putrid wig and removing her gloves so as she could brush her fingers through the perfect hair and feel the perfection underneath. Poison Ivy once more. Who she truly was. She longed for the day when she could Poison Ivy on every hour. No more disguises, no more trickery in any way. She had chosen who was going to spend all of her eternity as. She could be no different. "And I need a costume. We need to find us a tailor, and quickly. I have a lot of the agenda, as I said, and I am going to very particular about this." She bent her head down and held the dead body's face up to look at her. "Isn't that right," she whispered, kissing the dead man's lips passionately, "lover boy?"