Lightning and rain, thunder and fierce wind. Could it have been any more fitting, any more clichéd to the events that had first set all of this ascension into effect? When a monster prowls the castle, seeking out its next victim, it surely needs the music of the thunderstorm to emphasize that, indeed, it is a night of fear, and a night of prowl. When these clichés were full realized, given over to reality as a bride, then surely the world would see power for what it was. And in this case, that power was holding life in your own hands. And ending it.

Because indeed there was a thunderstorm raging tonight, and Poison Ivy dearly desired to soak herself within it, if only to advance her own growth, to drink deeply the waters of the earth to her fill and ascend further than ever. But it was coming. Indeed, it was coming. There was no going back. She would reveal herself fully for what she was, on this night, for the world needed to know her. It would love her before the end. It would… it truly would…

The castle stood so beautifully pit against the back canvas that was the greenish hued moon, so large and bearing down upon the rest of the world. Watching her. An anticipatory spectator.

"Well this is it," she sighed, a contented smile upon her face as she observed the colossal towering structure of steel and old stone that was Gotham's very infamous neighbor, Arkham Asylum. Arkham stood some ways out, built onto a mass of a cliff that overlooked the wide, black River Jeremiah hundreds of feet below. Bane had parked the limo just outside of its gates, hidden well inside of a thick brush. The plan on reaching their cold friend for the evening was reserved to the difficult part, but the plan on returning… it had far less ease to it. Once she killed, and the bodies became more noticeable than the wondrous décor of the dark castle, then there would be issues. How many bodies would she be able to resist creating? How much self-control did she have?

She could practically feel her hormones raging, could intensely feel the heat of sexual passion that proceeded every murder she committed. This tight latex helped her little in regards of controlling just how good it felt.

"B-Bane, I'm scared…" she blurted out, understanding little her ability to dare the words out, but they needed to be said. "I don't know how well I can control myself…"

Bane grunted loudly, but weakly all the same, his guttural sounds shaking as he produced them. "Kill…"

Kill. Such a beautiful word, so poetic in its simple form, and it had multiple semantics. Indeed, kill tonight meant little more than its true, pure form, but caution had to be exercised. The eradication of the human race could never be realized if she were killed here tonight, let alone imprisoned. She had no intention of ever having to call this horrid place her home. Indeed, Arkham would come to serve a greater purpose, for when the plant-wide decimation began, she would claim Arkham as her first true stronghold: it was far more fortified than the Turkish Bathes, and it would suit well to be one of the stronger seeds of Eden.

"Alright, Bane, we can go now. I can't sit here forever." She took a deep breath, her eyes glancing into the passenger seat. They had had to move George up into the front because once Freeze was in their company, he would need the back, being such a tall, broad man. Bane had not been particularly enthralled with the idea of hosting the dead body as up close and personal company, but Ivy's word was law… George was here to stay. Even as she glanced up at him, she stroked the corpse's cheek softly, whispering tenderly to it, "We'll be back soon, okay. I promise. Just wait a little bit for us and we'll be back. We're going to bring a new friend." She said this in such a way as to assure the dead man that all would be well, that he did not need to be afraid of the raging storm outside. She kissed his cheek lightly, hugging him tightly as if George were whimpering, and needed a more physical reassurance. "Just stay here, okay. I'll be back."

She glanced over at Bane, who was staring straight ahead, silent as always… crying behind the mask that hid his face. What is reality? What is existence? None of it bears any fruit… not anymore…

"Move it, Boulder Boy. We've got work to do."

Bane nodded, pushing the door open, and the two of them exited the car quickly, Ivy producing her wide, lime green umbrella as she did. The rain beat well against it, longing to touch her, but she denied it of its wishes. She was for the pleasure of humans tonight, but the rain would get its chance soon. Soon, she would dance naked in the rain, for hours on end, surrounded by the corpses of thousands of Gothamites… she would dance in Eden's honor.

The two of them strode up to the massive black gate of Arkham, which thankfully was protected with a walkway roof. Once the two of them were bundled underneath it, Bane dripping in the soakingness of the rain, Ivy lowered her umbrella and walked towards the booth where the gate guard sat, watching a tiny television set on his desk and laughing hysterically at the I Love Lucy re-run that was currently showing. Ivy knocked hard upon the window with her gloved hand, and the guard jumped, startled by the sudden noise. He swiveled around in his chair, a man of his late fifties, and gasped when he saw the beauty that stood before him on the other side of the glass.

"Mama sita, indeed, eh!?" The guard praised her, winking with a thumbs up as he studied her figure closely. Ivy, repulsed instantaneously, looked up at Bane. She nodded at the man, her disgusted face a clear indication of bounty. Bane nodded, moving forward at once. "What can I help you with, pretty little la- AAGH!"

Bane's hand sailed right through the open hole in the middle of the glass and wrapped around the guard's throat. The titan man twisted his wrist to the right, and the loud snapping of the man's neck issued greatly even through the sound of the storm about. The guard fell dead, face first into his desk, and Ivy clapped Bane lightly on the backside as she praised, "Well done, useless. Now, the gate activator should be inside."

The two of them made their way around the guardhouse, and Bane ripped the doorknob off of the entryway with the ease, throwing the door back behind them, into the storm, as Ivy made her way into the room. She pushed the guard off of the counter and he fell to her feet, uncovering the gate button he had fallen over. She pressed it with a joy most passionate in her heart, and her beats skipped joltingly as she heard the loud hum of the gate sliding open outside.

"I'll take this," she whispered, removing the guard's set of keys that hung around his pants loop. She jingled them in Bane's face. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"

"Fun?" Bane repeated.

"Why yes, of course. He's on gate shift, but these are still keys to several, several other doors. And behind doors, Bane… well, behind doors are wondrous surprises just waiting to be discovered. We're treasure hunters, Bane, so let's explore together."

She laughed rather wickedly for a girl of her tastes as she pushed roughly past him and back into the rain, her umbrella out once more as she passed through the now open gate, Bane trailing fast behind her. The walk up to the castle doors was rather lengthy, a curving rock road that hosted the crown of the massive ravine beneath, though walled in on the sides, thankfully. Ivy took her time, of course, had had gently grazing the side rail as she looked down into the black water so very far below.

"The décor is suitable," she noted to Bane, suppressing a snort. "Very gothic. I think I'm going to have fun here."

"Fun…" Bane nodded weakly still. Although his strength was finally returning, it was still happening slowly. Ivy's poison had gotten more potent, more deadly. His small kiss back at the hideout had cost him a great deal of energy. She had become deadlier. So much deadlier. And he could feel her ambitions practically exploding outward. If a small kiss had utterly fatigued him in the most painful way… well, what we he thinking? No man had survived yet, save for him, and he truly was not a man as much a beast. The human race stood no chance against her. If she decided to end your life, there was no escaping it. He longed for the day when she would finally kill him…

Upon reaching the massive front door to the main part of the complex, the sign above the doors reading Intensive Treatment, Ivy gestured at him to open them. Bane obeyed lumbering forward and pushing hard, the loud creak so powerful against the rain and thunder.

The main lobby within was a massive, quiet chamber, lit by hundreds of yellow lights sprawled across the ceiling with thick black wires, paintings adorning the walls of Arkham's past of wardens, all smiling or frowning down upon those who walked within the halls that they had once commanded. A large circular desk stood in the center of the room, where a blonde haired woman sat at a computer, her white nurses uniform evident tagging her as Mary. Well, hello Marry, I'm Death.

Mary looked up as the two of them approached, Ivy smiling sweetly as she came. The receptionist's eyes widened as she took in their very bizarre appearances, and briefly, guilt overtaking her, she wondered if Ivy was some sort of strange hooker. But the thought had to pass. Just because someone dressed funny, you could not assume that they were a hooker…

"May I help you?" she asked kindly, trying to make up for the thought. Ivy smiled sweetly, bending forward across the counter so that the two of them were eye level. Mary bent back a bit, uncomfortable with just how close the woman before her was. Ivy's green eyes were filled with longing. The most intense longing. "M-may I help you?" Mary stressed more intently.

"Mary…" Ivy whispered statically.

Mary's heart skipped a beat. This woman, whoever she was, was creeping her out.

"Are you looking for someone, maam?" she stressed intently, her hand creeping in a most subtle fashion for the button built into the underside of the desk. One press of that button and a security team would come running… Bane moved forward to stand beside Ivy, his hand firmly planted upon Ivy's shoulder. Ivy grinned, her teeth flashing almost like fangs.

"I'm going to kill you now," Ivy whispered, keeping the same focused face, with those same intent, staring eyes. Mary panicked. She moved her hand quickly but Bane's reached out and grabbed the woman's arm. Mary gasped, trying to scream out, but Ivy's forced a gloved hand firmly against the woman's mouth, while her other hand rose quickly. Her poisoned knife glinted in the lamplight. Quickly, Bane forced the woman down onto the desk as Ivy raised the knife and stabbed down, the blade entering the back of the woman's head. Mary the receptionist made a deeply pained noise but Bane held her forcibly face down into the wood, and Ivy stabbed repeatedly, again and again, each time inserting the blade into a different section of the poor woman's skull.

Mary stopped struggling before soon, blood dripping down from Ivy's knife as the Venom Queen stopped her savage slaughter, breathing hard as she reached orgasm. Ivy fell to her knees, her lungs pumping rather viciously as she gestured from the woman to Bane, and fortunately, Bane got the message at once. The giant hoisted Mary onto his shoulder and searched about quickly, scanning the room around them for some indication of a hiding place. He found one back near the entrance doors, a supply closet for janitors. Although it was locked, Bane's forcible twist on the knob ruptured the lock within and he was able to pull it open, throwing Mary's body inside and slamming the door shut with haste. By the time he had returned to Ivy, she was climbing slowly to her feet, her face wild with the passion that had just ensued.

"You get rid of her?" she struggled to say, her chest pounding hard.

"Yes."

"Good dog, good. So, then…" She relaxed herself in place and handed Bane the knife, careful not to drip any of the woman's blood onto her outfit. She scanned the higher corners of the chamber, seeking out any potential cameras. She had acted before thinking. Self-control, Ivy, you have to have self-control!

There did seem to be one camera, situated in the top left corner of the room, but fortunately for them, the light was out. The camera was not currently turned on. Mother Nature was on their side!

"Alright, Bane, you know the drill. Find the evidence room and collect for the popsicle. I'm going to run a few errands, okay? I'll be waiting for you in the freezer."

She slapped his chest as she began to walk around the circular desk, hitting the Turbo button ever so lightly, not enough to activate it, but rather enough to remind him of its purpose. Bane nodded.

"Freezer…yeah…" He turned away, his head swimming, as it always did when she looked at him like that. Before they had set up an initial plan for infiltrating Arkham, Ivy and Bane had tracked down one of the guards of this mighty castle at his home. After much severe torture, the man, who had been named Davidson, had been all too willing to give them a detailed account of Arkham's layout, a map that he had kept in his garage, along with notes of interest. These notes of interest were some of Arkham's more notorious names, for the necessary caution of the guards posted on duty. One of the notes enthralled Ivy with a bitter need, and she had memorized the positions well, allowing Bane to take the layout map with him as he made his way to find the supply room.

Up the right wing hall behind the desk, there were office doors littering either side, and she dared not disturb them. Not yet. She had two points of focus today, and she could only hope that opportunities would arise on her way to them. Red Wing. Both of them were in there, and his just happened to be the closest…

She desperately wanted to see him. He was everything that she needed at the moment: power, acknowledgment, desire… He was a man of true quality to fulfill those roles, and the thought of helping him see true ascension was all too poetic. He had taken what he wanted with a force unperceived by the common clichés: intellect. With intellect, he had built an empire. And with an empire, he had commanded the fruit of his work: the minds in the masses.

And now he deserved her… if only for a short time.

The Red Wing was labeled on the guide charts as two wards northward. The halls were deserted at this time of night, of course. Arkham Asylum was almost dead. It was funny how something like that could initiate such a discomforting feeling. It was almost too easy, this entire process.

Stepping through a sanitation ward where inmates enjoyed private showers, she walked past a desk hidden to the side in a small enclave. She did not see the man sitting there at first, but he saw her walk by, quite confident in her stride, and he quickly jumped up.

"Excuse me!" he called out to her. She jumped once more in the night, spinning around to face the young man who had coming at her with a black device in hand that resembled an iron straightener. "Miss, I'm not sure who you are, but I need to see a pass, please."

"A pass?" she repeated innocently, brandishing at her breasts with her gloved hands in a most suggestive way. The man noted them but looked up quickly, his face tightening. It was not every day you came across the most beautiful woman you had ever seen, clad in tight rubber latex. She had the body of a goddess, and the atmosphere of a queen. Shifting slightly to hide the bulge that was growing in his pants, he cleared his throat.

"Y-yeah, a pass. This is the Sanitation Wing, if you didn't know. It's pretty late, are you here for a visit?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," Ivy replied, smiling sweetly as she raised one of her gloved hands. The mirror clipped open at once and the pheromones hit the man at once, his eyes dilating as a peaceful expression washed over him. Ivy approached him and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in close. "Would you like to help me find a certain someone? I'm lonely…" She felt his boner between her legs and played to that advantage, squeezing her thighs tightly around it. The man gasped, his breathing pacing madly as his mouth dropped. His lips came so close to hers but she pushed his head back. She would kill him after he had helped her. He was no use to her dead, not for the next few minutes, at least.

"Anything…you want…" He gave a stupid little giggle, a man enthralled by the effects only a marijuana high could induce.

"Thanks," she grinned, pinching his cheek. "The Red Wing. Will you escort me?"

She strategically placed his hands upon her hips, so that he could feel… so that he would obey. He made a few vertical moments, positively drooling in place, and she had to hold his head straight, so that he could focus upon her.

"I said, will you escort me?" she repeated, emphasizing the word escort fiercely.

"Yeah! Yes, of course… of course… yeah, of course…" He looked dreamily down at the floor as he took her hand in his and led her down the way, feeling as if he was the luckiest man in the world. He loved her. She was all that he cared about, all he wanted. To be in her presence was beyond the dream that shifted into reality, and he deserved only death, for how could he be pure enough, be worthy enough, to touch her like this!? She had come to take him away from this world… she was the angel that would collect him… no… not an angel… a goddess! "Goddess…" he mumbled to himself. Ivy smirked. You got that right, buddy.

The Red Wing had a special name for its lightly colored scarlet lamps, dim in their luminescence, and several steel bolt doors, heavily reinforced and windowed, littered either side. Names there did adorn these doors, fit into little white jacket sleeves upon the framework. Wesker, Arnold. She could hear something strange in there as she passed it. A sort of mumbling, but a sound like someone who was whimpering and pleading. An argument, perhaps? Crane, Jonathon. Nothing came from this room, though as she passed, she swore that she saw a silhouette finely pronounced against the moonlight spilling in through the cell's distant window, though as soon as she saw it, the shadow ducked away and vanished. Zeus, Maximilian. A soft humming, so rhythmic and like a man who had all the pleasures in the world and all the time to acknowledge them for their beauty. Tetch, Jervis.

"YOU!" From this room, there came the most horrible scream, and a shadowy figure suddenly ran at the door. Ivy stopped in her tracks, staring in horror as the man on the other side of the glass banged against the door, his eyes bulging mad, flecks of orange hair flying everywhere. "YOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE, MURDERESS!? YOU GO BACK TO YOUR CASTLE, YOU GO BACK! STOP HAUNTING ME! STOP FOCKING HAUNTING ME!"

"Hey, now…" the mesmerized guard snorted, his eyes zoning in and out as he pointed a shaking finger at the madman. "Shush, now, hey-o, boy… shush…"

"Damn Red Queen, coming to haunt me! You can't get me in here! You can't!"

The little man turned on his heel and ran into the shadows, Ivy snickering as she shook her head. As she said on the night she murdered Woodrue, "It's a jungle in here."

"Yeah… love those trees, hee hee! Haha! Love the monkies and the birds and the-"

She placed a hand over his mouth. "Enough talk, my dear. I haven't found the right man yet."

He sniffed intently at her glove, and she could feel his tongue wagging against the rubber. Repulsed, she pushed him away, fighting the most monstrous urge to kill him right there and then. She turned her back on him, seeking more urgently the name she wanted to see the most.

Yowzman, Klinger. She could hear him whispering things, terrible threats and children's songs…

Jones, Waylon. Was that a growl she heard? It was inhuman, to say the least, and accompanied by the most disturbing sound of someone smelling the air…

"Delicious morsel," a voice said from behind that door. "I bet you could feed me for a night or so…"

This came accompanied by the sound of licking lips, and Ivy hurried along, not wishing to see what was inside of the pitch-black tank of a nightmare.

And finally, at last, she came to the name that she had pursued the most. It was a door off to the left side, next door to the cell belonging to someone named Day, Julian (who, from what she could hear, seemed to be repeating one word: July…July…July….). The name upon the door she had found, with a pacing heart, was Edward Nygma.

Edward…

She turned to the guard, pointing at the door. "Please?" she asked kindly, her eyes twinkling.

The guard was all too enthralled to comply, and he took his ring of keys happily, jingling them with joy, for he knew that if he served the goddess, and served her well, he may get to kiss her! And oh how he wanted that kiss! He held up a bright green key, holding it before her face, and she nodded, smiling at him and silently urging him on. The guard forced the key into the door's lock, and turned it to a loud click.

Ivy, to be safe, blew yet another strong dose of pheromones into the man's face, and he practically fell weakly to his knees, gazing up at her with pure adoration and worship.

"Wait out here for me, like a good dog," she begged, stroking his hair affectionately. "If you wait for me, I'll reward you. Will you do this for me?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" He reached out for her legs with shaking hands but she backed away, into the door, blowing him a kiss as she slipped into the room, hitting a button beside the door in the hall as she did. It was labeled Light Switch 13.

The lights inside of Edward's cell blasted on, and she closed the door behind her.

It was pitiful. The cell was tiny, barely able to hold a man of such brilliant intellect. The floors were uncared for, dirty by years of negligence on the Arkham staff's part, and the redwood desk that they had supplied for Edward was old and decrepit, rotting before her very eyes. It stunk terribly in this room. Her eyes shifted to the bed hanging before the great, barred window. Shattered glass littered the windowsill and rain was spewing in, falling on top of the shaking man who lay upon the old bed, barely covered fully by the worthless brown sheet that they had provided for him.

His red hair was mattered and dog-like with years of neglect, and so many tufts had been ripped away, probably through violent conflicts related to his time spent here with the other inmates. Even with the sudden light having been switched on and the door being opened and closed rather loudly, Edward Nygma slept on, his face squelched into a state of fear, and pain. He seemed to be dreaming, and it did not seem to be a very good dream.

Ivy fell to her knees beside him as he slept, stroking his hair softly in hand as she watched him softly snore. Edward suddenly stopped jerking in his sleep, and his eyes snapped open.

Dark, insane brown eyes met intense green, insane eyes. They bore into each other, silently exchanging hidden greetings that they themselves were not fully aware of. Edward pushed himself back against the wall, his mouth hanging open as he beheld Ivy in all her wonders, her smile soft, and assuring. She held up a hand, waving her fingers.

"Eddie…"

Eddie? That name seemed to have an instant effect upon him. He gasped, looking more terrified and more stony than ever before. And in the last few years of his incarceration, Edward Nygma had experienced pain beyond countless years… an eternity contained below a decade. Below half a decade.

"Who are you… who are you… who are you…?" His eyes went out of focus as he said it. He turned away from her, staring intently at the wall opposite him. "Sending whores now? Yeah, lots and lots of whores…"

Ivy frowned darkly. A death sentence. "Pardon?"

"You're gonna get EATEN!" He screamed the last word as he spun around, pouncing at her with his hands tossed out like a lion's. She stepped back at once, allowing him to hit the floor hard, chin first, where he doubled over in pain, a yelp sounding off. Ivy turned to face the door, and she saw the young guard outside in the hall looking through…but the stupid grin was still upon his face, and he was obviously still mesmerized beyond his own understanding. Good.

Ivy stamped down hard upon Edward's stomach, pressing the heel deep into him, and he cried out in pain, grabbing at her leg to try to push her off. She did not budge, fighting against his force and keeping her heel planted firmly into him.

"Calm down and I'll remove it," she snapped, pressing down harder. "Calm down now and I'll raise my foot!"

"Ughh! Aggh!"

"I said, calm down! Stop struggling!"

"Letmegoyoubitch!" The words seemed to all come out as one, tears falling down his face as he plead with her.

"I've given you my command."

"Ight! Ight!" He released her leg and stopped struggling, and Ivy stayed loyal to her promise, removing her heel at once. But she reared back her leg, then, and allowed herself the pleasure of kicking Edward across the face. The man screamed in pain as he went rolling away, blood shooting out from his nose as he went. For a brief moment, Ivy remembered her torment of the shopkeeper who had provided the very outfit she wore now… and it made her smile to remember that. Edward Nygma was rolling around on the floor, tormented in the same exact way. Her heart was empty. She was cold inside. A true sociopath.

"Dry it up, Eddie, my visit has to be brief and I don't want it soiled with tears."

"You itch!" Edward screamed, staring over at her with bloodshot eyes. Ivy winked. "Just who do you think you are!?"

"It's pronounced bitch, Eddie. I know, because I am one. As for who I am… well, you know, Edward. You've known for quite a while. But in essence, truly without a doubt, I am Poison. Poison Ivy, of course, but please… I prefer myself in all my perfection. I am Poison. Call me Poison, please, Edward, I'm begging you…"

She dropped down onto her knees once more, staring intently at the broken man. He looked at her with the wildest expression.

"P-poison?"

"Oh, say it again…" She sighed deeply, closing her eyes as she said the word. "Say it again, Eddie, say it again…"

Say it again, Eddie… say it again… and that voice… why is all of this coming back….?

His mind was reeling so many questions. Far too many questions. The world thrived on questions, and in the case of the poor Edward Nygma, the questions would never hide themselves. They were the essence of breath, and the desires of his soul. To question all was to know all. And knowledge made him a god….surely it made him a god…it had to! It had to!

"Poison?" he questioned again, backing up against the wall so as to stay away from the crazy woman's heels. She opened her eyes, her cheeks blushing red.

"Oh, I love it when I hear that word. That word… it's so sexual, isn't it? Infectious and crippling. It tells me of what I am: power over the human body. Overwhelming, and unpredictable, unstopped. Limitless in my destruction. That is the essence of Ascension, Eddie. To fully grasp the change within us all. I breath that Ascension, Eddie, because I am destined for the greatest thing. And you… you too sought Ascension, and for time, you held your power. But Mother Nature chose to take it back… I wonder why that was, Eddie…"

"Stop calling me…. STOP… no don't call me that!" Edward was getting very upset now, more upset than simply being kicked in the face. He hated that name! Hated it with all of his heart! Ivy, enthralled, beamed at him.

"Yes! Edward, exactly, you grasp the idea of Ascension as I do! Isn't it beautiful!? You called yourself the "Riddler", yes? Not because it meant you had the greatest of intellectual abilities, but because you knew that the essence was there! You are the Riddler, without any identity, and when you realized it, you took power and control!" She spread her arms out, laughing viciously as her heart broke with happiness. "This is why I had to come and find you, Riddler! This is why! I had to show you that I too found the Ascension! I have become Poison, as I was always meant to be! And you know me, Riddler! You've known me since before this realization!"

Edward stared, unsure as to how to take this uprising of events. Reality was crashing in, warping all manner of perception. He knew not how to grasp the current situation, or how he would be expected to look at it with ease. She scared him. Scared him… and enthralled him. "Who… who are you…?"

"I've already told you, Riddler. I am Poison. But before I was Poison full realized, I lived by a lie. And the lie was ashes to my meaning. She was a seed, a mere pod containing the truth of it all." She grinned at him. "I was Pamela Isley, Riddler. Now, the mere corpse of her."

And the Riddler gasped. His eyes widened, his expression fully mystified beyond all other manner of perceptions. She had come back to him… years of dreaming of a return to those old sexual escapes with Pamela Isley, and now… now she knelt here, in his cell before him? Was it truly her!? How could this be!?

"This is impossible…" he gasped. He shook his head, hardly daring to believe in the situation as it presented itself. The mind was a manuscript, ever changing because without a good story, nothing could be genuinely told in its necessity. Now, seeing this as it was, he was sure that his mind had become a book, to have dots and scribbles set it where changes were neither called for, nor particularly done well. "No, you're not, you're deceiving yourself, you're lying!"

"Believe what you want, Eddie…"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" he screamed, tearing tufts from his hair by the fistfuls.

"…but I am what I am, Riddler, as you are. I am Poison fully realized, and you are Riddler, unquestionable. We are what we are because we have ascended. Now, naturally, this would have out you in my good books, as I am seeking out the survival of only the Ascended… but Riddler… you have allowed yourself to fall to Man."

Edward stared, incredulously and by far most intently questioningly at her. He looked broken, hurt beyond his ages and silently begged her for some comfort. Just the tiniest bit. But Poison Ivy had none for him, as she had none for the rest of mankind's depravity.

"You had the chance to take Gotham and the world by storm, you had them in your hand, a beacon of hope for the future that you sought to build in your would-have-been image… but you allowed the mammals to drag you down, and force you into chains. And this cannot be forgiven by the goddess who is Mother Nature, Edward."

"Shush…"

"Edward! Edward! EDWARD!' she pressed.

"SHUT-UP!" Edward Nygma sobbed hysterically, jumping to his feet and running at her with his arms stretched out madly, losing all sense of humanity as he became primitive, a beast of a man.

"Oh, and Edward, one other thing," Ivy sighed passionately, and when he clashed with her, it was only to be swept into her arms, her mouth biting hard into his lips as she kissed him with the most passionately contrived way, a true longing of a lover's frenzy overtaking her senses as she rewarded him with death. Edward was taken aback, frozen into a stone of a man as his ex-girlfriend (or she who claimed to be) kissed him as if she would never kiss a man again. When she pulled away, and Edward Nygma's body shut down almost instantaneously, she breathed into his face, "I am poison."

Edward gagged all too loudly, all too horribly, his tongue (greened with intense toxicity) shooting out through his blackened lips as his eyes widened. He clutched at his throat, and Ivy aided him, pushing hard against his temple as the once great Riddler fell dead onto the floor, staring beyond the ceiling and Heavens as his veins burned with vats and vats of poison. Ivy stared down at her latest murder, admiring the corpse of her ex-lover with a sort of maddened intensity. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and she truly saw the most cared for art imaginable in the way he lifelessly concentrated upon his killer, his body seemingly shrunken by the power of wrath that she had brought upon him.

"I love you…" she whispered to him, bending down and offering one last kiss upon his dead lips. She held it there for several seconds, before pulling back, the taste of his saliva still satisfying even after all these years. "I love you so much…worthless mammal." And with one last repulsed look at the lifeless form of Edward Nygma, the fallen Ascended, Poison Ivy turned on her heel and marched away.

Back in the corridor, she leaned against the wall beside the intoxicated guard, staring breathlessly at the opposite wall. She felt so happy that she had been given the chance to end Edward Nygma's life. She could only come to hope that more chances would come like this. It all meant so well now to realize that killing those that you loved, or had once loved, meant something special. A wondrous connection that made murder even more beautiful than it could ever be. If she could indeed have more chances to slaughter those that she held a more personal connection to, then perhaps someday she could perfect her artistic technique and swell in the masses of universal portrayal: for she saw it as none but degradation.

The mesmerized guard stared longingly at her, and she smiled softly, pulling him in and snuggling him against her breasts. He moaned loudly as she held him close, feeling so much peace in her heart.

"Caress me for a few seconds longer," she whispered to him, allowing him to fully indulge upon her rubber clad body for a little while, at least. But not too long. Bane may already be finishing with his first chore, and she needed to ensure that Freeze was ready when he arrived. The guard began to lower himself down to a more personal area, but she did not mind. She welcomed it. Just knowing that she had such power over her slaughter meat was gratifying and it made her feel elation as it had a hundred times before. "Do what you will… and then place a call into Victor Fries's cell. He…oh…" She winced as he bit down upon a spot where she had no expected. But she held him in place nonetheless. "Tell him his sister is coming to pay him a visit…"

And once he placed the call, he would rewarded with the ultimate. A kiss…from an angel of death.