CHAPTER 10

Barbara moved her wheelchair our of her room. Her face was moist from her weeping. Her heart was shattered, coming to grips that Helena was not going to live. She wanted to have some time waiting by the side of her cot, but she was not looking forward to it. Seeing Helena in her present condition was heart wrenching. She had been using the excuse of trying to find a cure to not have to look upon Helena. She forcing herself to do this, but she knew she was going to burst into tears.

Barbara had the cot in view across the room, and her eyes looked upon it in horror. Dinah was there and she was trying to soak up the poison. She was going to kill herself to try to save Helena. "Dinah! No!" Barbara moved her wheelchair as fast as she could.

~ ~ ~ ~

Each step Helena made towards the light was extremely difficult and took a lot of her. She had Dinah scooped up in her arms while she was soaking up some of the poison and strengthening the white cells in Helena body, but Dinah was loosing consciousness quickly. Her head was bobbing as she was struggling to stay conscious as long as possible. "Hold on, Dinah! Don't give up on me now!"

Helena was pushing her body to the max. Her legs were buckling underneath her with each step that she took. Determination was her ultimate motivator. She was not going to let Dinah sacrifice her life to save hers. She was going to save Dinah, even if it killed her.

Dinah could not fight it any longer. She slipped into unconscious in Helena's arm. "No, Dinah! Don't you die on me, you hear me, girl? You don't give up on me, and I won't give up on you."

Helena continued taking steps towards the light, but each step was getting harder and harder for her. Her strength was once again draining out of her and the short distance from where she stood to the end of the darkness felt like it was getting farther and father away. The strain was too much, and Helena's legs collapsed from under her. She and Dinah fell to the ground.

~ ~ ~ ~

Her wheelchair would not move fast enough, as the agonizing scream of Dinah echoed throughout clock tower. Her heart was beating faster than her chair was going. Dinah's agonizing scream was more than she could bare. Her eyes became moist and watery. "Dinah, stop it!"

~ ~ ~ ~

Helena was loosing strength fast, and they were just feet away from the border of the darkness. "No, I can't loose! I will not loose!" Helena stumbled onto her feet and grabbed Dinah by the arm. She had no more strength to carry her in her arms, so she was going to have to drag her across. Helena slowly dragged Dinah towards the border. It was taking every ounce of remaining strength to pull Dinah.

Helena's back finally crossed the border and soon her whole body was finally out of the darkness. With the light, new found strength began to flow into her. Helena grunted as with one final pull, she pulled Dinah out of the darkness.

~ ~ ~ ~

Just as Barbara reached Dinah, she had let go of Helena and collapsed onto Barbara. Barbara laid her on the floor and slid out off the chair. She pulled Dinah's limp body onto her lap and cradled her. "Dinah, please don't die!" Barbara cried.

Dinah's face was ghostly white, and her body was motionless. Barbara's tears fell onto Dinah's shirt as Barbara was franticly trying to look for a pulse. Her pulse was very light, which terrified Barbara to no end. "Come back to me, Dinah! Don't you dare die on me!"

Barbara continued to cradle Dinah's upper body. As if awakening from a nightmare Dinah's eyes shot open wide and sat, breaking free from Barbara's arms. Barbara sat there stunned and confused as Dinah looked around. "Dinah?"

Dinah looked behind her. "Barbara?"

Barbara wiped the tears from her face, hoping that Dinah didn't see that she had been crying. "I thought you were dying?"

"Strangely enough, I feel fine. It appears I didn't soak up enough poison to kill me. I don't know if I got enough to save Helena though. I'm sorry, Barbara. I had to do this. You and Detective Reese have been devastated, and I wanted her to live so badly."

Barbara smiled as she pulled Dinah into her and hugged each other. Crying on each other's shoulders. They have both been through great turmoil these past thirty-six hours. Throughout that whole time, Dinah and Barbara had not once been alone together and talked about what was happening, or just to let out their emotions. Barbara wished to god that she had been there for Dinah instead of being selfish. She had not once considered how deeply Dinah was being affected by this.

"Would you mind helping me up?" Barbara asked. Dinah was happy to oblige. Dinah grabbed Barbara's right arm and pulled her up enough to get back into her wheelchair. "No, I want to stand." Barbara grabbed Dinah's arm.

Dinah used herself to be an object for Barbara to use to pull herself up onto her feet. "Thank you, Dinah,"

Dinah had unintentionally place a hand on Helena's cot, so it was a further surprise to feel someone grab her wrist. Dinah turned around to see Helena's cold hand gently grabbing Dinah's wrist. "Helena!"

Barbara stood besides Dinah, looking down at Helena. Helena's eyes were open and showed some minute signs of life in her eyes. "Thank you, Dinah!"

Barbara looked up at the monitor to see that her body temperature had begun to drop. Her heart beat was starting to stabilize. "How are you feeling, Helena?" Barbara swiped a few strains of hair from in front of her face.

"Hungry as hell." Dinah and Barbara laughed as they hugged each other in celebration.

* * * *

Barbara and Dinah were standing on the outside of the clock, looking out upon New Gotham as the sun began to set over the city horizon. It was one of the most beautiful times to view New Gotham from on top of the clock tower. It was a very peaceful, stress releasing way to end another day. "Mind if I join you two!"

The two girls looked over to see Helena, being helped by Danielle, step out onto the ledge to join them. Danielle was by her side, guiding her every step, as she was still recovering from the near brush with death just under a week ago. She took a few baby steps before nearly tumbling, but Danielle had caught her before she fell very far.

"Come here, Helena!" Barbara said as she pushed herself out of the wheelchair. She stood on her own feet besides her own wheelchair as Danielle helped Helena reach the wheelchair and sit into the wheel chair. "Right now, it looks like you need this more than I do." Barbara placed a hand on Helena's shoulder.

Helena closed her eyes the warmth of the setting sun warmed her face. The fresh air filled her lungs and it was the best feeling Helena had in a long while. "Are you alright?" Dinah asked, seeing her face and was concerned that she may still be ill.

"I feel more than alright. For the first time in awhile, I feel a new strength to go on fighting."

"Helena, if you are troubled about something, you don't have to hide it from us. We're you're family, and we care for you. If you keep things bottled up inside of you, it will cause more harm than good."

"I realize that now," Helena said, putting a hand on top of Barbara's hand on top of her shoulder. "Thank you, both of you." Helena smiled up at Dinah. Dinah returned her smile, as she put a hand on her other shoulder. Helena looked out at the beautiful sight. "It's great to be alive."

THE SERIES FINALE CONTINUES. NEW GOTHAM IS ABOUT TO BE PLUNGED INTO UTTER CHAOS. WILL THE BIRDS SURVIVE THE COMING STORM? RAVEN RETURNS ONE FINAL TIME AS THE FINAL CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE HUNTRESS AND RAVEN TAKES PLACE, BUT IS RAVEN REALLY THE ONE THE HUNTRESS NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT? COMING NEXT IS:

Episode 10: HELENA'S BANE

FOR THOSE READERS ON FANFICTION.NET: THE NEXT EPISODE CONTINUES STARTING IN CHAPTER 11 OF THIS STORY.