Helena Kyle was in hell. She had always assumed that the deep nasty
afterlife would be something very hot and suffocating, like what one would
assume the inside of a furnace to be like. Apparently she was wrong and
there were multiples paths to the underworld, none of them terribly
pleasant.
The darkness surrounded her in thick velvet sheets, coating her but not consuming her. She had shattered the light bulb over her head and now her fist swelled under the severe lacerations that she had suffered. No matter, the black was certainly welcomed. She cradled herself against the far wall of the room, clutching her side and pressing herself up against the cool surface. Her skin was feverish and the icy tile provided at least some degree of relief.
She blinked when she heard footsteps approaching. She wrenched her eyes open and looked towards the door of the room. It slid open with a loud aching creek revealing Harley in all of her evil glory. She smiled in at her prey, eyes dancing mischievously. "I see you prefer the darkness, Helena. I knew you were my kind of girl."
Helena lifted her head slowly and gazed back at Harley under sheets of unruly and uncombed brown hair. She wasn't really in the mood to listen to another long-winded rant from the psychopath that was holding her captive. She tried to focus her mind but there was little doubt that the fever ravaging her damaged body as well as the sleep deprivation were taking their toll on both her physical and mental well being.
"I think it's time for another session," Harley cooed as she slipped into the room. She sat on the bed and crossed her legs, attempting to look very scholarly and yet still managing to come off almost perverse.
Helena didn't reply. She dropped her head back down and pressed her eyes closed. She wanted to lash out at the woman but lacked the strength to put up any kind of real fight.
And they both knew it.
She shivered under the iron grasp of the fever. It was getting worse. Whatever the creature had done to her, he had made her ever sicker than the physical abuse alone had done.
"Barbara Gordon is worried about you," Harley assured her. "Did you know that she begged me for your life? It was wonderful to hear. She is quite an amazing woman. You betrayed her and still she loves you. That'd be beautiful if it wasn't so pathetic. She said she'd do anything for you. I wonder what that means."
Helena growled and glared up at Harley, the predator inside of her running through a list of ways to attack her enemy.
Harley smiled, recognizing the violent impulses racing through Helena's blood. She knew them well. The only difference was that she answered their call while the young brunette still denied them.
Harley decided to press on, to see if she could force Helena's hand. "When Wade died a part of her died as well, isn't that true, Helena?" Harley laughed. "When she found out about your betrayal, oh I would have loved to have seen her face, to know what she was thinking of you in those moments."
Helena blinked, sadness overwhelming her. She could still remember the horrified and devastated expression that had overcome Barbara when she had realized what her young protégé had done. The redhead could deny it until the day she died but the truth of the matter was, in those first few seconds, there had to have been hatred.
Had to have been.
"How did you feel when I killed the good Detective Reese? When you heard him fall? When you heard me pierce his heart with a knife just as I did Wade? Did you feel like it was your penance? Like you deserved it?" She shook her head. "Now imagine what it must have been like to be Barbara and know that Wade was her only chance for love."
Helena squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to hear anymore. It didn't change things however. Harley was right in so many ways. After Wade had died, Barbara had retreated inside of herself, throwing herself forcefully into the rebuilding of the Delphi computer system. Helena had tried on several occasions to start dialogue with her mentor but had always given in quickly, unwilling to cause her oldest friend more unwarranted pain.
Pain that she was uniquely responsible for as far as she was concerned.
"Are you angry with me Helena?" Harley asked in mock surprise. "I didn't force you to talk to me in my office that morning. You did it all so very willingly. You wanted it all out in the open. Everything. It made you feel free." She reached across and touched Helena's cheek. The girl jerked her head away from her, causing her to smile at Helena's continued fight. "It's better this way and you know it. You've already betrayed her once. You'll do it again. It's inevitable. Better that you're here and far away from her."
Helena buried her head between her hands and stared down into her palms. Guilt wracked her but she refused to let Harley see her get any weaker. She glared up at her captor. "You killed him," she hissed. "Not me." Sorry I was "You don't believe that," Harley told her, a wide smile on her face. "You believe you're the one who killed him and you are."
Helena felt her heart sink. Harley was right; she had betrayed Barbara. She had never meant to hurt her mentor so deeply and yet she had. And would of course, inevitably do it again.
"Do you know that she's willing to trade her life for yours?" Harley asked casually, glancing down at her nails. She frowned when she noticed that one of them looked slightly cracked. That would have to be dealt with when she had a few spare moments. Assuming of course that there were any. With all the maiming and murdering, personal time was certainly low on the list. A true pity really.
The brunette looked up sharply, anger stark in slate blue eyes. Fury burned through her blood.
"Maybe I'll accept the offer," Harley continued, turning her hand over to examine the nail closer. She wondered when she had broken it and then tried to recall where she had put her file.
Helena lunged forward. She threw herself across the room and slammed her body into Harley's, catching the former therapist off-guard and knocking her down to her butt with a hard thud. Pulling her chained fists together, she pulled back and cracked them against Harley's jaw. Her eyes dilated as anger overtook her senses. She pressed her palms around Harley's throat and shoved down.
Harley laughed. "Now there's my girl. Let it out baby, let it all out. Let it take you." Blood dripped down from her torn lip but she seemed unconcerned about the minor injury.
From behind her she felt Torch approach so she kicked out with her chained legs, knocking him down to his knees. He grunted in anger and pain but quickly found his footing. Harley waved him off.
""I'll kill you before I let you hurt her again," Helena growled, her face contorting. She looked like an animal recently let out of a cage. A beautiful stunning and wicked predator with no control.
"Do it Helena," Harley pressed. "Kill me. Cross that line. Let go. No one can stop you now. Join me on this side. Do it. You know you want to."
Helena staggered back, releasing her vice like grip. She dropped to the ground, defeated. She'd never really had a chance of escape because of the chains that held her but it had occurred to her to end the life of her tormentor. Now that too was gone.
"I won't be like you," Helena stammered, eyes finding the floor of the room.
"You already are," Harley assured her, accepting a hand up from Torch. She was reaching down towards the bed when she heard a loud growl. She blinked and looked up, caught between anger and confusion when she saw Alushe standing vacantly in the doorway, eyes locked on Helena.
Before she could speak the creature was across the room and throwing himself atop of the already shaky brunette. The girl cried out in shock as the diseased boy tackled her and tried to bury his face into neck. She put her palms out and tried to shove him away but he was far too strong and determined for her. He could smell the blood of her previous wound and it was driving him nearly insane with need.
'Alushe no!" Harley cried out, cracking the hard stick across his back. He howled in pain and retreated quickly though reluctantly. "Not now," she hissed at her demented creation.
Alushe trembled under her gaze, confused and tormented. He so desperately needed more of the girl. She was strong and powerful and her blood made him feel almost alive again.
"Not yet," Harley finished, her tone growing softer. "I promise that eventually she'll be yours but not yet, There are things to be done." She gazed down at Helena who was staring back at her with defiant rage in her blue eyes. Anger suddenly ripped through the little blonde and she kicked out hard, planting her heel into the middle of Helena's gut.
The brunette cried out and fell back, tears forming at the corner of her eyes. She fought them back and stared up at Harley, still defiant. "Fuck you," she hissed.
Harley kicked her again. "Watch your mouth, Helena. You're alive by my grace alone. It's not wise to push it. Piss me off and I'll let him rip your throat out. I can't imagine a worse death. She smiled again. "Can you?"
Helena blinked. No, she really couldn't.
Harley sensed that she had won the battle so she turned to leave. She glanced back once and smiled. "We made some progress today, Helena. We had a good day."
And with that she turned and exited the room, Alushe and Torch trailing just inches behind her. The door slammed shut, sealing Helena off and encasing her in darkness.
She gripped her side and rolled over so that she was in the fetal position. The chains clinked, echoing in her brain. She ignored the sound, having grown moderately used to it.
Her vision blurred as her mind spun like a diseased hard drive, sputtering and begging for just a few more seconds of life. Everything was chaos and confusion and she wondered just what she was losing. Fight? Battle? War?
Her life? Her sanity?
Yeah, definitely the war then.
Definitely that.
*****
Dinah Redmond glanced down at the watch on her left wrist. It was just a few minutes after noon and the hospital was buzzing with activity. Doctors and nurses pushed about, trying to stay focused on their daily activities.
She made her way quickly to the receptionists' desk and smiled up brightly at the elderly nurse standing there. The woman with brown curls and a nametag that read Donna glanced up at her. "Can I help you sweetie?"
"I'm here to see my uncle," Dinah said softly, adjusting herself on her crutches. "His name is Detective Reese."
Donna lifted an eyebrow. "Your uncle? I don't mean to be indelicate honey but..."
"On his father's side," Dinah said quickly. "He's half white." She moved anxiously, desperate to move things along. Bad enough that she had lied to Barbara and Gibson about where she was going but even worse what she was planning to do. Her mentor was going to be furious.
Oh well. Risks and all of that. Family and such.
"Oh," the woman replied. Then she shook her head. "I'm afraid right now..."
"Go ahead and let her see him," a voice said from behind her. Dinah turned and smiled slightly.
"McNally?"
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. More or less." She could see cuts and bruises on his face and he definitely looked like he had been worked over. He glanced at the nurse. "She's family."
Donna smiled. "Go ahead and take her back then."
Dinah pressed the crutches into armpits and followed McNally down the hallway. "We thought maybe...what happened to Reese...we thought...."
McNally shook his head. "I don't know what happened to me to be honest. One moment he and I are looking for this escaped murderer and the next I'm waking up in a ditch. Apparently they left me for dead." He laughed and pointed at his stomach. "They'll have to try harder. Shot, stabbed, blown up. I'm doing just fine."
She snorted. "I see that." She stopped in front of the private room with the number 2343. "What about him?"
McNally shook his head, sadness in his eyes. "They don't think...look I've known Jesse a very long time...he'll pull through this." And with that he turned and walked away, limping terribly as he moved. She noticed that he had a large white cast on his right arm and that he was still wearing a hospital bracelet. That meant that he was still a patient.
Harley had really done some damage.
She had to be stopped.
Had to be.
She opened the door to the room and stepped in, hearing the steady if not maddening beeping of all of the machines. She approached the bed in the middle of the room hesitantly, eyes locked on the form on the mattress.
He looked terrible; his chest wrapped heavily in tape and white gauze. He wasn't breathing on his own, instead the machines pumped oxygen into his lungs. His color was awful. He looked so very close to death.
She paused for a beat, considering Barbara and Gibson's warning. She knew the risks. If Reese died with her inside, she'd go as well. It was that simple.
It was worth it. She laid her clutches against the wall and narrowed her eyes, gazing at him evenly.
She stepped forward and touched his forehead. "Help me," she whispered.
Almost immediately the images flooded her brain, shaking her all the way down to her toes. She stay connected and took in as much as she could, as much as she dared. She tried not to think about what she was seeing, fearing that if she hesitated at all, she might not get out.
After a few moments she staggered back and dropped to the floor next to his bed. She shook under the violence of the images assaulting her brain. She pressed her palms flat against her head to try to silence the sounds. She clenched her eyelids tightly together and bit down on her lip.
Finally, unsteadily, she found her feet again. She bent over Reese and kissed him lightly on the forehead. "Thank you Jesse," she whispered. "Now come back to us."
She turned away from him and grabbed at the crutches. She yanked them under her and made her away to the door of the room. Once outside she leaned back against the wall of the hallway.
"Dinah?" McNally asked, coming to her side. She gazed up at him through bleary and blurring eyes. She blinked.
"Mmm?" she mumbled, watching as the darkness closed in around her.
"Are you okay?" he demanded, his face contorting as her vision blurred. He touched her arm.
"No," she stammered. "I think I'm gonna lie down."
And then, just like that, she did.
She collapsed heavily to the floor, colliding against the burly cop and dropping him down with her. He grunted at the sudden impact but managed to keep her from slamming her skull against the cold tile. He looked up, alarm in his eyes and exhaustion in his tone. "Help me, someone help me."
* * *
The darkness surrounded her in thick velvet sheets, coating her but not consuming her. She had shattered the light bulb over her head and now her fist swelled under the severe lacerations that she had suffered. No matter, the black was certainly welcomed. She cradled herself against the far wall of the room, clutching her side and pressing herself up against the cool surface. Her skin was feverish and the icy tile provided at least some degree of relief.
She blinked when she heard footsteps approaching. She wrenched her eyes open and looked towards the door of the room. It slid open with a loud aching creek revealing Harley in all of her evil glory. She smiled in at her prey, eyes dancing mischievously. "I see you prefer the darkness, Helena. I knew you were my kind of girl."
Helena lifted her head slowly and gazed back at Harley under sheets of unruly and uncombed brown hair. She wasn't really in the mood to listen to another long-winded rant from the psychopath that was holding her captive. She tried to focus her mind but there was little doubt that the fever ravaging her damaged body as well as the sleep deprivation were taking their toll on both her physical and mental well being.
"I think it's time for another session," Harley cooed as she slipped into the room. She sat on the bed and crossed her legs, attempting to look very scholarly and yet still managing to come off almost perverse.
Helena didn't reply. She dropped her head back down and pressed her eyes closed. She wanted to lash out at the woman but lacked the strength to put up any kind of real fight.
And they both knew it.
She shivered under the iron grasp of the fever. It was getting worse. Whatever the creature had done to her, he had made her ever sicker than the physical abuse alone had done.
"Barbara Gordon is worried about you," Harley assured her. "Did you know that she begged me for your life? It was wonderful to hear. She is quite an amazing woman. You betrayed her and still she loves you. That'd be beautiful if it wasn't so pathetic. She said she'd do anything for you. I wonder what that means."
Helena growled and glared up at Harley, the predator inside of her running through a list of ways to attack her enemy.
Harley smiled, recognizing the violent impulses racing through Helena's blood. She knew them well. The only difference was that she answered their call while the young brunette still denied them.
Harley decided to press on, to see if she could force Helena's hand. "When Wade died a part of her died as well, isn't that true, Helena?" Harley laughed. "When she found out about your betrayal, oh I would have loved to have seen her face, to know what she was thinking of you in those moments."
Helena blinked, sadness overwhelming her. She could still remember the horrified and devastated expression that had overcome Barbara when she had realized what her young protégé had done. The redhead could deny it until the day she died but the truth of the matter was, in those first few seconds, there had to have been hatred.
Had to have been.
"How did you feel when I killed the good Detective Reese? When you heard him fall? When you heard me pierce his heart with a knife just as I did Wade? Did you feel like it was your penance? Like you deserved it?" She shook her head. "Now imagine what it must have been like to be Barbara and know that Wade was her only chance for love."
Helena squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to hear anymore. It didn't change things however. Harley was right in so many ways. After Wade had died, Barbara had retreated inside of herself, throwing herself forcefully into the rebuilding of the Delphi computer system. Helena had tried on several occasions to start dialogue with her mentor but had always given in quickly, unwilling to cause her oldest friend more unwarranted pain.
Pain that she was uniquely responsible for as far as she was concerned.
"Are you angry with me Helena?" Harley asked in mock surprise. "I didn't force you to talk to me in my office that morning. You did it all so very willingly. You wanted it all out in the open. Everything. It made you feel free." She reached across and touched Helena's cheek. The girl jerked her head away from her, causing her to smile at Helena's continued fight. "It's better this way and you know it. You've already betrayed her once. You'll do it again. It's inevitable. Better that you're here and far away from her."
Helena buried her head between her hands and stared down into her palms. Guilt wracked her but she refused to let Harley see her get any weaker. She glared up at her captor. "You killed him," she hissed. "Not me." Sorry I was "You don't believe that," Harley told her, a wide smile on her face. "You believe you're the one who killed him and you are."
Helena felt her heart sink. Harley was right; she had betrayed Barbara. She had never meant to hurt her mentor so deeply and yet she had. And would of course, inevitably do it again.
"Do you know that she's willing to trade her life for yours?" Harley asked casually, glancing down at her nails. She frowned when she noticed that one of them looked slightly cracked. That would have to be dealt with when she had a few spare moments. Assuming of course that there were any. With all the maiming and murdering, personal time was certainly low on the list. A true pity really.
The brunette looked up sharply, anger stark in slate blue eyes. Fury burned through her blood.
"Maybe I'll accept the offer," Harley continued, turning her hand over to examine the nail closer. She wondered when she had broken it and then tried to recall where she had put her file.
Helena lunged forward. She threw herself across the room and slammed her body into Harley's, catching the former therapist off-guard and knocking her down to her butt with a hard thud. Pulling her chained fists together, she pulled back and cracked them against Harley's jaw. Her eyes dilated as anger overtook her senses. She pressed her palms around Harley's throat and shoved down.
Harley laughed. "Now there's my girl. Let it out baby, let it all out. Let it take you." Blood dripped down from her torn lip but she seemed unconcerned about the minor injury.
From behind her she felt Torch approach so she kicked out with her chained legs, knocking him down to his knees. He grunted in anger and pain but quickly found his footing. Harley waved him off.
""I'll kill you before I let you hurt her again," Helena growled, her face contorting. She looked like an animal recently let out of a cage. A beautiful stunning and wicked predator with no control.
"Do it Helena," Harley pressed. "Kill me. Cross that line. Let go. No one can stop you now. Join me on this side. Do it. You know you want to."
Helena staggered back, releasing her vice like grip. She dropped to the ground, defeated. She'd never really had a chance of escape because of the chains that held her but it had occurred to her to end the life of her tormentor. Now that too was gone.
"I won't be like you," Helena stammered, eyes finding the floor of the room.
"You already are," Harley assured her, accepting a hand up from Torch. She was reaching down towards the bed when she heard a loud growl. She blinked and looked up, caught between anger and confusion when she saw Alushe standing vacantly in the doorway, eyes locked on Helena.
Before she could speak the creature was across the room and throwing himself atop of the already shaky brunette. The girl cried out in shock as the diseased boy tackled her and tried to bury his face into neck. She put her palms out and tried to shove him away but he was far too strong and determined for her. He could smell the blood of her previous wound and it was driving him nearly insane with need.
'Alushe no!" Harley cried out, cracking the hard stick across his back. He howled in pain and retreated quickly though reluctantly. "Not now," she hissed at her demented creation.
Alushe trembled under her gaze, confused and tormented. He so desperately needed more of the girl. She was strong and powerful and her blood made him feel almost alive again.
"Not yet," Harley finished, her tone growing softer. "I promise that eventually she'll be yours but not yet, There are things to be done." She gazed down at Helena who was staring back at her with defiant rage in her blue eyes. Anger suddenly ripped through the little blonde and she kicked out hard, planting her heel into the middle of Helena's gut.
The brunette cried out and fell back, tears forming at the corner of her eyes. She fought them back and stared up at Harley, still defiant. "Fuck you," she hissed.
Harley kicked her again. "Watch your mouth, Helena. You're alive by my grace alone. It's not wise to push it. Piss me off and I'll let him rip your throat out. I can't imagine a worse death. She smiled again. "Can you?"
Helena blinked. No, she really couldn't.
Harley sensed that she had won the battle so she turned to leave. She glanced back once and smiled. "We made some progress today, Helena. We had a good day."
And with that she turned and exited the room, Alushe and Torch trailing just inches behind her. The door slammed shut, sealing Helena off and encasing her in darkness.
She gripped her side and rolled over so that she was in the fetal position. The chains clinked, echoing in her brain. She ignored the sound, having grown moderately used to it.
Her vision blurred as her mind spun like a diseased hard drive, sputtering and begging for just a few more seconds of life. Everything was chaos and confusion and she wondered just what she was losing. Fight? Battle? War?
Her life? Her sanity?
Yeah, definitely the war then.
Definitely that.
*****
Dinah Redmond glanced down at the watch on her left wrist. It was just a few minutes after noon and the hospital was buzzing with activity. Doctors and nurses pushed about, trying to stay focused on their daily activities.
She made her way quickly to the receptionists' desk and smiled up brightly at the elderly nurse standing there. The woman with brown curls and a nametag that read Donna glanced up at her. "Can I help you sweetie?"
"I'm here to see my uncle," Dinah said softly, adjusting herself on her crutches. "His name is Detective Reese."
Donna lifted an eyebrow. "Your uncle? I don't mean to be indelicate honey but..."
"On his father's side," Dinah said quickly. "He's half white." She moved anxiously, desperate to move things along. Bad enough that she had lied to Barbara and Gibson about where she was going but even worse what she was planning to do. Her mentor was going to be furious.
Oh well. Risks and all of that. Family and such.
"Oh," the woman replied. Then she shook her head. "I'm afraid right now..."
"Go ahead and let her see him," a voice said from behind her. Dinah turned and smiled slightly.
"McNally?"
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. More or less." She could see cuts and bruises on his face and he definitely looked like he had been worked over. He glanced at the nurse. "She's family."
Donna smiled. "Go ahead and take her back then."
Dinah pressed the crutches into armpits and followed McNally down the hallway. "We thought maybe...what happened to Reese...we thought...."
McNally shook his head. "I don't know what happened to me to be honest. One moment he and I are looking for this escaped murderer and the next I'm waking up in a ditch. Apparently they left me for dead." He laughed and pointed at his stomach. "They'll have to try harder. Shot, stabbed, blown up. I'm doing just fine."
She snorted. "I see that." She stopped in front of the private room with the number 2343. "What about him?"
McNally shook his head, sadness in his eyes. "They don't think...look I've known Jesse a very long time...he'll pull through this." And with that he turned and walked away, limping terribly as he moved. She noticed that he had a large white cast on his right arm and that he was still wearing a hospital bracelet. That meant that he was still a patient.
Harley had really done some damage.
She had to be stopped.
Had to be.
She opened the door to the room and stepped in, hearing the steady if not maddening beeping of all of the machines. She approached the bed in the middle of the room hesitantly, eyes locked on the form on the mattress.
He looked terrible; his chest wrapped heavily in tape and white gauze. He wasn't breathing on his own, instead the machines pumped oxygen into his lungs. His color was awful. He looked so very close to death.
She paused for a beat, considering Barbara and Gibson's warning. She knew the risks. If Reese died with her inside, she'd go as well. It was that simple.
It was worth it. She laid her clutches against the wall and narrowed her eyes, gazing at him evenly.
She stepped forward and touched his forehead. "Help me," she whispered.
Almost immediately the images flooded her brain, shaking her all the way down to her toes. She stay connected and took in as much as she could, as much as she dared. She tried not to think about what she was seeing, fearing that if she hesitated at all, she might not get out.
After a few moments she staggered back and dropped to the floor next to his bed. She shook under the violence of the images assaulting her brain. She pressed her palms flat against her head to try to silence the sounds. She clenched her eyelids tightly together and bit down on her lip.
Finally, unsteadily, she found her feet again. She bent over Reese and kissed him lightly on the forehead. "Thank you Jesse," she whispered. "Now come back to us."
She turned away from him and grabbed at the crutches. She yanked them under her and made her away to the door of the room. Once outside she leaned back against the wall of the hallway.
"Dinah?" McNally asked, coming to her side. She gazed up at him through bleary and blurring eyes. She blinked.
"Mmm?" she mumbled, watching as the darkness closed in around her.
"Are you okay?" he demanded, his face contorting as her vision blurred. He touched her arm.
"No," she stammered. "I think I'm gonna lie down."
And then, just like that, she did.
She collapsed heavily to the floor, colliding against the burly cop and dropping him down with her. He grunted at the sudden impact but managed to keep her from slamming her skull against the cold tile. He looked up, alarm in his eyes and exhaustion in his tone. "Help me, someone help me."
* * *