He stirred against the dirty fabric that served as a mattress. He pressed
his face into it and inhaled the smell that emanated from it. It was his
own stench and it was indeed quite foul. He shuddered violently, once again
feeling the disease tear through him. A distant memory in the back of his
mind reminded him that he had once been something much more than a monster.
He had once been a father and a husband. That time was long gone now. Long
in the past and drifting further away with each passing day.
He pressed his eyes shut tightly, trying to stop the pain in his muscles. He wished for death but knew that it wasn't coming. She wasn't going to let him go. On some days he knew who his tormentor was and he even thought that maybe he could defeat her but those daydreams always washed away in the furious hunger of his illness.
Like now. God now.
He needed to feed.
He staggered to his feet and pushed a hand against the wall. He dropped his head down and gazed at the gray cement floor. His bare feet slid coolly along the surface. It was almost a relief but that passed quickly as the ache in his bones intensified.
As he moved towards the door to his room, a name went through his mind.
Jimmy.
He wondered idly who it belonged to.
Hardly mattered.
All that did was the pain. He needed to stop it. Needed to feed.
Needed her.
Whoever she was, she was intensely powerful and her blood was like a flush of cool ice water into his veins. Just thinking about her was like balm to his soul. That was of course assuming he still had one. Most of the time he wasn't so sure. He hardly knew what he was anymore. Man. Monster. Dog. All of it?
No matter.
He needed her.
His eyes fogged over as the pain wracked his limbs. The hunger grew and as it did all thoughts of Jimmy and whatever that had once meant to him faded away.
He needed her. Had to taste her.
Had to feed.
Had to live.
*****
"Stand up."
"Move."
"Fight."
"You're a killer..."
"You betrayed her..."
"Fight."
"Stay strong."
"It's inside of you..."
"Fight."
"Stay strong."
"Give in..."
"Let go..."
"Hold on."
The voices twisted in her mind, fighting for dominance and screaming at her to listen to them. They demanded an audience and rejected her whimpers of protest. She pressed her hands over her ears and grunted in pain.
She shoved her cheek closer to the cold ground, fighting for relief. The fever ravaging her body was beginning to take its toll on her body. She could feel the cold sweat drenching her skin but it did little to soothe the fiery heat.
She pressed her eyes closed; once again praying for sleep that she knew wasn't coming. Right now she'd settle for silence from the voices that wouldn't stop screaming at her.
"Helena."
"Stand up."
"Do you know why you betrayed her?"
"Fight..."
"It wasn't your fault..."
"You are a killer."
"Kill."
"I'm not," she whispered, her voice hoarse with pain. She curled her body into a ball, listening to the chains clink as she moved. "I didn't kill him," she protested. "Harley killed Wade, not me..."
"You know better," Gibson said from the doorway. She looked up at him and saw him leaning casually against the wall, arms folded across his chest. He was smirking at her, regarding her with an icy coolness.
"Gibson?" she asked, confusion in her bloodshot blue eyes.
"It's me," he replied. He took a step towards her. "Honestly, I always knew you'd turn out like this."
She shook her head. "Gibson...this isn't you...."
He laughed. "Probably not." He bent over her and touched her face. She flinched away. He laughed. "But you're not much anymore now are you Killer?"
She looked up at him, searching his eyes for any sign of humanity, any sign of the boy that she'd grown up with. All she saw with hatred. She lowered her eyes away from him.
"Look at me when I speak to you. You got me killed, it's the very least you can do," a voice snapped from above her. She paled as she recognized the speaker. She looked up and into his dark eyes, vaguely aware that Gibson had suddenly vanished.
"Reese," she mumbled. She touched her hands to her head and shook it desperately, quite aware that she was going mad and quite conscious of the fact that she could do very little if anything to stop it.
He smiled at her but it was a cruel twisted thing. As he bent closer to her she could see that his eyes were blank and vacant. By the time he touched her she could smell the rancid stench of death about him. "You know they got a hell of a room all set up downstairs for you little Huntress."
"It's that kind of like you know heaven has a hell of a band?" she rasped out, trying desperately to be defiant and failing miserably. Her resolve didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Something like that," he grinned. He leaned towards her and pressed his mouth to hers. She gasped, eyes wide in horror.
"Helena, what are you doing?" Barbara said from behind her. She blinked, realizing that Reese had disappeared just as Gibson had before him. She spun towards her mentors' voice.
"Barbara," she stammered. She pushed herself to her feet and inched closer to the redhead who was curiously standing on her own two feet.
"Always thinking about yourself aren't you? Who cares if Reese died. You had it coming. You took something from me. Payback's a bitch, huh?"
Helena shook her head. "No," she whispered feebly.
"Yes," Dinah said from her side. "What did you expect?"
"No," Helena said, looking at the blonde. She narrowed her eyes dangerously. "No!" Standing up she rushed at the touch telepath, fully intending to knock her to the ground.
She hit the wall instead.
She dropped her head into her arms. The emptiness of the room echoed around her. There was no one there and there was no one coming to rescue her.
It was over.
She was lost.
To hell with it then.
Let it come.
Let is all just come.
*****
Barbara slid her body against the rocks and gazed down towards the bunker. She could see the entrance hatch a few feet away. She steeled her lithe frame, preparing herself for battle with whoever might be holding Helena.
She'd watched Harley drive away with someone thirty minutes earlier which meant that whoever was guarding her young protégé was likely well armed. Barbara clutches at her escrima sticks.
"Let's go," she muttered to herself. *****
He slid into the room, dragging his feet as he moved. He saw her laying on the floor, curled into a tight ball. He could smell her fear and desperation. It was emanating from her in frantic waves. He moved over her and pressed his nose up against her, sniffing her as a dog would. He nudged her a couple times but she didn't move. Just the same, she didn't appear to be unconscious so much as unresponsive.
Not a problem.
He bent back over and her pressed her mouth against the gauze bandage on her neck. He licked it twice and then tried to yank at it with his teeth. He felt her stir beneath him and an alarm went off in his head.
His hunger demanded that he stay and feed.
He licked his lips and leaned down towards her again, intending to re-open her wound.
Her eyes snapped open and she spun quickly, punching him hard in the face. The chains around her hands jingled as she delivered a second vicious smash to his jaw. He howled in pain and dropped backwards, eyes wide in shock and fear.
Before he could think of what to do, she charged him, slamming her body into his. Her eyes dilated into hard blue slits and she growled at him, her more primal instincts overtaking her mind. More out of instinct than reason, she lifted his arms over him and used the chains on her hands to slam him back against her chest. He whimpered and cried out, thrashing for air.
She wrapped the chains tightly around his throat and began to squeeze, a strange smile appearing on her lips. It was almost macabre really. He struggled, trying to use his larger body to shove her away but she held on, fighting him off with her own superior strength. They both slammed to the ground hard. She wrapped her legs around his body and jerked him towards her. The only thing she could hear in her mind was the desperate order to keep pulling. Her life or his.
"Jimmy," Alushe gasped.
She blinked and for a moment there was an opening in the shadows of her brain. That faded quickly enough however and she jerked back hard once more. He gasped and collapsed, his body still.
She touched his skin, feeling for any movement. Immediately she knew the truth. He was dead.
She had killed him.
Killer indeed.
She pulled her hands free of him; ignorant of the blood that now soaked the chains she was wearing. She looked around frantically, her body and mind refusing to move at the same speed. She noticed that the door to the cell was open.
"I knew it was in you."
"You've always been a killer."
"I don't know you."
She slammed her hand hard against the ground, rage overtaking her. Eyes still hard lines of fury, she stood up and moved towards the door, suddenly understanding that it was open and that meant escape.
Helena slid out into the cold hallway, feeling the cement beneath her bare feet. She wrapped the chains around her palms in order to reinforce her strength, fully prepared to kill anyone who would step in her way.
She glanced around and took in her surroundings. A voice in the back of her mind tried to tell her that she was in some kind of bunker but she ignored it, not caring where she was only that she get out and away.
A dim light in the corridor flashed and she blinked, violently assaulted by the pale light. She smashed her fists against the bulb and it went dark. She sighed in relief and continued moving.
She heard a door close somewhere nearby. She laughed, the madness gripping her. She tensed her body, preparing for the fight. Readying herself to kill once more.
It was her only chance for escape. She feared that before too much longer she'd have no sense of time or place and then all would be lost.
Kill or be killed really.
Attack and fight.
She wrapped the chains around her hands and smiled, a strange, horrific and predatory thing.
*****
Barbara slid down the corridor, apprehension weighing down her steps. She glanced anxiously around, thankful for the relative quiet of the bunker. There had been three large men guarding the entrance but they had all been dispatched with relative ease.
She allowed her mind to wander a bit as she walked down the hallway. Helena was in very serious danger. The disease running rampant through her blood was destroying her immune system and probably her mind. Without some kind of treatment, she had no chance at survival.
Barbara shook her head, her lips tight in an expression of frustration. She wasn't about to just let go of the young girl who had for so long been her lifeline.
She turned a corner and stopped, green eyes going wide. "Helena," she gasped, glancing across at the disheveled brunette girl who was standing not twenty feet from her.
Helena's mouth lifted into a sneer and she growled, looking more animal than girl. Her body was arched in a predatory fashion and she looked ready to charge. Barbara took note of the way Helena was holding the strangely bloodied chains around her hands.
She looked over her young charge, shocked by what she saw. Her skin was yellow and parched, her hair dirty and stringy. Her clothes were drenched with sweat and sticking to her shaking frame. The look on her face was one of pure stark madness and the black circles under her eyes confirmed that she probably hadn't slept in days.
"Helena, it's me."
The brunette appeared not to hear her. She slid instead into a defensive stance and growled again, the sound echoing in the hallway.
"Helena, it's me, Barbara...come on, you know me."
"Wanna play," the girl responded, her voice little more than a hoarse whisper. Just the same. Barbara knew better than to underestimate her young charge. There was something lost and vacant there. Desperate and afraid.
For whatever reason, Helena saw her as an enemy.
"I don't want to fight you, Hel," Barbara protested, putting her hands up to show that she wasn't a threat.
"That's too bad," Helena replied, stepping towards her mentor. "Because I want to kill you."
"No you don't," Barbara said, shaking her head. "It's not you. Helena please, look at me....look at me..."
She took a step towards Helena and grabbed the girls' chin, jerking it upwards. Before she could get too far Helena slapped her away, scratching her cheek in the motion. Barbara hissed in pain but immediately refocused herself.
"Helena..."
"Get out of my way," the girl growled, taking a step towards her mentor's side.
"I came here to help you and I'm not leaving without you," Barbara said simply. "You know me. Barbara...."
Helena snapped her eyes up towards the redhead. "You touch her and I'll rip your fucking throat out."
Barbara chuckled. "Well that's good to know." She frowned. "I think." Then she shook her head. "Hel, it is me..."
Helena put her head down and charged forward, slamming hard into Barbara's chest. The redhead grunted and slapped out, knocking Helena back and away. She placed one of the sticks in Helena's path and cracked it hard against the brunette's knee. The girl cried out but jerked forward again.
Barbara closed her eyes, praying for strength. "Helena," she whispered, looking up at her young charge. "I'm sorry."
And then she reached out and slammed the stick against Helena's jaw, using as much strength as she dare muster. She heard a loud crack and then Helena whimpered and crumbled, pressing her wounded face into her arms.
Barbara bent down over Helena and lifted her up into her arms. She reached down into the bag she'd been carrying and removed a syringe. She flicked the tip off and then injected it into Helena's neck. The girl looked up at her, pain in her blue eyes. "Barbara...."
"Shh baby." Barbara replied. "I've got you now."
*****
"Dinah?"
The blonde blinked and stood up abruptly, knocking over a mug of apple cider in her haste. She cursed mildly, watching the spreading liquid seep into the creases of her math book.
She reached over and grabbed the microphone. "Oracle?"
"I'm here," the redhead grunted across the open line.
"Helena?"
"I...I've got her..."
"Are you okay? Do you need backup?"
"No," Barbara said quickly. "I've got her in the Hummer now. We're on our way back."
"Good," Dinah said softly. She glanced down at her hands and took a deep breath. "What the hell were you thinking going in there by yourself."
"Dinah, we didn't have time..."
"You got pissed at me for going into Reese's mind and then you walk right into Harley's lair..."
"Can this wait?" Barbara answered. Dinah heard the sound of an engine turning over.
"For now," Dinah said softly. "How's Helena?"
"Not good. Tell Alfred to get my lab set up. We're coming in."
*****
He pressed his eyes shut tightly, trying to stop the pain in his muscles. He wished for death but knew that it wasn't coming. She wasn't going to let him go. On some days he knew who his tormentor was and he even thought that maybe he could defeat her but those daydreams always washed away in the furious hunger of his illness.
Like now. God now.
He needed to feed.
He staggered to his feet and pushed a hand against the wall. He dropped his head down and gazed at the gray cement floor. His bare feet slid coolly along the surface. It was almost a relief but that passed quickly as the ache in his bones intensified.
As he moved towards the door to his room, a name went through his mind.
Jimmy.
He wondered idly who it belonged to.
Hardly mattered.
All that did was the pain. He needed to stop it. Needed to feed.
Needed her.
Whoever she was, she was intensely powerful and her blood was like a flush of cool ice water into his veins. Just thinking about her was like balm to his soul. That was of course assuming he still had one. Most of the time he wasn't so sure. He hardly knew what he was anymore. Man. Monster. Dog. All of it?
No matter.
He needed her.
His eyes fogged over as the pain wracked his limbs. The hunger grew and as it did all thoughts of Jimmy and whatever that had once meant to him faded away.
He needed her. Had to taste her.
Had to feed.
Had to live.
*****
"Stand up."
"Move."
"Fight."
"You're a killer..."
"You betrayed her..."
"Fight."
"Stay strong."
"It's inside of you..."
"Fight."
"Stay strong."
"Give in..."
"Let go..."
"Hold on."
The voices twisted in her mind, fighting for dominance and screaming at her to listen to them. They demanded an audience and rejected her whimpers of protest. She pressed her hands over her ears and grunted in pain.
She shoved her cheek closer to the cold ground, fighting for relief. The fever ravaging her body was beginning to take its toll on her body. She could feel the cold sweat drenching her skin but it did little to soothe the fiery heat.
She pressed her eyes closed; once again praying for sleep that she knew wasn't coming. Right now she'd settle for silence from the voices that wouldn't stop screaming at her.
"Helena."
"Stand up."
"Do you know why you betrayed her?"
"Fight..."
"It wasn't your fault..."
"You are a killer."
"Kill."
"I'm not," she whispered, her voice hoarse with pain. She curled her body into a ball, listening to the chains clink as she moved. "I didn't kill him," she protested. "Harley killed Wade, not me..."
"You know better," Gibson said from the doorway. She looked up at him and saw him leaning casually against the wall, arms folded across his chest. He was smirking at her, regarding her with an icy coolness.
"Gibson?" she asked, confusion in her bloodshot blue eyes.
"It's me," he replied. He took a step towards her. "Honestly, I always knew you'd turn out like this."
She shook her head. "Gibson...this isn't you...."
He laughed. "Probably not." He bent over her and touched her face. She flinched away. He laughed. "But you're not much anymore now are you Killer?"
She looked up at him, searching his eyes for any sign of humanity, any sign of the boy that she'd grown up with. All she saw with hatred. She lowered her eyes away from him.
"Look at me when I speak to you. You got me killed, it's the very least you can do," a voice snapped from above her. She paled as she recognized the speaker. She looked up and into his dark eyes, vaguely aware that Gibson had suddenly vanished.
"Reese," she mumbled. She touched her hands to her head and shook it desperately, quite aware that she was going mad and quite conscious of the fact that she could do very little if anything to stop it.
He smiled at her but it was a cruel twisted thing. As he bent closer to her she could see that his eyes were blank and vacant. By the time he touched her she could smell the rancid stench of death about him. "You know they got a hell of a room all set up downstairs for you little Huntress."
"It's that kind of like you know heaven has a hell of a band?" she rasped out, trying desperately to be defiant and failing miserably. Her resolve didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Something like that," he grinned. He leaned towards her and pressed his mouth to hers. She gasped, eyes wide in horror.
"Helena, what are you doing?" Barbara said from behind her. She blinked, realizing that Reese had disappeared just as Gibson had before him. She spun towards her mentors' voice.
"Barbara," she stammered. She pushed herself to her feet and inched closer to the redhead who was curiously standing on her own two feet.
"Always thinking about yourself aren't you? Who cares if Reese died. You had it coming. You took something from me. Payback's a bitch, huh?"
Helena shook her head. "No," she whispered feebly.
"Yes," Dinah said from her side. "What did you expect?"
"No," Helena said, looking at the blonde. She narrowed her eyes dangerously. "No!" Standing up she rushed at the touch telepath, fully intending to knock her to the ground.
She hit the wall instead.
She dropped her head into her arms. The emptiness of the room echoed around her. There was no one there and there was no one coming to rescue her.
It was over.
She was lost.
To hell with it then.
Let it come.
Let is all just come.
*****
Barbara slid her body against the rocks and gazed down towards the bunker. She could see the entrance hatch a few feet away. She steeled her lithe frame, preparing herself for battle with whoever might be holding Helena.
She'd watched Harley drive away with someone thirty minutes earlier which meant that whoever was guarding her young protégé was likely well armed. Barbara clutches at her escrima sticks.
"Let's go," she muttered to herself. *****
He slid into the room, dragging his feet as he moved. He saw her laying on the floor, curled into a tight ball. He could smell her fear and desperation. It was emanating from her in frantic waves. He moved over her and pressed his nose up against her, sniffing her as a dog would. He nudged her a couple times but she didn't move. Just the same, she didn't appear to be unconscious so much as unresponsive.
Not a problem.
He bent back over and her pressed her mouth against the gauze bandage on her neck. He licked it twice and then tried to yank at it with his teeth. He felt her stir beneath him and an alarm went off in his head.
His hunger demanded that he stay and feed.
He licked his lips and leaned down towards her again, intending to re-open her wound.
Her eyes snapped open and she spun quickly, punching him hard in the face. The chains around her hands jingled as she delivered a second vicious smash to his jaw. He howled in pain and dropped backwards, eyes wide in shock and fear.
Before he could think of what to do, she charged him, slamming her body into his. Her eyes dilated into hard blue slits and she growled at him, her more primal instincts overtaking her mind. More out of instinct than reason, she lifted his arms over him and used the chains on her hands to slam him back against her chest. He whimpered and cried out, thrashing for air.
She wrapped the chains tightly around his throat and began to squeeze, a strange smile appearing on her lips. It was almost macabre really. He struggled, trying to use his larger body to shove her away but she held on, fighting him off with her own superior strength. They both slammed to the ground hard. She wrapped her legs around his body and jerked him towards her. The only thing she could hear in her mind was the desperate order to keep pulling. Her life or his.
"Jimmy," Alushe gasped.
She blinked and for a moment there was an opening in the shadows of her brain. That faded quickly enough however and she jerked back hard once more. He gasped and collapsed, his body still.
She touched his skin, feeling for any movement. Immediately she knew the truth. He was dead.
She had killed him.
Killer indeed.
She pulled her hands free of him; ignorant of the blood that now soaked the chains she was wearing. She looked around frantically, her body and mind refusing to move at the same speed. She noticed that the door to the cell was open.
"I knew it was in you."
"You've always been a killer."
"I don't know you."
She slammed her hand hard against the ground, rage overtaking her. Eyes still hard lines of fury, she stood up and moved towards the door, suddenly understanding that it was open and that meant escape.
Helena slid out into the cold hallway, feeling the cement beneath her bare feet. She wrapped the chains around her palms in order to reinforce her strength, fully prepared to kill anyone who would step in her way.
She glanced around and took in her surroundings. A voice in the back of her mind tried to tell her that she was in some kind of bunker but she ignored it, not caring where she was only that she get out and away.
A dim light in the corridor flashed and she blinked, violently assaulted by the pale light. She smashed her fists against the bulb and it went dark. She sighed in relief and continued moving.
She heard a door close somewhere nearby. She laughed, the madness gripping her. She tensed her body, preparing for the fight. Readying herself to kill once more.
It was her only chance for escape. She feared that before too much longer she'd have no sense of time or place and then all would be lost.
Kill or be killed really.
Attack and fight.
She wrapped the chains around her hands and smiled, a strange, horrific and predatory thing.
*****
Barbara slid down the corridor, apprehension weighing down her steps. She glanced anxiously around, thankful for the relative quiet of the bunker. There had been three large men guarding the entrance but they had all been dispatched with relative ease.
She allowed her mind to wander a bit as she walked down the hallway. Helena was in very serious danger. The disease running rampant through her blood was destroying her immune system and probably her mind. Without some kind of treatment, she had no chance at survival.
Barbara shook her head, her lips tight in an expression of frustration. She wasn't about to just let go of the young girl who had for so long been her lifeline.
She turned a corner and stopped, green eyes going wide. "Helena," she gasped, glancing across at the disheveled brunette girl who was standing not twenty feet from her.
Helena's mouth lifted into a sneer and she growled, looking more animal than girl. Her body was arched in a predatory fashion and she looked ready to charge. Barbara took note of the way Helena was holding the strangely bloodied chains around her hands.
She looked over her young charge, shocked by what she saw. Her skin was yellow and parched, her hair dirty and stringy. Her clothes were drenched with sweat and sticking to her shaking frame. The look on her face was one of pure stark madness and the black circles under her eyes confirmed that she probably hadn't slept in days.
"Helena, it's me."
The brunette appeared not to hear her. She slid instead into a defensive stance and growled again, the sound echoing in the hallway.
"Helena, it's me, Barbara...come on, you know me."
"Wanna play," the girl responded, her voice little more than a hoarse whisper. Just the same. Barbara knew better than to underestimate her young charge. There was something lost and vacant there. Desperate and afraid.
For whatever reason, Helena saw her as an enemy.
"I don't want to fight you, Hel," Barbara protested, putting her hands up to show that she wasn't a threat.
"That's too bad," Helena replied, stepping towards her mentor. "Because I want to kill you."
"No you don't," Barbara said, shaking her head. "It's not you. Helena please, look at me....look at me..."
She took a step towards Helena and grabbed the girls' chin, jerking it upwards. Before she could get too far Helena slapped her away, scratching her cheek in the motion. Barbara hissed in pain but immediately refocused herself.
"Helena..."
"Get out of my way," the girl growled, taking a step towards her mentor's side.
"I came here to help you and I'm not leaving without you," Barbara said simply. "You know me. Barbara...."
Helena snapped her eyes up towards the redhead. "You touch her and I'll rip your fucking throat out."
Barbara chuckled. "Well that's good to know." She frowned. "I think." Then she shook her head. "Hel, it is me..."
Helena put her head down and charged forward, slamming hard into Barbara's chest. The redhead grunted and slapped out, knocking Helena back and away. She placed one of the sticks in Helena's path and cracked it hard against the brunette's knee. The girl cried out but jerked forward again.
Barbara closed her eyes, praying for strength. "Helena," she whispered, looking up at her young charge. "I'm sorry."
And then she reached out and slammed the stick against Helena's jaw, using as much strength as she dare muster. She heard a loud crack and then Helena whimpered and crumbled, pressing her wounded face into her arms.
Barbara bent down over Helena and lifted her up into her arms. She reached down into the bag she'd been carrying and removed a syringe. She flicked the tip off and then injected it into Helena's neck. The girl looked up at her, pain in her blue eyes. "Barbara...."
"Shh baby." Barbara replied. "I've got you now."
*****
"Dinah?"
The blonde blinked and stood up abruptly, knocking over a mug of apple cider in her haste. She cursed mildly, watching the spreading liquid seep into the creases of her math book.
She reached over and grabbed the microphone. "Oracle?"
"I'm here," the redhead grunted across the open line.
"Helena?"
"I...I've got her..."
"Are you okay? Do you need backup?"
"No," Barbara said quickly. "I've got her in the Hummer now. We're on our way back."
"Good," Dinah said softly. She glanced down at her hands and took a deep breath. "What the hell were you thinking going in there by yourself."
"Dinah, we didn't have time..."
"You got pissed at me for going into Reese's mind and then you walk right into Harley's lair..."
"Can this wait?" Barbara answered. Dinah heard the sound of an engine turning over.
"For now," Dinah said softly. "How's Helena?"
"Not good. Tell Alfred to get my lab set up. We're coming in."
*****