YIN AND YANG
CHAPTER 2:
THAWED
If there was a single supercriminal in Gotham that Harry sympathised with more than anyone else, it was Doctor Victor Fries, better known by his sobriquet of Mr Freeze. For a man claiming to have a heart as cold as ice, he was actually driven by passion and compassion, an obsession born out of love. It was one of the only reasons Harry was helping him, or at least Luna was. She was better at potions than he was.
Freeze, reluctantly, assented to having his wife thawed. He was paranoid that this was some sort of trick, but in truth, his desperation to cure Nora had driven him to reluctantly accept their help. Harry just hoped that Nora could overlook blue skin and literally cold blood.
As Freeze gingerly decanted Nora, allowing the beautiful woman to choke up the stasis liquid that had kept her frozen, Luna toyed with the potion flask pensively. Harry was grateful that Freeze kept the visor of his cryosuit open, so that that creepy vocoder wasn't turning his voice into something like a Cyberman(1). "Are you sure this will work?" Freeze asked.
"Not absolutely," Harry said. "The potion works seven times out of ten with this disease. We told you the odds, Victor."
"Indeed. I am glad you only offer possibilities rather than certainties. Until you came along, all I knew was the certainty of her demise outside of stasis, and the fact that it is only a possibility that it will work makes it more real than something supposedly guaranteed," Freeze said. "But how will you know that it works?"
"After an hour, I'll cast the relevant charm," Luna said. "If it doesn't work…well, you can put Nora back in."
Nora Fries' eyes flickered open. She looked up at her husband, and Harry noted that she didn't seem surprised. "Victor…" she murmured.
"Nora…" Freeze said quietly. "Please, drink this potion."
Luna gently pressed the bottle into Nora's hands, and the woman drank it, grimacing as she did so. "What is this?"
"You had Squib Emergent Chorea Syndrome," Luna said quietly. "It's a magical disease. Were you aware that you were a Squib?"
After a moment, Nora nodded. "My mother was a Squib, while my father was a No-Maj, what you call a Muggle."
"You knew about the Magical World, Nora?" Freeze asked.
"Only a little. My mother was disowned by her family. She only told me so much." Nora blinked, and looked at Harry and Luna. "So, you two are from Magical Britain?"
"A while. Call me Yang, and this is my wife, Yin," Harry said. They were, after all, still in costume.
Nora nodded, sitting up gingerly. "I've never heard of Squib Emergent Chorea Syndrome," she said.
"Considering it only affects Squibs, most don't bother to treat it," Harry said. "Squibs still have the networks for channelling magic, and the syndrome is what happens when certain substances are in the blood, usually innocuous stuff. The potion should clean up your system. We hope."
Nora nodded again. "Thank you, all the same." Her eyes flickered over to Freeze. "Victor…even when I was in stasis…I was…aware. Barely, like it was a dream…but I could hear you speaking to me. And others. Like that odious man Boyle…or the Batman. Were they real?"
"Sadly, yes. The Batman may seem like myth, but he is very real. Even as he hinders me, he has sympathy for our plight."
"And…you did all that…for me? Robbed places, and hurt people?" Nora closed her eyes. "Victor…this isn't like you. I know that isn't the man I married. Please tell me he's still in there, somewhere."
After a moment, Freeze said, "I hope he is still in there, in the monster you see. I'm…sorry you have seen what I have become, Nora. How far I've fallen."
There was a pause, before Nora said, "Victor…you can climb back to where you were. I know you can. And I will be there with you, pulling you up. I only ask, Victor, that you stop committing these crimes in my name."
"For you, anything." Freeze then turned to Harry and Luna. "I am truly grateful to you two. You have managed what no other has succeeded, and not for want of trying. I wish I had administered the genetic testing."
"You've got Nora back, that's what counts," Harry said. "At least you're not like some of these idiots running around in costumes with powers and/or a complete disregard for human life. You can be rehabilitated, unlike most of them."
"You seem to speak from experience," Freeze remarked.
"Let's just say that someone tried to kill me when I was only one. And his followers didn't stop, even after he was dead for good. He made the Joker look petty by comparison."
In his cell at Arkham Asylum, the Joker sneezed twice. "Bah, someone's talking smack about me behind my back! If I ever find him, I'll give him something to smile about!"
Alfred Pennyworth was many things. He had been a butler, a soldier (in the special forces), and was now partially a quartermaster to his charge, surrogate child, and now a vigilante with disturbing self-destructive tendencies. The older man liked to think that he was the tether that kept Bruce Wayne, AKA the Batman, grounded. It was nearly dying thanks to Bane attacking him some years ago that had Bruce realising he needed to consider having allies.
Even so, Bruce's obsession with vigilantism was still disturbing. Then again, so was this latest development. "Am I right in hearing that Barbara considers the latest vigilantes in town to be Harry Potter and his wife?"
They were in the Batcave, the Batman's base of operations beneath the Wayne Manor. Bruce was in costume, but without the cowl and cape. He was turning to face Alfred, curious and maybe suspicious. "You know of them?"
"I was a Squib, Master Bruce. I kept abreast of events in that world."
"And you never told me?" Bruce demanded.
"My family was not something I wished to talk about, Master Bruce. The Pennyworths were an obscure Pureblood line that is almost extinct. Almost as vicious as the Blacks or the Malfoys were in their heyday. They cast me out with little to my name but my name. Squibs are an embarrassment in any Pureblood family, especially in Europe and the Americas. That being said, I kept abreast of affairs in Britain. Their press is, even at its best, appalling yellow journalism that puts many tabloids to shame. But one can glean nuggets of truth. I'm surprised that Mr Potter didn't become a vigilante in Magical Britain rather than here. Even now, with Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt in charge, corruption and nepotism are rife, albeit at reduced levels. During Minister Fudge's reign, as well as that of Minister Bagnold's, corruption was almost on a par with Gotham shortly before you became Batman."
"Do you have anything to add? Barbara told me much about them, but a new perspective would be welcome," Bruce said.
"Asking for a second opinion, Master Bruce? Dear me, I think you may need a doctor. On a more serious note, Harry Potter is, like you, heir to a fortune. Said fortune was partly depleted during Voldemort's first war, as James Potter apparently funded much of the Order of the Phoenix, which was the name given to Dumbledore's vigilante group acting against Voldemort. He is something of a recluse, hating his fame. His choice of wife was surprising: Luna Lovegood's father was the wizard equivalent of a cryptozoologist, as well as the editor and publisher of a home-made magazine called The Quibbler. I only read one issue, it was full of conspiracy theories and the like that are, for the most part, utterly laughable. She is a known eccentric."
"She's a relative of Harleen Quinzel. Maybe it runs in the family. She was certainly eccentric when I encountered her. Assuming it was her."
"You have a charity ball coming up. Have you tracked down Harry Potter and his wife?"
"Yes. That was easy. They're staying in an upmarket apartment," Bruce said. "Are you suggesting I invite them to it, try and feel them out?"
"To a degree, Master Bruce. It may be that Potter refuses. He is known to shun the limelight."
"True." Whereas Bruce Wayne, whenever he was meant to be seen in public, hogged it. The antics and escapades of Bruce Wayne, designed to make him a stupor mundi, was all artifice. All designed to distract anyone who might actually join the dots and realise he was Batman. Alfred even got the impression that sometimes, Bruce even enjoyed himself when he made an arse of himself. Like Bruce was once again the child who died along with his parents that dark night in crime alley, only for something darker, something primal, to be born in its place.
Alfred wondered what Bruce's parents would have thought. He had decided, long ago, that they would have had mixed feelings. They would have considered Bruce's vigilantism a behaviour even more self-destructive than hedonism, as well as acting like a thug, and yet, Alfred also thought they would be proud of his dedication to helping clean up Gotham City.
"Shall I send the invitation, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked.
"Yes. I may have to contact Zatanna as well before then. Even if only Lovegood can use Legilimency, it's still reason enough to bolster up my mental defences," Bruce said. "Assuming she hasn't winkled my secrets out of my head already. She makes me feel…uneasy."
"OH MY GOD, YANG, YOU'RE BETTER THAN MISTER J!"
Luna Lovegood (technically Luna Potter, but she wanted to keep her maiden name, and Harry, like many things involving his wife, agreed) had uttered many strange things in her life, Harry reflected as he pleasured her. Sadly, that one didn't even make the top twenty, even when it came to exclamations during sex. Though this situation, where Harry was having sex with her while she was half-wearing one of her cousin's red jester outfits (with a zipper on the front helping matters), was certainly one of the weirder occasions.
Nothing compared to that time they both ate Gillyweed and then went underwater for some fun while on a holiday to Australia, though. Weird as hell, but the sex was wonderful as well. It almost always was with Luna. She was called 'Lovegood' after all…
Several minutes later, they were lying in post-coital bliss on the bed in each other's arms, both now completely naked, with Luna's blonde hair in the habitual twin pigtails her cousin Harley wore whenever she wasn't wearing her jester outfit. It was disturbing how much they were alike, Harry thought, though Luna wasn't crazy in the way Bellatrix Lestrange was. Harley, however, was, albeit in a way that made her endearing rather than psychotic.
But Luna…well, she was Luna. Looney Lovegood. A girl, no, a woman now, who was unique. Harry wished sometimes he could emulate her more carefree nature. Then again, that was why they chose the concept of yin and yang as their cover identities as vigilantes. Luna was flighty, Harry was grounded. Luna was optimistic, Harry was cynical. Luna was more of a lateral thinker, while Harry, thanks partly to Hermione, was more logical. They complemented each other.
As it happened, Nora's treatment was successful. They had confirmed it. They needed to make sure she had a small supply of the potion on hand in case of a relapse, but Nora Fries was alive and well. And this meant that Mr Freeze, aka Victor Fries, would have far less motivation to commit crimes. That might prove to be the first step to Freeze rehabilitating himself.
The fact that Luna was currently formulating a potion that would allow Freeze to survive without his cryogenic suit would help matters. It didn't mean all of his problems were over: Freeze, even when young, had psychological issues. But unlike many supercriminals in Gotham, he was still capable of redemption.
Harry gently ran his fingers through his wife's hair. She all but purred, snuggling up to him even more than she was. As much as he was irritated about Luna dragging him here to start a new life, and her antics, he had to admit, this was fun. Vigilantism and sex. He was sure that, if people knew what he was doing, they'd think he was having a dream life.
And you know what? It was. True, it was dangerous, but he was used to that, and all those enchantments Luna and he made to their costumes reduced the risk significantly. As he told Batman, he was in it for helping people. So too was Luna. And they both did it for fun. Perverse, yes, but true.
Yes. This was a good life. Dangerous and deadly, but in the end, it was a good one. Helping people, and having fun doing it, with his love by his side. How many couples could say that?
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, there you have it. The Frieses are reunited, and Bruce Wayne is making plans. The next chapter will be the last chapter prior to the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum.
1. I noticed that the vocoder or whatever Maurice La Marche used in Batman: Arkham City sounds a lot like whatever Nicholas Briggs used for the Cybermen's voices in Doctor Who, at least up until Nightmare in Silver. It's a good effect.
