Amidst all the chaos, the terror and the disarray, the once snoozing figure moaned as her eyes fluttered, feeling the soft mattress underneath her body in contrast to the metallic chest she fell against before she lost consciousness. She wasn't sure how long she was out for, felt like a couple days at least, but the words of Scarecrow's plan resonated in her mind of creating the reality of fear on Halloween.
The first thing she felt was the change of clothes, her battle suit that the Arkham Knight personally ordered to construct feeling like a warm, third skin on her body. The second was the uncomfortable IV catheter in her hand that she simply pulled out once she swung her legs off the mattress. The third was...loneliness, her room eerily quiet and empty of Breaker and Rex. They probably moved to HQ to avoid being affected by the fear toxin, and Alias flicked her hair back as the chemical agent in the room barely made her fearful. The stormy look in her eyes was a sign that she already faced her fears, and that she had no reason to be afraid. Even of herself.
As she was about to leave her bed, her senses picked up beeping and she looked at the source, a tracking device sitting on her bedside with a little note beside it. On that same bedside rested a digital clock and her earpiece, and she widened her eyes at the time. It was 9:42. She had only been sleeping for more than an hour. Alias fiddled with the earpiece and snatched the tracking device off the bedside, finding herself reading the note rather than using the small electronic. The Meta was slightly confused, as the side she read only said her name in cursive handwriting, but when she turned it over she had finally realised her mistake.
"We promised..." She whispered aloud, frustration and sorrow rising up her throat. "Remember? Knight...what are you..." She was so entranced by him, the Arkham Knight, that his goals became hers but that wasn't it. She was entranced by him because...the note had fallen onto her lush carpet rug, a deep blush spreading against her freckled cheeks; a reason too personal, too intimate for even her to handle. When she brought the misty haze to her eyes, Alias marched to her balcony doors and slammed them open with enough force to smash the glass, her glowing eyes taking in the City of Fear that had now become a reality. The yellow-brown cloud cloaked Gotham City in layers of terror and dread, affecting those with severe psychological trauma the longer they were enveloped in it and blurring their fears with their conscious mind. From here she could hear the screaming, the fighting, the crying. The fear that was happening.
Scarecrow actually did it.
He managed to bring the city to its knees, force it into submission and relay its punishment back. She wanted to smile at the boss' success but her mind was on other things, and her hands let off an icy aura before a glacier launched her high into the air. The Meta landed silently on a rooftop and cover-rolled to cushion the force, already recovering and streaking across to the next rooftop. She traversed across the city with ease, using her ice as boosters to other buildings and when she made it to the bridge connecting to Bleake Island, she created one last ice thruster to rocket her over the raised bridges and grunted when she landed in a squat.
She brought a hand to the earpiece as the connection had restored and overheard a conversation with Scarecrow and...him. "The Cloudburst won't withstand another strike. Retreat."
"No," the Arkham Knight replied and Alias began darting through the streets of Bleake, the tracker she hooked onto her utility thigh belt responding to her nearing proximity. "This is to the end." As deviant and stubborn as he was, he sounded wounded having to face the man that left him behind, confront Batman even after what he did to him, and she furrowed her brows in anguished realisation. Although the mist provided her a limitless boost, the toxin had greatly reduced her capabilities and she had collapsed against the wall when she turned the corner that led to a small flight of stairs. Even with her skin and hair starting to burn as she overworked her muscles, Alias knew she couldn't stop and used the wall as support as she staggered up the steps.
"You don't deserve friends. You don't deserve anyone!"
The Meta Mercenary dropped to her hands and knees, her body beginning to shut down on her as the toxin was starting to overwhelm her, her skin fizzing and burning in reaction to the sense overload. "No...I...have to...get to him..." She gasped, heaving herself off the cracked concrete with one push and wobbled for a moment, feeling the misty haze shatter her face and her hands came up.
"This ends now!"
"I have to...get...Knight..." Tracing the crack down her cheek with a thumb, she removed her hands and gained enough willpower to move her legs and arms as she jogged through a set of shops and found herself dodging a speeding black vehicle. Once her composure was regained, she felt the ground tremble under her feet as a tank rolled past her in the hunt for that black vehicle, images flashing into her mind of the same certain tank.
Knight.
Alias rushed over to the heavy armour without thinking, throwing the tracking device onto the floor in a bout of relief, and was shoved back a step as the round that struck the tank let out a shockwave, the Cloudburst that was mounted on top starting to overheat and fry the circuitry. "Knight...!" She called his name when the hatch flipped open, the Arkham Knight clambering out desperately before his body fell limp, and, when she was sure Batman left his battalion-of-a-car to 'rescue' the Knight, pushed herself to summon ice under her feet with another crack across her nose the result of her persistence. It took a moment before Alias was fired skyward at the right time but the blast from the exploding tank affected her trajectory and threw her onto the rooftop of an abandoned shop/apartment, at a high enough altitude the toxin wasn't capable of reaching.
Her body was screaming out to her, the smell of burning flesh bringing a nauseous feeling to her stomach but she got up almost instantly, leaping the gap that separated her rooftop from his and rushed clumsily to his side. "Knight? Knight! Answer me!" She hooked her hand under the nape of his neck and held a hand to his chest, shaking his head gently while feeling for his heat signature by sliding her palm on top of his chestplate. At first, she couldn't sense anything and the need to wake him up became more desperate but she was too focused on listening to the sound of his voice to feel a gloved hand encircle around her wrist.
The Arkham Knight groaned, his hand moving up her arm to grab her shoulder, and Alias tried for a smile but was distracted by Batman punching nothing but thin air under him as if he pinned an invisible person and was serving blows to the face. And that was when she saw it, the fear in his lime green eyes; Batman had nothing to be scared of, but Joker's death must've affected him so much that she could see the psychotic bastard in him. "We're getting out of here. Now."
Fading in and out of reality, the Arkham Knight didn't respond to her as she pulled him into a sitting position and hooked his arm over her shoulder, managing to get him onto his feet while his weight was mostly pressed against her. "You're crazy, you know that...exposing yourself to Crane's toxin..." Her face had cracked once again, splintering the ones that had already surfaced into several paths along her jawline, left eye and lips. She hissed as the searing pain grew worse underneath her skin but merely laughed it off as they neared the edge of the rooftop. She wasn't going to let her limitations get the best of her, she didn't care if she died trying to get him back to HQ. She knew he would've done the same for her.
Her mind sent clear messages of conjuring an icy pathway but her body didn't respond as she was lifted off the floor and almost kicked out of reflex, but the arm that curled around her waist calmed her down and brought a rosy tint to her cheeks. "Don't push yourself," he told her softly, bringing out the grappling hook from his utility belt and aiming it at a taller structure. "You didn't have to come, y'know."
"You...wouldn't have left me..." She admitted shyly, holding onto his torso out of safety as she felt gravity wanting to overcome them. "Neither will I."
"You're full of surprises, Alias."
"I...I feel...I-I don't know..."
"You better not be passing out on me. We're too close."
"I'll try not to...hey, Knight...thank you...for not shooting me."
He chuckled once, "Says the merc with her mark on me."
"You're right," she smiled. "I'm sorry, Knight, for―"
"Jason...it's Jason."
"Jason, huh..." Alias cooed weakly, the Arkham Knight moving her off his shoulder and into his arms when he landed on an apartment complex that homed a chopper, and she let her eyes trail upward to his glowing, digital visor before cupping his angular yet streamlined face. She chuckled, the same flowery sound as when they first encountered each other; a Meta Mercenary that would kill without hesitation and the Arkham Knight that would've killed her without hesitation. To be honest, the thought of him holding Alias like this, knowing how close they were in terms of relationships, never occurred to him. The Knight had the concept of Metas being somewhat invincible, but there's this frozen maiden who would literally crack when she had reached her limit but kept forcing her hand.
The Knight used his left hand to open the door on the passenger side of the aerial vehicle, cautiously placing her in the seat just in case his sudden movements caused her skin to fracture, and, with a reluctant hand, traced his thumb over the jagged line that stretched from her left brow bone to her mildly sheen lips. He was taken aback when she held onto his hand and leaned into his touch, her eyes kept shut with the misty blue haze burning against them due to the cracks impairing her standard vision. "No, it's...it's not your fault, Jason..." She spoke in a hush tone, concentrating on how carefully he touched her face and felt guilt radiate off him. "I chose to come back for you...remember?"
"But why? Why did you come all this way for me? I'm not worth your time, Alias, or your life."
"I...have my reasons..." The Knight dropped his head for a moment as he moved his hand away from Alias's splintering face, slamming the door shut and jogging around to the pilot seat, and flicked on and pressed several switches and buttons that consequently brought the chopper to life. She sunk into her seat as the comfort brought on sudden tiredness, a faint smile on that broken face as she knew she didn't have to worry anymore, didn't have to keep her guard raised almost all the time. Just basking in his presence, Jason's presence, was enough to tell her that she was going to be okay, that her life was a gift and not a curse. She didn't have to hide her broken pieces anymore.
I have reason enough for you to be my purpose of living; I hope that's reason enough to keep you alive.
