Reader's Note:

Attn: Though Batman Begins' original plot has Ra's' death being on a commuter train and the city being struck with fear toxin, that is not the case with Ignite. There have been some editorial plot changes due to the author's imagination (and impatience). This story-line will NOT end the way Batman Begins does. This will be the only alert. Thank you for your attention and I apologize for any inconvenience.


Chapter Eighteen

"…and the word is panic."

Scrambling up the side maintenance ladder of the water tower, I stood atop the structure and hurled myself across the gap between the water tower and the abandoned warehouse across from it. I hit the ground hard but took off towards the ledge before throwing myself to the ground and retrieving a small pair of binoc's from my belt. I raised them to my eyes as I watched the scene unfold. Ra's voice stung the air thickly, addressing the crowd as the PD men and women reached for their weapons and aimed directly at him.

Ra's put up his hands and chuckled. "Well, now that I have your attention," he motioned to his men to haul something off the back end of the truck. Something clicked closed behind me and I rolled onto my back, grabbing a shuriken and flicking my wrist back. Gordon put two hands in the air and ducked low, then lay beside me.

"Reacher." The buzzing in my ear intensified as he spoke. "You copy me?"

"Loud and clear," I whispered quietly, gesturing for Gordon to be quiet. "How's your end?"

"Not good. Ra's isn't anywhere. All I've found is more explosives and a van. I checked it out and it's clean—just some ammo that I tossed and a pair of keys I confiscated. You?"

"Oh, well, I have Ra's. He's here alright," I whispered quietly, rolling onto my stomach again and replacing the specks. "But no Crane and certainly no Rachel. He doesn't even have the vaporizer—" I cut myself off and nodded. "Oh, wait. There it is. It's huge." I dropped the binoculars from my eyes. "What's he up to?"

A door slammed-probably that of a van. I wrinkled my brow and glanced at Gordon. "Don't know. I'm guessing Crane's probably in the city; though those role's should be reversed. Why would Ra's stay in the Narrows and leave Crane in the city?"

I looked through the binoculars again to find Ra's' men ordering cops to the ground with AK-47's and Uzi's. I glanced over at Gordon and clapped my hand on his shoulder in a silent reassurance. He seemed to be fixated on a particular cop, a shaggy-haired woman with fair skin and a husky build. I thought hard for a minute until Batman interrupted me. "You still there?"

"I'm still here," I murmured, "What about the Traps?" I asked specutively. "Ra's wanted to attack Gotham from its heart—isn't the heart of Gotham the Narrows and the Traps? I mean, that's a pretty good sized army." I uttered quietly, watching as Ra's paraded himself in front of the cops and press.

Batman was quiet a minute and Gordon began to write something down on his palm. "It's not a bad idea. But how would they get everyone off the island? And why would they plague the water? It doesn't fit together-if they vaporize the water, everyone in Gotham gets the stuff. Why only start here?"

My mind drifted back to the night in the Asylum, where Rachel and I confronted Jonathan about his study and Falcone. He'd said that he only respected the power the mind had over the body, and how powerful it truly was, and how many people did not see life through his perspective. Jonathan feared the mind, but out of reverence. He also feared justice, and law…getting caught. I wrinkled my brow and thought about the expression on his face that night.

"…I only respect the power the mind has over the body…"

My mind turned over and over with the thought. "Body…body…body!" I exclaimed, pushing myself up from the rooftop and hustling towards the door Gordon had come through. I began pacing in the shadows. "Jonathan said he respects the power that the mind has over the body,"

"What does that have to do with—"

I shushed him, believe it or not and continued pacing. "His toxin affects the minds psychological capacity to produce hallucinations, visions and ultimately insanity. It affects the way we see our bodies, as in distortions, pain and/or mutilation. Also it affects our emotional stability…" I stopped and whipped a glance over my shoulder, in the direction of the slumbering Gotham. "Oh gosh. He's going to use the inmates!" I whispered harshly.

"The inmates?" Batman repeated. "What is he going to use the inmates for, Reacher?"

I pounded down the steps, uncaring that I was probably making far too much noise to be the element of surprise. "He's going to use the inmates' deluded minds with his toxin to take over Gotham from the heart!" I growled. Gordon followed after me. "We have to find Jonathan,"

Batman went silent over the line, and Gordon voiced next. "What's going on?"

She stopped and tossed him a look over his shoulder. "We have to stop Ra's," I tucked some hair behind my ear, grabbing my bow and opening an office door once I reached the main floor. I kept low and pressed against the wall right next to the window. "Once we get him, Crane follows suit."

"What are you talking about?" He lowered himself next to me.

I nodded once and peeked through the faded, moth-eaten curtain, "Jonathan is being controlled by that man," I gestured to Ra's with my head. "If we take him down we stop this whole fiasco. Crane will only release the toxin once he has the okay. He's too weak to do this himself."

"Do what?"

"Take over the city," I sighed, exasperated. "Crane wants to use the minds of the inmates-deluded with his toxin-to take over the entire city. At least, Ra's wants to use Crane as a pawn. He'll probably get rid of him as soon as the job's done."

"How does that involve the vaporizer?"

I shook my head. "I dunno. Ra's also has bombs planted all over the Narrows—and probably the Traps." Lifting the window slowly, making sure no one made any movement to compromise my position. Once everything was clear, I leaned slightly over the window, lifting my bow and grabbing an arrow with slow, careful finger. "He'll probably use the vaporizer once they're in the heart of the city, to add the finishing touch. I doubt he'd start here-it would be too difficult to get into the city with lunatics running around."

Gordon wrinkled his brow as I took careful aim. "It would also be harder to get respect from such lunatics."

I smiled at him and chuckled, pinching an eye closed and bringing up my aim carefully.

"Exactly."


THWACK!

The crowd gasped heavily and parted back a few steps, the plaster of the brick sprinkled down to the ground, silently; affirming. Ra's stared at it with confusion for only a brief instant before his goatee and mustache upturned with a slick and arousing grin. He looked up and snapped his attention to the direction of which the weapon had come.

It was vacant, the open window, hints of flittering curtains flowing on the breeze of what had been—or what was still—there moments ago. A half smile tickled his features and he pointed to the building with a gloved hand, placing his other on the hilt of his samurai sword. "Go. Don't let her out. Bring her to me. Alive." His commands were short, brisk and strong. Three men hurried to do his bidding, light on their feet as the infiltrated the building.

Then, turning on his heel, he gestured for some more of his men to move the vaporizer to another van, where it would be taken to the station platform in the Traps. The hefted it in carefully, a billion-dollar machine slowly vanishing into the black belly of the SWAT van, his men filing into the vacancy. The doors thudded closed and the tires squealed before the van lurched off in a cloud of exhaust.

Ra's made his way over to the brick wall, staring admiringly at the arrow protruding from it, a small crack in the brick at the tip of the arrow, where it had hit on impact. Carefully and meticulously he plucked it from the wall and brought the tip to his nose, inhaling the scent of fiberglass, steel and-strangely enough—lilac. A chuckle escaped him as he held it over his head to the small crowd of Gotham PD.

"This," he proclaimed loudly, "is what Gotham has come to-"

With that he took it and broke it over his knee, it shattering and dropping to the ground on both sides of him. A smirk painted on his face and he turned on his heel, giving them his back.

"-Brokenness."


Hustling from the room, gun bore at his side, Jim Gordon followed the mysterious character of a woman through the dark, dusty entrails of the abandoned Hoopla factory. His eyes darted every direction and every nerve within him was raw with tension, and with every shadow they ducked inside he felt his skin turn even colder than the previous. But, he followed her nonetheless, and somewhat depended on her certainty and sense of direction.

"We have to get Ra's away from the vaporizer," she breathed quietly to him, "And bring him down."

"How?" he whispered back hoarsely.

"I'm not sure exactly."

His brows rose in confirmation. "I see," he said nervously, "You're friend have any ideas?"

A smile tugged at her cheeks. "Oh yeah. I'm sure it's brilliant." She sounded hesitant as she retrieved another arrow and knocked it reassuringly in the bowstrings. "Now we just have to meet up with that SWAT van and—"

"-let go of me you filthy rat…" the voice echoed off the walls a flight of steps below them, and Reacher shot to attention. She listened carefully, like a cat, tilting her head to the side to get a better listen to the footsteps. The voice continued, and Jim swore he recognized it. "Unhand me you ruffian! If you want me to walk, I'll walk."

"Leslie?" Her voice flooded with disbelief. She swallowed and ducked into another set of shadows, him following carefully, minding his footing on the squeaky boards of the building. She strained to see over the railing of the steps to get a better view of what was happening downstairs She squatted, bow still drawn, and waited; eyes ever scanning.

"Shut up!" a heavily accented voice hissed, and something fell over—to Jim it sounded like a chair or a table bumping around the floor. Then there was a struggle, shuffling feet and humphing.

"Don't you dare hurt her! Lay one hand on her and so help me…" her voice was muffled by a squeal and then a rock on wood. She'd probably been seated roughly next to her friend. Jim shot a look to the vigilantress, who lowered her aim and closed her eyes, hanging her head in disappointment.

"Rachel." She murmured quietly. "He's got Leslie and Rachel."

A soft scraping was heard and they both perked; nerves raw with tension. Gordon felt a wisp of air, and then a cool blade pressed gently against his neck, hot breathing low and steady by his ear. He glanced over at Reacher, finding her bent over, kneeling on the ground, palms flat on the floor, her bow taken from her in the hands of a blackened ninja-warrior. A long, elegantly designed white and red samurai sword pressed against the back of her neck, the man himself crouching to hover next to her.

"Up." He ordered briskly. With that, Gordon pushed himself up on old and achy joints, and was roughly pushed against the railing which shook beneath his weight His hands were jerked behind him and clasped. Reacher got up slowly, steadily, blade still pressed behind her neck. Without warning, her hands were jerked behind her as well and she was harshly slammed into the railing, to the point where she gasped and huffed. She sank to her knees and roughly exhaled as the end of the railing slammed into her breast-bone.

"Lovely to see you again my dear," the light-haired 'leader' of the army clucked his tongue. He removed the blade from her neck with a flick of wrist and replaced it in its hilt, then grabbed her arm by her armpit and roughly yanked her to her feet. She stumbled but managed to stand. "So glad you could join me. I see you've managed to find your friends?"

She glared at him and then with a quick smirk she managed to spit right in his face. "Does that answer your question?" Two ninjas seized her arms and she struggled, but only briefly as Jim was led down the steps. She began to vanish from sight when he heard and pop and then a sharp slap. She growled under her breath and then was sent down the steps with her captors, right after him.

The other two women—Rachel and Leslie he recalled—where indeed tied to chairs, just as he suspected. Two others were briskly placed beside them in line, and the ninjas returned to stillness. Jim complied, sitting slowly in his assigned place, allowing them to tie his hands to the back of the chair with coarse rope. Reacher sat silently and compliantly as well, not looking at the women by allowing her brown curls to fall over her eyes. Once tied, she slumped forward, anger emanating from her hard, cold body language. The man she called Ra's knelt before her and tipped her chin up slightly, where Jim spotted a trickling red line of scarlet blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"Smile my dear," he cooed, "I will allow you the dignity of your identity in company of your friends." She jerked her head away from his hand and set her face in a frown, unwilling to look at him. He tilted his head to the side and tucked some of her hair behind her ear and stroked her cheek affectionately. "You are lovely, aren't you?"

"Go away." She spat back at him. Jim wondered briefly it she was ladylike enough not to use the filthy definition of that statement.

"You say that now," he stood and kicked the leg of her chair, sending it wobbling and smacking into the floor, her chin colliding with it with a smack. The other two ladies gasped and the older one let out a sob. The vigilantress moaned, gasped for breath and spit droplets of blood in a mist from her mouth. She looked at Ra's from the top of her eyes and managed to mumble something. "But you will be pleading with me to rescue you from the coming hell." He looked down at her and turned on his heel.

Jim heard her mumble from the ground. "God help me if I do."

A tickle of a chuckle arose in his mouth, but he swallowed it back and looked out the window. Ra's slipped out the door with his men, leaving Reacher to bleed slowly and miserably on the floor. Jim gulped and looked down at her and then back to the darknening window, watching as grey clouds slowly began to charge in the skies above them. "I hope that boyfriend of yours has a listening ear."