Bruce felt like he had been punched in the gut, but he showed none of that on his face as he replied flatly, "Ra's al Ghul is dead."
His hand tightened around Crane's chin as he repeated harshly, "Who are you really working for?"
Crane didn't reply at first, the fear and the gas getting to him, so Batman leaned in closer as he demanded, "Crane."
Crane stared back at Batman, his eyes looking strangely in focus all of a sudden as the man whispered, "Dr. Crane isn't here right now. But if you'd like to make an appointment…"
Batman frowned, but the sound of police sirens pulling up right outside the asylum finally made him look up.
Realizing his time was up – much faster than he would have thought; the police had to have been ready beforehand, Bruce realized – Batman smashed Crane's head into the stairwell, knocking the man out.
Moving quickly as he heard police officers shouting outside, Bruce leaned over Rebecca. She naturally screamed the instant she saw his face, and Bruce tensed, his anxiety only climbing as a loudspeaker called, "Batman, put down your weapons and surrender. You're surrounded."
Bruce ignored them as he picked Rebecca up, the woman struggling weakly against him even as she shuddered against the effects of the gas. With her so close, he could smell the faint familiar scent of vanilla around her, with a hint of coffee – that was new, but she probably lived off the stuff now as a cop compared to before.
But Bruce shoved those thoughts aside, far more concerned with how she appeared to be fighting to breathe as he carried her quickly towards the highest floors of the building. He laid her down before retrieving Rachel from one of the lower floors as well, laying the knocked-out brunette beside the gasping redhead before he tried to peer at Rebecca again.
"Rebecca?" He called quietly, but she barely seemed to hear him. "Becky, can you hear me?"
She glanced at him then, her eyes focusing and then unfocusing alarmingly, but as time went by she seemed to be recovering just slightly. Or perhaps it was the recovery before the more dangerous relapse.
Hearing movement below – though he detected only one pair of footsteps – Bruce took a chance to look down. His luck was with him, and Bruce quickly left Rebecca's side again to secure a grapple line onto the stair railing
"I'll be right back." He informed her, on the off chance she could hear and understand him, before he dropped down.
Gordon flinched in surprise as Batman suddenly grabbed him and pulled him up quickly onto the highest floor of the asylum, while the SWAT team converged on the building.
"Miss Dawes?" Gordon asked in surprise when Batman hauled him up over the railing and his eyes landed on Rachel, before his eyes caught sight of familiar red hair.
His eyes widened as Gordon gasped, "Becky!"
She barely registered him, groaning as she gasped out short breaths, and Gordon asked Batman, "What happened to her?"
"Crane poisoned her with a psychotropic hallucinogen – a panic-inducing toxin." Batman explained tightly, and Gordon answered instantly, "Let me get her down to the medics."
"They can't help her," Batman refuted, "but I can."
Gordon paused, looking straight at the other man as he weighed Batman's words. A bright searchlight turned on outside as the SWAT team moved into the building while others searched the outside for Batman.
Gordon glanced at the light before looking back at Batman as the masked man added, "There's something else."
Batman stared right back at Gordon as he revealed, "Crane's been smuggling his toxin hidden inside Falcone's drugs, and they're dumping it into the city's water supply."
Gordon gaped, before he asked weakly, "What was he planning?"
"I don't know." Batman admitted, and Gordon asked in alarm, "Was he working for Falcone?"
Batman paused, before he answered grimly while he pressed something on the bottom of his boot heel, "He mentioned someone else – someone worse."
Gordon stared at him, but Batman looked back down at Rebecca as her breathing continued to be laboured, and he said, "I need to get her the antidote before the damage becomes permanent."
"How long does she have?" Gordon asked, just as Rachel began to stir beside them.
"Not long." Batman answered shortly, and Gordon's jaw clenched. He couldn't lose Rebecca – he'd have to pray to whatever God there was that Batman was someone who could be trusted.
Sensing Gordon's – reluctant – acceptance, Batman ordered, "Get her downstairs. Meet me in the alley, on the Narrows side."
"What's going on?" Rachel murmured weakly as she opened her eyes.
Gordon was about to reply, when suddenly they all heard a strange flapping noise in the distance.
"What is that?" Gordon asked, puzzled, and Batman just gave him a look.
"Backup." The masked man replied.
With that, he left them, disappearing once more into the shadows, just as an entire swarm of bats descended on the entire building. Gordon gaped at the incredible sight, before he shook himself back into action as Rachel gasped.
"Wait, what's going on?" She demanded, and Gordon asked her quickly, "Can you walk?"
"What?" Rachel asked blankly, and Gordon repeated insistently as he reached to pick Rebecca up, "Can you walk?"
"I- yes, yes I can." Rachel replied and Gordon ordered as he heaved Rebecca up, "Then follow me."
He led the way quickly down the stairs, both him and Rachel having to duck low as they avoided the bats flying all around them. Rebecca cried out in fear, twisting into Gordon with a whimper as she saw bats coming out of bats, and Rachel asked fearfully over the din, "What's wrong with Becky?"
"She's been poisoned by Crane's fear toxin." Gordon replied, and Rachel sucked in a sharp breath.
"Is she going to be okay?" Rachel asked, terror gripping her in a way Crane's fear gas had failed to, and Gordon answered firmly, "She has to. Becky's a fighter, she'll make it."
Of course, at that moment Rebecca choked and started to convulse slightly in Gordon's arms.
"Becky!" Rachel cried, terrified for her sister's life, while Gordon's jaw clenched.
"Come on, Becky, come on, don't do this. Don't do this to me." He muttered as he finally made it back outside, slipping out through the side door and into the alley Batman had told him to go to.
"How is she?"
Rachel shrieked slightly as Batman appeared out of nowhere, but the man paid her no attention as he focused on Gordon and Rebecca in the officer's arms.
"She's fading." Gordon replied grimly as he handed Rebecca over to the Batman. "We gotta go."
Rachel trailed after Batman anxiously as the man turned and started to walk away with her sister while Gordon turned to watch the police officers panicking at the end of the alleyway, where they were all gathered on the larger street.
"I'll go get my car." Gordon stated, starting to move away, when Rachel demanded, "Where are you going with my sister? Hey, you can't just-"
"I'm saving her life." Batman returned, turning to face Rachel after he'd placed Rebecca gently inside his own vehicle, parked out of sight. "You'll have to trust me; she'll die if I don't get her the cure soon."
Rachel's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed but she nodded while Gordon gaped over at them. He'd expected them to need his car or at least go together. But now the vigilante was asking him – or rather, telling him - to risk his best junior detective's life by handing her over to an unknown man.
But if his words were true, Rebecca needed to go with Batman. And they didn't have time.
"Fine…" Gordon began, before he trailed off as Batman had already disappeared inside his vehicle, switching it on.
And as the engines revved while the car/tank came to life, both Gordon and Rachel gaped in utter shock now that they could see the vehicle properly.
Batman didn't care about their surprise as he sped out of the alleyway, heedlessly driving over a parked police car in his haste to get his tank out onto the main street.
"I gotta get me one of those." Gordon murmured in awe, and Rachel shot him a look.
"My sister's in there." She argued, feeling fear creeping like ice up her spine as they watched the Batman's vehicle speed dangerously around a corner and out of sight. "And he's going to get her killed in that thing!"
Meanwhile, Bruce sped his way down the streets as he raced to lose the police chasing him before he could head back to the Manor. As Rebecca squirmed beside him, Bruce instructed in his Batman voice, "Stay calm."
"What…?" Rebecca asked weakly, and Bruce's heart leapt that at least she wasn't as bad as he'd initially thought when she'd had the fit earlier in Gordon's arms.
"You've been poisoned." Bruce explained helpfully, and Rebecca gasped, "Crane."
"Yeah. Hang on." Bruce answered as he abruptly swerved the car, spinning it around and losing one of the cars chasing him.
Unfortunately, he was quickly followed by another, and Bruce's jaw clenched when Rebecca moaned in a low voice, sounding strained. It seemed the gas's effect was taking time, causing Rebecca to regain her sanity briefly only to relapse worse each time she fell back into the toxin-induced hallucinations.
"Stay with me." Bruce instructed, before wincing when Rebecca glanced at him before she let out a tiny scream. Clearly, his mask and the effects of the fear gas were making her terrified of him.
"I'm not going to hurt you." Bruce tried to placate her as he sped down the streets, and Rebecca got out between gasps though she kept her eyes tightly shut, "You… said that… before."
"Breathe." Bruce instructed firmly. "And yes, I did. I meant it then and I mean it now."
"I know… you do." Rebecca breathed, before yelping as Bruce sped up before abruptly turning them down another street, crashing right through a shop window before he broke out on the other side of the road.
Her eyes snapped open again and she looked around wildly while Bruce finally managed to lose the police cars.
However, the SWAT team helicopter was still following him and Bruce swerved again sharply as he tried to shake off his tail so he could get Rebecca to the Batcave. Rebecca let out another whimper, shying away from the window where she apparently saw something in her mind.
Bruce had a feeling he knew exactly what she was seeing and he reassured even as he drove like a maniac, "It's not real; the bats can't hurt you."
Rebecca didn't answer, trying to keep steady breaths while she had some control over her body.
Bruce frowned as a whole swarm of police cars started chasing him again, notified of his location thanks to the helicopter. He abruptly swerved, driving right through a parking boom and heading up the ramps.
"What are you doing?" Rebecca cried as she cowered in the darkness, seeing bats flashing everywhere each time the parking lights flashed by her window.
"Shortcut." Bruce answered as he focused on driving them as quickly as possible towards the roof of the parking garage, even as the police cars chased after them.
Bruce burst onto the roof, quickly backing up the Batmobile on one side of roof just as the helicopter arrived and shone a bright searchlight on the car while the police cars came speeding up onto the roof as well.
One of the cops got out of his car, calling loudly into the speakers as he faced the Batmobile, "Turn off your engine. Step away from the car."
"You're trapped." Rebecca got out as she struggled to breathe.
"Trust me, and just breathe." Bruce answered firmly as he pressed a few buttons, manipulating the tank.
"Weapons system activated." An automated voice announced inside the car, and Rebecca jumped in alarm.
"Wea-?" She began, looking over just as Batman leant forward and disappeared into something underneath the driving wheel.
"Oh, God…" Rebecca gasped, slamming her eyes shut and wishing fervently that this was all a dream. It was so crazy, it had to be a dream.
Bruce meanwhile lay across the activated Bat-pod, fine-tuning his aim through the Batmobile - before he fired small torpedoes at the rooftop barrier on the other side of the parking lot.
"Ah!" Rebecca screamed as the vehicle started forwards once more, speeding quickly towards the blown-up barrier. "I thought you hated guns!"
Bruce ignored her as he sped his way right off the rooftop parking and onto the roof of the building on the next block.
Rebecca slammed her eyes shut again, clutching the sides of her seat tightly as she tried to breath and not look outside where she could see her fears and the real chaos mingled into one blur in her mind. She barely held it together as she bounced on her seat while Bruce drove them quickly – and bumpily – along the roof, heedless of anything he ran into along the way, as he calculated his path.
Bruce swerved sharply again, losing the helicopter by cutting right across the roof of the nearby church, crushing the tiles as he did, before speeding the car up and across onto the nearest highway.
He sped down a highway, going into an underground tunnel to be completely sure the helicopter couldn't follow, while cop cars chased him now that he was back on the road. Bruce came back up into the driver's seat, to find Rebecca clutching her seat for dear life while her eyes were squeezed shut.
"Almost there." He tried to comfort as he went through closed barriers, a pillar, and the protective railings separating the two lines of traffic in an effort to lose the cops. "Keep breathing."
"Shut up, and drive." Rebecca gasped out, just as they were surrounded by police cars.
Bruce swerved the Batmobile sharply, spinning them around and quickly taking off through a gap between the incoming police cars. Now only chased by one line of cars, Bruce released a series of spiked balls onto the road behind him, causing the police car tires to pop. The cars swerved, out of control, and creating a jam while Bruce sped out onto the darkened highway on the other side of the tunnel.
Unfortunately, another few cars managed to follow him, while the helicopter found them again as it tailed them. But now, that they were on the outskirts of the city with almost no lights other than the headlights of their own cars.
Bruce quickly switched on the Batmobile's stealth mode, hitting his headlights and plunging them into darkness. Instantly, the helicopter and the police cars became confused, driving straight passed Bruce as he moved the Batmobile off the road and into the shadows.
Taking the cops' momentary confusion, Bruce quickly escaped into the darkness, taking them back to the Batcave without anyone noticing.
Rebecca finally succumbed to the fear gas and lost consciousness just before they reached the Batcave, driving Bruce into a panic that not even Crane and his fear toxin had been able to induce.
"Becky? Becky!" He called, and when she didn't respond, his heart almost stopped.
Terrified of losing her, he sped dangerously through the waterfall, screeching to an abrupt halt in the centre of the hidden cave. Before the car had even finished moving, Bruce had opened the top and launched himself into the air where he used his specially synthesized cape as wings to fly up to where the work desk was in the corner of the cave.
He hastily grabbed the container on the desk that Fox had left for him, quickly opening the case where he forced himself to remove one of the vials carefully before swooping back down to the Batmobile.
Rebecca didn't move and she was deathly pale in the dim light as Bruce plunged the syringe into her arm before quickly pressing two fingers to her neck to check her pulse. He let out a shaky breath when he felt the faint but steady thump on her neck, physically sagging in relief as Rebecca's breathing came easier with each passing second.
Bruce leant back, taking a moment to catch his breath. He knew Alfred was probably going to be furious when he saw what happened with the police, but in that moment all Bruce could care to think was the same sentence over and over again in sheer relief.
'She's okay.'
Thanking the heavens for letting him save her, Bruce leant down, picking her up as he made to move her onto a table where she could rest a little easier.
"You couldn't make things easier for me, Becky." He muttered as he carried her. "You just had to be a good cop."
She sighed a little as he laid her carefully down on the table, her head tilting slightly as his hand left her shoulders as though she were following his presence. Knowing she wouldn't be out for too long on just the antidote, Bruce fetched the other vials from the container. He then returned to Rebecca's side where he sat back and monitored her progress as he waited patiently for her to wake up.