"I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU BASTARDS! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
Aquaman couldn't believe the man who sat chained up in his prison cell. Even after attacking Atlantis in a strange blood craze, bringing down two dozen Atlantean soldiers who had tried to stop them, and even having the courage to face him in single hand to hand combat, he still had the energy to scream at the top of his lungs for hours on end. He had never this before. And considering the company he kept, that was saying something.
"AND THEN I'LL TAKE YOUR SPINES AND SHOVE THEM RIGHT UP-"
The audio from the cell shut off just in time as Aquaman sighed. The man also swore about as much as a eighty year old sailor so that didn't really help when it came to try and find meaning in his rants.
"My lord, we've scanned his body…." An Atlantean scientist hesitated appearing behind him.
"Speak up." Aquaman ordered.
"We're unsure of what to make of him sir." The woman admitted. "He's exceedingly odd."
"How so?" Aquaman asked interested in getting some answers.
" Well as you know, he has incredible strength and speed for a regular surface dweller and his stamina appears to be a at least three times the amount of normal surface dweller." She said. "But what's most curious is his self healing ability. He's healed completely from the broken bones you gave him when he attacked in just a few hours.
"I've noticed. We have any idea how?" Aquaman asked.
"Inconclusive, my lord." She said.
"Hmm." Aquaman ran a hand through his beard as he began to think. "Perhaps the League will know more about him then."
"What shall we do with him in the mean time?" She asked looking out towards the screen of the still ranting lunatic
"He'll face Atlantean Justice for attacking us. Until then he can stay in the cells." Aquaman ordered as he left the room.
The man himself was chained up in the bottom of the Royal Palace , naked save for a single pair of cloth pants they had provided to him after he had been subdued. He had grey slicked back hair and sported a pair of crazed purple eyes that darted all around the room in an act that looked insane to the untrained eye.
"AND WHERE IS MY FUCKING SCYTHE?!"
"Is she going to be ok?" Itachi asked.
"Docs think so." Frank sighed with relief. "She's a stubborn old broad."
The pair looked onwards to their bedridden friend laying peacefully in the hospital bed linked up to a few machines that Itachi recognized as similar to the ones they used back at the Elemental Nations.
"That was good reflexes back there. You had training?" Frank asked.
Itachi gave no worded response instead settling for a nod that told Frank all he really needed to know.
"Well, you reacted better than me or Wallace so that's saying something at least." Frank sighed. Wallace himself had decided to wait in the other room while Paul was being looked at.
"How is Paul?"
"Just a little banged up. They should be done with him in a few." Frank sighed. His started to twist with anger and annoyance. "We need to get out of this god-forsaken city."
Itachi raised an eyebrow at the statement. "It is a understandable reaction to…"
"You don't get it. It's not just tonight. Almost every other day something bad happens to us! Sometimes me and Wallace can stop it before it gets bad but other times…" He stopped to take in a breath and calm his nerves. "Sorry. I uh, just get frustrated easily."
"Is that how you lost your job?" Itachi asked trying to change the subject for ball-cap wearing man.
"Yeah. Turns out I don't have the temperament for Wayne Security." Frank replied with a strangely nostalgic smile. Itachi gave a small smile in return before picking up a particular set of footsteps outside the room. It was a busy hospital so no particular set should've stuck out but these sounded stiffer not by much but just enough to induce some hesitation as the door opened and a young blonde nurse walked in the room.
"Mr. Itachi, could you come with me please?" She asked in a polite tone. Frank looked to the nurse than back to Itachi.
"I got her. Go take care of whatever it is." Frank said. Itachi nodded and stood up. Following the woman out of the room and closing the door behind him. The pair navigated through the crowded halls rather easily but not towards any particular area a nurse might talk to someone. They passed the front desk, several doctors, and other rooms until finally they came to an empty room in Surgery.
"Just inside." she said politely but with a blink that seemed almost too robotic to be human. Itachi prepped himself for another attack should one come and walked through the door. His eyes immediately landed on the only other figure there, dressed in a long trench coat that hid most of his body except for a striking mound of bright unkept red hair. Itachi tempered his hopes. The odds of it were microscopic so….
"Do you know how long it would've taken for you to find me?" The voice said in the eerily calm tone that Itachi had only known to come from one man.
"Sasori…" Itachi started.
"Answer me Uchiha." The voice ordered.
"I'm not sure." Itachi replied quickly and honestly
"Itachi Uchiha unsure of himself…Seems I was right about you." Sasori scoffed finally turning to meet him face to face. Seeing the notoriously blank, dead eyed face of the puppeteer, Itachi wasn't really sure of what reaction to have. Sasori and him were former comrades true but the pair had barely any interaction outside their group gatherings. More so, he had never been sure where Sasori's true allegiance lied. Whether it was to the Akatuski's goal of peace, or some ulterior motive all together separate from the group. And that mystery had always made Itachi wary of the red head.
"Right about what Sasori?" Itachi asked not dropping his guard in the slightest.
"I think you know. Uchiha." Sasori replied swiftly as he took in the sight of "homeless" Itachi. "But this is neither the time nor place to discuss it."
"Agreed." Itachi added on. "Do you know what's happened to us?"
"It's simplest enough to see. We're back from the dead." Sasori dryly pointed out. "Understanding how and why however, that remains much more puzzling. As does our current location." He pulled out a device that Itachi could only guess was for communication, from one of his trench coat pockets and started sliding his finger up and down it as it glowed a dim light. Sasori's passive stance didn't change but his voice spoke again newly frustrated. "Gah."
"What is it?"
"Yet another annoyance." He replied biting his lower lip. "Come. We'll discuss this further at my home."
"Home?" Itachi grew even more curious at that word.
"Did I stutter?" Sasori asked back opening a door behind him. "I never could stand hospitals."
Itachi thought back to the others waiting in the room a ways back but knew he needed answers before he did anything else. He wished them a silent farewell and followed his old associate out of the room but not before Sasori grabbed what looked like a bag off of the table. "Burger?" He asked.
Itachi's confused gaze was almost enough to make the puppeteer smile.
As the last thug dropped to the ground with a newly broken jaw, Batgirl breathed a sigh of relief. This had been way too close to call.
"You ok Batgirl?" Robin asked over to the yellow and black cloaked vigilante. Barbara gave him a thumbs up gesture as rubbed her shoulder which still burned from a crowbar impact. Surrounding her, was said crowbar and about a dozen now either unconscious or crippled goons. And those guys had just been the ones she had fought.
In total, there had been close to forty of them, all surrounding a large warehouse that stood just at the edge of the docks. The strange thing though was that there wasn't any visible thing that could've caused
"Not like you to call in back up." Huntress said standing behind the cloak of Caped Crusader who kicked open the locked door of the seaside warehouse. "What's going on?"
Batman didn't reply as he peered into the surrounding darkness. Huntress sighed and pulled out a flashlight. Flicking it on, she saw that the warehouse wasn't exactly empty. It was filled to the brim with large metal shipping containers stacked right put to ceiling.
"Jeez. Some weapons cache." Huntress sighed in slight awe.
"If it is that." Batman told her as he moved to the closest container. The lock was quickly disposed off and the pair pulled apart the container doors expecting to see some sort of familiar weaponry. Assault rifles, RPGs, something of that sort. What they didn't expect was for the container to filled with a strange white clay cubes that spilled out onto the warehouse floor. Huntress chuckled at the sight.
"Well, someone got ripped off." She said with a laugh. "Unless the guys outside expected warehouse filled with Play-Doe."
"Don't be so quick to judge." Batman scolded before activating his comm. "Gordon, I've got a Warehouse on the East end loaded with an unknown substance. Have any nearby police quarantine the area."
"You sure? What is it?" The voice of the Police Commisioner asked.
"I'll let you know when I find out." Batman replied before closing the conversation. He picked up one of the clay cubes and placed it in a bag.
"Don't think your going overboard?" Huntress asked.
"Haven't you learned by now to never ask that question?" Batgirl reasoned walking into the room with Robin at her side.
"Fair point." Huntress sighed before perking up. "So, where are the burgers?"
"Oh…About that….." Batgirl smiled sheepishly.
"For god's sake, I asked you to do one thing." Huntress seethed.
"No, you volunteered me to do one thing." Batgirl replied. "Besides, things got hectic. Met a new Meta today."
"A new one?" Robin asked. " What can he do?"
"Run on walls for one thing, and he can vanish about as well as Batman over there." Batgirl pointed out which perked the interest of the Caped Crusader. "He can also change his eyes and might be able to use psychic attacks but I'm not sure about that last one."
"You get a name out of our new mystery man?" Huntress asked.
"He said his name was Itachi."
The journey through the city went quietly save for the impact of their footsteps in the snow and without a hitch save for one instance of a group of hoodlums looking like they were gonna take their chances on the pair only for a side glance from Sasori's to change their mind. That same glance then shifted back to Itachi and caught glimpse of a slight smile that faded just as quickly as it appeared. Sasori made note of the display but decided to discuss at a later date if at all and went back to his groaning.
The cold had never really bothered Itachi. True enough he had been trained to survive in almost any possible conditions the Elemental Nations could throw at him but dealing with the cold and the snow was something that he actually enjoyed. This was the complete opposite to his associate who spent the entire walk grumbling some curses under his breath and silently wishing for the snow to shape shift into the warm sand he had always preferred.
"I don't suppose you've looked at the stars since you've got here." Sasori finally muttered aloud stopping in the parking lot of an average three story unassuming building nestled nicely in the outskirts of the Gotham Downtown area and just outside the suburbs covered in the same red and green lights Itachi had seen all around Gotham. Itachi glanced up to the sky and saw the sky was still blocked with grey clouds before replying.
"Haven't had the chance. As far as I know, I just awoke a few hours ago." Itachi replied.
"A few hours…...Interesting." Sasori walked past a blacked out neon sign that looked like it would light up if given the chance with the words Beatrice Bowling. That raised several questions for Itachi. Specifically, who was Beatrice and what was Bowling? The door to the building opened with screech as it pushed away some of heavy snow.
"Hurry up. I've had enough of this cold for one night." Sasori complained as Itachi refocused. He walked past Sasori who held the door for him. He was greeted with darkness until the flick of a light switch was heard. The darkness evaporated as several hanging lights illuminated the rather large room revealing several tables that stood on atop of the purple carpet edging next to just as many lanes of wooden floor that led to the opposite end of the room.
Itachi walked around getting a feel for the room itself. Several other lights littered the room that each gave off shifting shades of color and seemed to some how have some strange liquid moving inside it. Tearing itself apart and then reforming in a strange gelatinous mass he had never seen before.
"Mind the lava lamps. Damn things are hotter than they look." Sasori's voice announced as he reappeared with his coat now over his arm, along with a second pile of clothes wearing a simple long sleeve black shirt and cargo pants.
"Lava…..Lamps?"
"You know, I was hoping you would be the one who could give me answers." Sasori sighed. "Figures, I guess. Here."
Itachi took the clothes quickly and breathed a sigh of relief as he got out of the rags that had kept him warm since he had gotten here. With his back to turned to the changing Uchiha, Sasori continued. "Any memory of what happened?"
"Outside of dying again, nothing." Itachi said slipping on a simple dark blue shirt and sweat pants as well as a pair of socks. "I released Kabuto's Jutsu and that was that."
"That doesn't surprise me. You had the greatest odds of breaking out of the trance, with your little ruby eyes. Where are they anyway?" Sasori' asked seeing his associate's eyes in their regular form.
"Reserved for later." Itachi replied. Sasori smirked for a half a second.
"Ah, chakra coming back slower huh?" Sasori asked.
"Sasori, do you know what's going on here or not?" Itachi finally asked.
"Something that's far more confusing then comforting." Sasori said with a sigh."I myself have been pondering that question for the last two years."
"Two years?!"
Sasori nodded as he relaxed into a chair. "Strange isn't it? Tell me, is the last thing you remember of the Elemental Nations was dying as the Reanimation ran its course."
Itachi nodded.
"The same was true for me." Sasori admitted. "Last thing I expected afterwards was waking up here. Not undead and fully in control of myself."
"And you never figured out how?" Itachi asked.
"Don't assume I haven't tried." Sasori shot back narrowing his gaze at the Uchiha. "But being dropped in a world you have no prior knowledge of tends to slow such things down. I couldn't assemble an army of spies or informants that I didn't have."
"Didn't?" Itachi asked. Sasori allowed himself a small smirk.
"Once my situation became fully apparent to me and my chakra began to return, I set out to gather as much information as I could gather about this world and its inhabitants. So I needed informants on every level of society."
"The nurse…" Itachi realized while giving Sasori a look of disdain.
"She's perfectly fine if you wish to know." Sasori replied, annoyed by the look. " She simply provides data on any potentially interesting residents of Gotham General. As do many other nurses and doctors in various other hospitals across Gotham."
"You haven't changed at all." Itachi sighed.
"You should know death rarely changes someone." Sasori said glancing at the ceiling. " After all, you were still a traitor to the Akatsuki even after you came back."
Itachi narrowed his eyes in a hateful glare towards the red head who returned it in equal measure. "That implies I was on the Akatsuki's side to begin with." Itachi admitted.
"Call it whatever you like. It doesn't change the fact that you still sided with the home that ordered you to murder your own family over us." Sasori spat clenching his one visible fist. "Tell me, if it had come to it, would you have killed all of us if Konoha said they would take you back? Kisame included?
Itachi did his best to remain collected in front of his fellow Akatsuki member but Sasori saw Itachi's previously passive body tense up at the mention of the dead swordsman. "If it would've been for the greater good…." Itachi replied.
"Greater good." Sasori laughed harshly. "You'd get along with these Superheroes."
Superheroes? That was a strange word to hear. Almost as strange as the woman's clothing had been. " I think I met one of them earlier tonight." Itachi said trying to change the subject. " A female who wore what looked like bat insignia."
"Yes, Batgirl." Sasori nodded taking the change. "I read about that. What did you make of her?"
"She seemed confidant, energetic, righteous…." Itachi started.
"And naïve." Sasori finished for the his compatriot. "She and the rest of her clan hold to a no killing rule."
"Her clan?"
"Count yourself lucky you met her rather than Batman." Sasori chuckled as he stepped up out of his chair and began to stretch. "But I think that will do for the night. Unless you plan on killing me."
Sasori started up the stairs. Itachi stood up having had enough of the the tone of voice, Itachi asked "If you hate me so much Sasori, why give me a place to stay? Why come find me at all?"
Itachi stopped at the middle stair and sighed yet again perhaps more at himself than Itachi. "Besides hoping you might have known why we were sent here. It's just nice to know I'm not the only one who's been condemned here." He turned back around. "Walking through hell with a snake is better than walking through hell alone."
Sasori vanished from sight and soon after the sound of a door shutting ran through the room with a THUD.
Itachi collapsed back into the chair as a huge wave of guilt ran over him. It wasn't like Sasori didn't have the right to be angry if he had been truly loyal to the Akatsuki and to top it off, he had offered him a home. He had no right to be annoyed with the man but it didn't change the fact that he was and just in case this was a trap that was yet to be sprung, Itachi would sleep with one eye open tonight. If he even slept at all.
Tada! I think I'll end it there. I hope this turned out ok. Sasori's always been an enigma to write for. And since he and Itachi never really interacted, I had to sort of start from scratch. Like I said though, hope you guys enjoyed it.
And if you could kindly leave your thoughts in the form of follows, favs, reviews, flames, or all four, I'd really appreciate it.
Farewell.