Chapter Thirteen

It was horrific to see Madeline strapped to the chair with a home-made ECT headset strapped onto her skull, her hands bounds and her eyes filled with fear as she desperately tried to struggle free. The worst part had been holding her down and holding her head still so Riddler could tighten the clamps on the headset. He had had to tighten it just an uncomfortable level of tightness so it didn't come off as Madeline threw her head from side to side to shake the strange device off. Waylon didn't want to see this. Ever instinct in his body told him he had to break her free and get her away from Gotham. But he couldn't do that. It was like Catwoman had said. Madeline was trapped and this was the only way to save her sanity.

"All the systems are set up, we're ready to go." Riddler announced, but it was more like a question. He was seeking Waylon's permission to go ahead with the ECT.

"Come on. Let's do it already and get my sister back to normal." Jack insisted, sounding quite ignorant to the gravity of the situation. He hadn't experienced electroshock therapy before, so he had no idea how messed up and barbaric it was. Still, like Harley had said, the doctors at Arkham had abused their ECT with Waylon for one sadistic reason or another.

"You need to leave." Waylon growled calmly to Jack without turning his sight away from Madeline.

"What? No! You can't kick me out again. I want to be here for my sister." Jack protested, but his argument was lost on deaf ears, Waylon didn't want him in the room. It wasn't because he didn't want Jack to see his sister convulsing as electricity was shot through every nerve in her body, although that would be traumatic for someone to watch. It was because he didn't know how he would react to seeing Madeline like that. For all he knew he could lose control the minute the ECT began and destroy everything and everyone in sight. Heck, how would he react if it didn't work at all?

"Look kid, we'll call you in when we're done. But its best for everyone if you wait outside again." Riddler said, trying to be reassuring as he ushered Jack out of the basement once more. His tone of voice however, betrayed his earlier confidence in his ability to pull this off, and he sounded as if he was also concerned with how Waylon would react if things didn't go as planned.

"I'm not a kid, I can take it." Jack protested once more in a final bid to be permitted to stay. Riddler shook his head.

"It's not the ECT that you can't handle." He said flatly, and then shut the door.

"Are you ready?" Riddler asked as he returned to the controls. He had Madeline hooked up to a vitals machine so he could monitor her heart rate and BP in case things went pear shaped. Waylon waited a moment before responding, his voice unwilling to obey him as his answer would condemn Madeline to the horrors he had tried to desperately to avoid.
"Waylon." Riddler said, catching Waylon a little off guard before he had had a chance to answer the first question. "You need to promise me something."

"What?" Waylon asked, confused as to what on Earth he had to promise.

"Once I begin you have to let me do this without interruption." Riddler warned, vaguely sounding patronising in his tone but it was borne out of caution.

"I wouldn't know how to interrupt it if I tried." Waylon replied with confusion.

"No I mean, once I start you have to trust that I know what I'm doing. You can't yell at me to stop or lower the voltage, or try to free Madeline or destroy the machine... It could have serious consequences." Riddler explained, his face wrapped with worry and concern that Waylon wouldn't be able to stop himself. He was probably right on that account.

"I won't." Waylon said meekly, unsure of how true those words were.

"I mean it. The wrong voltage could be ineffective and submit her to pain for no good reason. If you try to pull her out and interrupt the flow you could get zapped as well and we both know how you'll behave after that."

"I get it. I won't interrupt." Waylon grumbled, a little irritated with how patronising Riddler was getting. No, he wasn't being patronising, he was just covering all the bases. It was perfectly understandable for him to be this cautious, but it wasn't half annoying.

"I'm serious Waylon. If you tried to do something like smash the machine it could short-circuit deliver and uncontrolled shock that could cause dire consequences. It could damage her brain beyond repair, or worse, render her brain dead..."

"I got it! Let's just... Let's just get this over with." Waylon sighed, he didn't want to hear any more horror stories about what could happen if it all went wrong.

"Okay." Riddler replied quietly. He didn't sound convinced. "Starting up now."

The generator Riddler had modified to conduct the electric current needed started up and the pylons began to pulse with electric light. The light but irritating buzzing sound could be heard and pierced through Waylon's ears, igniting old but certainly not forgotten memories of what seemed like days strapped to a chair and subject to the torture Madeline was about to experience. The buzzing must have irritated Madeline as well because she began to thrash with panic and pull on her restrains.

"Administering first shock now." Riddler said, more a warning for Waylon to prepare himself than a formal process. The shock came a little faster than Waylon's ability to prepare for it and he felt his heart skip into overdrive as the electricity hit Madeline like a speeding bullet. Every nerve in her body tensed up and went rigid, her torso rising up and her arms and legs pushing against the restraints. Her eyes were wide, either out of shock or involuntary control and her jaw clamped down shut, an expression of agonising pain on her face. She let out a growling scream, or at least tried to, it was warbled by the electricity shooting through her.

Waylon bit his bottom lip, hard, so hard that blood began to seep out and reach the corners of his mouth. Riddler had been right about Waylon needing to control himself and resist the urge to put an end to the ECT. It took all of his willpower to hold himself in place and not smash the machine or tear Madeline from the chair. It was even harder to stop himself from turning away like the coward Catwoman had called him. He couldn't look away. He had to watch, he had to do it. For Madeline. After what felt like an hour but had only been a few seconds, the electroshock ceased and Madeline gasped for air, still snarling and growling like an animal.

"Why didn't it work!" Waylon snapped, feeling his blood boil and his vision go red in an instant.

"It takes more than one shock." Riddler reassured, quickly changing some controls and adjusting the voltage. "Administering a higher voltage."

"Higher?" Waylon protested, ready to go over and intimidate Riddler into stopping this.

"Waylon. Remember what I said." Riddler snapped, administering the shock as he stared Waylon down. Waylon locked his body in place and did all he could to resist destroying everything in a blind rage.

Madeline convulsed once more, this time even more horrifically than the first. Her body seemed to twitch as it tensed, and light foam began to froth at the corners of her mouth. Her eyes were not longer fixed with terror but rolling into the back of her head, the electroshock convulsion becoming a seizure or something. Now this one was lasting much longer than a few seconds, and Waylon glanced over at Riddler again and again to see if he was ever going to stop it. But he had an expression of determination on his face, combined with something else. Was it eagerness? No. It was enjoyment. He was fucking loving this. Waylon couldn't control his body anymore and stalked over to the controls.

"Shut it off NOW!" He roared, but he didn't touch any of the controls for fear of messing it all up. But Riddler didn't stop either.

"Did you hear what I said? Turn it off!" Waylon demanded, every fibre of his body telling him to smash the controls.

"Just a little more..." Riddler insisted, fiddling with the controls some more. Was he upping the voltage or something? Madeline was still convulsing and looked more like a reanimated corpse, her body limp but convulsing and her face contorted beyond recognition. It was horrible. Waylon couldn't stand this any longer.

"Almost." Riddler said, watching the vitals monitor very carefully. The heart rate was skyrocketing, the BP crazy high, and all other things on the monitor flipping out.

"Edward!" Waylon snarled, he was seriously going to snap. He could feel Killer Croc clawing to get out and destroy everything. His claws wanted to tear and slash, his teeth wanted to gnash and crush.

"Just a few more seconds..." Riddler said, his hand hovering over the power down switch.

He yanked it down and the generator shut off, the convulsing stopped and Madeline fell limp in the chair. Waylon rushed over to her and tore the restraints from the chair and yanked off the headset. He scooped Madeline up into his arms and carried her away from the chair, as if it could hurt her without the power, and crouched with her in his arms. She was limp and clammy, her limbs heavy and her head lolling to the side like a corpse.

"No, no no no." Waylon whispered in horror as he held Madeline's head up and looked for any sign of life from her.

"Come on Madeline, wake up. Please. I need you. I can't lose you again." He cried, moving the strands of feathery hair from Madeline's face so he could look for any sign of life. Anything, anything at all would do. A flutter of the eyelids, a twitch in the corner of her mouth? But nothing happened, she stayed still and cold, growing paler by the second.

"No." He whispered, his chest tightening and his breath trembling. He felt the blood in his veins simmer and boil, ready to overflow and seep into every nerve and fibre of his being. Was he truly doomed to be alone forever? Was he destined to always come close to being with the one person he loved but always fall short and back into a pit of despair. If only he had devolved completely sooner, then he wouldn't have attempted this fruitless endeavour. Madeline would still be alive if he had just let himself die. Heck, everything would have been better if the doctors had let him die the day he was born and saved his mother's life instead. Everything would have been better if Waylon Jones had never existed.

Madeline gasped for air, her throat so dry it hurt to breath. Her whole body felt like an old book covered in dust that had just been washed clean with a breath of fresh air, life and warmth returning to her unusually cold limbs. They felt rigid and alien to her, but as she commanded them to move they slowly obeyed her. All her senses felt numb and her brain didn't want to follow any logic train of thought, everything muddled together. Her commands to move an arm became the twitching of her feet, and the commanded to open her eyes became the clenching of her fist. Where was she? What was going on? Was she back in the secret facility? Was she back in her cell with Jason in the cell next to her, Lonnie across from them curled up in a corner. Or was she strapped down to a table again with doctors and that horrible woman in the hazmat suit standing over her? Of all her senses, smell was the first to return. She could smell dust, a lot of dust, but also the cold metallic scent of some large metal appliance. There was also the scent of sweat and a familiar but not entirely pleasant, faint scent of moisture, like grass clippings left to swelter in the heat.

Following her sense of smell came the sense of taste. She could taste blood in her mouth instantly, her own of course as she found a small nick on the inside of her cheek. Had she bitten herself by accident? She found herself subconsciously lapping up the blood to moisturise her dry mouth. As she did so, she found her eyes forcing themselves open. The light was blinding, even though the room was dark. She felt like she had never been able to see before, and this was the first time the world was visible to her. Everything was clear, the darkness so much brighter, and every detail so much more noticeable than she was used to. She could see the tiny cracks and scuffs on the concrete floor, the scratches of the single light bulb, even as it shone brightly, and every individual scale on Waylon's back.

Waylon? Wait. Madeline shook her head and opened her eyes fully, taking in everything about the space around her. She was in some sort of basement, not a government facility one either. There was a big metal chair in the middle of the room with leather straps on the arms and legs. It looked like some old-fashioned electric chair. There was a computer terminal not too far away from it with what Madeline assumed were the controls for the chair but she couldn't be sure since they looked so technologically different. Across the room in the very corner Madeline could see the back of a very large reptilian creature. Waylon. He had cornered a very skinny looking person with messy brown hair wearing a dirty shirt and jeans. She was unsure but it kind of looked like an older and less well kept Riddler. He looked to be in panic, the lines on his face dark as he seemed to be talking very fast and very stutteringly. Madeline couldn't hear anything. No, she could hear a single, long and irritating beep sound, the kind you had when your ears were ringing from forgetting that you had the volume maxed out on your laptop when you plug your headphones back in.

Madeline tried to sit up but failed the first time. She glanced over at Riddler and tried to process what was going on. He was cornered and looked scared. Waylon had be losing it or something and about to kill him. Madeline didn't really know what was going on but she knew she had stop Waylon from doing something he'd regret. She heaved herself up and opened her mouth to speak but could only croak, or at least she thought it would sound like a croak. She still couldn't hear anything. She shook her head, trying to shake the ringing out of her head. Oddly enough, it worked, and the sounds of the world slowly faded back as if someone was slowly turning up the volume from mute.

"...remember that? And that time with Grundy. You wouldn't have made it out if it weren't for me." Riddler pleaded, Madeline's ears only hearing the end parts of his desperate plea for life. Waylon didn't respond to that with words, only an angry growl. Madeline had heard him growl lots of times and to most people those growls were just the same growl but like dating someone with a thick accent, Madeline had grown to understand the subtle differences in those growls. This growl was an unbelievable angry and vengeful growl, but not one from Waylon. This was an angry Killer Croc growl, and that was one growl no one wanted to have directed at them. Madeline opened to her mouth to call out again but failed. She stared over at them, staring at Riddler in the hope that he'd feel eyes looking at him and instinctively search for the source, but there was no such luck.

"W... Way...lon." Madeline called, finally able to use her voice but it was so quiet and horse it was barely even a voice at all. She felt like she had been screaming for hours and that her vocal cords were shot. Desperate, she tried again.

"W-Waylon." She stuttered, still quiet but at least she almost had the word. She was running out of time. Riddler had sunk to the floor with his hands over his head as Waylon towered over him, ready to kill. He raised a claw, about to slash it down and kill what Madeline understood to be one of his only friends.

"Waylon!" Madeline croaked. It was loud but not really legible. She only hoped it would be enough to distract Killer Croc long enough for Riddler to make a run for it. It didn't distract Killer Croc, in fact, it instantly shocked his control over Waylon, receding into the back of Waylon's mind once more where it belonged. Waylon spun around and gasped a quivering gasp when he saw Madeline sitting before him. He instantly forgot about the cowering Riddler and ran over to Madeline, his eyes lit up with hope and relief in a way Madeline had never really seen before.

"Oh my God Madeline is that you?" He cried, dropping to his knees and cupping Madeline's face in his hands. He stared at her eyes, her face and her body with disbelief, looking her up and down as if it were unbelievable for her to be there. Madeline still didn't understand what was going on but she knew something big had to have happened to make Waylon so upset. But she hadn't seen him in so long either, and she felt her own heart beat faster, her body overflow with relief and everything just felt right.

"It's me?" She croaked, still a little hoarse but getting better. Now her voice had to deal with the lump forming in her throat. She couldn't believe it. After all this time he was here, she was back with him. She hadn't thought she'd see him ever again.

She reached out and cupped the side of Waylon's face. She had to touch him to believe he was real. He looked so different to how he did when she last saw him. He was bigger, and his face looked more reptilian. His nose was starting to disappear and form into more of a snout, and the ridges on his head and back seemed to be bigger and sharper. But he still had the same eyes. Tortured yellow eyes that looked at her with love and desperation. Those eyes betrayed his exterior and made him look so vulnerable, so insecure and in need of protection. Madeline lightly stroked the side of his face to sooth him, her hand running from his cheekbone to his jaw...

Madeline looked at her hand. It was not her hand. It was covered in greenish turquoise scales with clawed black nails, and it was bigger than her hand in comparison to Waylon's face. Waylon must have noticed the panic on her face because he quickly turned her head so she could do nothing but look at him.

"Don't panic, it's all going to be okay." He said quickly, but he sounded panicky and that made Madeline feel panicky. She pulled herself from his hold which was surprisingly easy to do. Was she stronger now? She looked down at her body and felt her gut wretch with disgust and confusion. What the hell was going on?

She was not in her body. She was in some reptilian body with scales covering her from head to toe, claws on her feet and a tail lying limp behind her. She put her hands up and felt the side of her face. It didn't feel like her face, in texture or in structure for that matter. She felt like she had a snout instead of a normal face. She couldn't imagine what it looked like, all she could think of was Waylon's face on her body. What was going on? Why was she like this? Was this what those scientists had been turning her into all this time? Had they been turning her into a lizard creature and sending her out to fight Waylon. And for what purpose? To create a super weapon or something?

"Madeline, you need..."

"Get me a mirror!" Madeline demanded, pulling herself up from the ground onto unsteady legs. She wobbled a bit, and she felt disorientated because she was so much taller than before. She was still shorter than Waylon, but not by much. Instead of doing as she asked Waylon stayed to help her stand. Right now that was not what she wanted from him.

"GET ME A MIRROR!" Madeline screamed, and there was a growl in the back of her throat as she did so. She felt startled as she heard and felt it, and clutched at her throat. She even growled like a monster? Why was this happening? What was this happening to her?

"Don't let her look in a mirror." Riddler ordered, now standing behind his computer terminal again. He still looked pale and scared, using the terminal to hold himself up, but he looked more angry than anything else.

"Oh God. Edward, I'm so sorry..." Waylon began, but Riddler silenced him with a harsh shush.

"I'll deal with you later." Riddler warned with a harsh and bitter tone. "Right now, keep all reflective surfaces away from Madeline or the shock might reverse the process."

"Reverse the process?" Madeline questioned, growing more and more confused. "What are you talking about." Waylon took a minute to take a big breath and steady himself for the explanation, as if he were telling Madeline she had an inoperable tumour or something.

"Well?" Madeline asked, very impatient at this point.

"Before, every time we've seen you in this form, you've been savage, acting like an animal or something." Waylon explained, his words even more horrific than Madeline's body. "We had to... electrocute you to bring your humanity back. I thought we'd gone too far and killed you..."

"No, we'd been doing fine." Riddler corrected, spitting his words. "You just pressured me to stop because you couldn't handle it. The one thing I asked you to do was to let me do it uninterrupted and you couldn't even manage that..."

"Not right now Ed!" Waylon snapped. He silenced Riddler, but only seemed to make the Riddle Master more pissed off.

"You electrocuted me?" Madeline asked with disbelief, as if someone had just told her pigs could fly or cows lived on the moon. "You killed me. I got turned into a monster. And then you electrocuted me?" Waylon didn't respond and hung his head low, either out of shame or guilt, maybe both.

"Well?" Madeline snapped, maybe a little more aggressively than she'd have liked.

"Yes." Waylon admitted sheepishly, sounding so despondent. Madeline didn't feel like being sympathetic however, she felt like being a crazy, psycho bitch.

"This is all your fault!" She hissed, the blood boiling in her veins. "You killed me. You snapped your jaws around my torso and bit me in half." Waylon remained silent.

"Then, I died. I died in a sewer. A filthy, stinking sewer and then I presume you left me there in that disgusting sewer filled with shit and rats and god knows what else. Because if you'd taken me out of that sewer then I wouldn't have been found by the secret government, or whatever they are, facility that turned me into a monster, using what I can only assume is your genetics or something to do with you, again!"

Waylon continued to stay silent.

"Then, they set me loose to fight you over and over again. And while I may not remember anything about those fights I certainly remember feeling drained and injured afterwards so I'm guessing you didn't play nice. Oh, but don't worry, because you made up for that by electrocuting me, and what I can only assume is killing me once again, in a bit to restore my humanity so I can see myself and understand that I have been turned into a freak."

Again, Waylon stayed silent.

"If it weren't for you I would be happy. If I had never met you I would have met someone else, someone normal who would have given me everything I'd ever want and not put my life in constant danger. Not almost killed me hundreds of times because he is turning into more of a monster. Not needed me to sing a fucking lullaby to calm him down or he'd end my life sooner."

Still silent.

"Heck, I should have never come back. I should have stayed in Metropolis, had a fantastic career as a model and forgotten about you. Forgotten that I'd ever carried your baby. Forgotten that I love you. Everything. Everything bad that has happened to me is your fault Waylon Jones. It's all your fault."

Waylon stayed silent, and his silence just pissed Madeline off even more.

"Well. Say something! Yell back at me. Roar in my face. Tell me all the good things you've done for me in defence so I can shoot them down as being pathetic. Heck, hit me or something. Do something don't just stand there! Say something to me!"

"I-I..." Waylon stuttered, unable to form words. Did he even have anything to say in defence.

"Well. Go on then!" Madeline hissed, sounding meaner by the second. She was itching for a good fight. Something to make her feel better.

"I've just missed you so much." Waylon confessed, almost smiling at Madeline with absolute joy.

That was not what Madeline had expected from him. The boiling blood grew still and cold, and she felt her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to say. Riddler was watching for her response too. Madeline glanced over and saw that he was as horrified by what Madeline had said as Madeline felt now that she had finished saying it.

"You're a stupid fucking idiot, you know that?" Madeline accused, pointing at Waylon but she couldn't keep it up. She didn't know what to do with her hands, or how to stand. She retracted them and clenched them, then flexed them, then used one to scratch the back of her neck and the other to run through her strange new lizard hair that felt more like feathers than anything else. Finally, she clutched at it and then let her hands drop to her side.

"I'm a stupid fucking idiot." Madeline growled to herself, and then she grabbed Waylon back his head and pressed her lips against his.

I know its been a while but I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm back at university and away from Fallout 4 so I should be updating more frequently again. I have stared an art page on tumblr and continue to update on my deviantart so it might not be as frequent as once a day but more frequently than I have been. Thankyou all for being so patient with me.