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Redemption, Restitution, & Resurrection
-Chapter Thirteen: BROKEN GLASS-
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The ice creaked beneath Danielle's feet. Her footing slipped a little; the Zsaszes, by contrast, seemed to glide easily over the frozen lake, like ice weasels, sidling toward her with matching soul-sucking grins.
I'm really screwed now, she thought grimly. I'm outnumbered, they're armed, and I'm not, and if they're anything like the Zsasz I know, they're fast as hell. She breathed deeply.C'mon, Danielle, focus! Like you do during randori practice in Kairi's dojo. It'll be just like that… only on thin ice. With no footing. And the possibility of falling in and dying of either hypothermia or drowning! Yeah, let's do this!
"Don't you guys have anything to say?" she taunted, "Something about how you're going to cut me up and bathe in the crimson rivers of my blood?" When they didn't answer, she scoffed. "At least the real one talks!"
Sure, it was usually about making the mark, or about offering the helpless piggies their "salvation" on his sacred murderous mission.. but Zsasz's rantings and ravings had become oddly… comforting to Danielle. In a psychotic, disturbing way. That was the Zsasz she knew. These four imitations lacked what made him special: his humanness.
"You know, I realized something," she stalled as they formed a semi-circle around her. "You guys are just shadows in a land of apparitions. You're zombies!" She laughed out loud. "You of all people, are zombies! The real Zsasz would be appalled." Then she cracked her knuckles and her smile dropped. "That means it's gonna be that much easier to kick your butts!"
The first Zsasz dashed toward her, knives shining against the cold bleak light. Danielle side-stepped him, and he pivoted. She was out of reach now, but he had succeeded in driving her closer to the others. Well played, she thought bitterly.
Two more Zsaszes lunged, one from each side! She caught their arms, using their momentum to thrust herself backward off the line of attack, then reversed their grips. One dropped his knife. The other swung his body forward, aiming a blow for her face. Swwwick! Blood dripped on the ice. Danielle gasped, the drops threading in her hair. Let the pain help me focus!
The ice!
She locked the Zsasz's arm and threw all her weight forward. Zsasz rolled with her, and she used the somersault's momentum to throw him. Crack! His head made a nasty sound as it hit the ice. And even though he was a nightmare apparition, no more real than anything else in this world, Danielle winced.
Ssss! The Zsasz's flesh began to melt. Tally marks ran into each other, and his bones softened and ran together like jello. A vile hissing began as the gloop changed colors, first acid yellow, then green, then brown. The ice was melting, growing unstable there. Danielle wondered what would happen if all four Zsaszes melted that way...
Swwwick! She narrowly dodged the next strike, toppling forward on the ice. "OW!" Splintering pain in her knee. The next Zsasz leered down at her, a malicious smile on his face. A third one was approaching. She sucked in a deep breath. Wait for it...
She burst up when the other Zsasz was directly behind the first one. Neither of the zombies were expecting it, and the ice was indeed treacherous.
Danielle gave a little smirk of her own as they went flying backward, arms windmilling wildly.
One Zsasz tried to stabilize himself using his knife. The blade cracked the frozen lake, and with a scream, the two Zsaszes fell through into the freezing water below. A moment later, the hole bubbled with yellow gas. Three down, one to go.
The final Zsasz stood in wait a short distance away, 20 paces at most. His expression hadn't changed; that same manic, yet oddly blank grin. It sickened her.
He cocked an arm. Danielle straightened her posture and readied her hands.
She wasn't expecting the first blow.
Whooosh! The knife flew at her, a blur of silver, and Danielle tried to duck. She avoided the blade, but lost her balance. Crack! This time she had most definitely broken the ice.
The fourth Zsasz was on top of her suddenly, a second knife descending. She caught his wrist and rolled to one side. He wedged his leg up, pressing down into her torso. His proximity flustered her. They rolled on the ice, each jockeying for position, when the cracking sound got louder. They each had a split second to meet each others' eyes, horror dawning on both their faces, when the ice finally broke, plunging both of them down into its freezing depths.
In the darkened apartment...
They were standing on the other side of the glass now. Scarecrow wiggled his fingers impatiently; the syringes from the glove clicked together.
She stepped through the broken hole in the window. Cool winds from the balcony washed over them, rustling the teacher's long hair. Unconsciously, she shivered.
Just a few more steps now, and she would be finished.
The water, everywhere, so cold, weighing her down...
The light fading...
-Batman in her head, staring ominously at her-
"Gyah!" A bedraggled brown head broke the surface.
She wasn't dead! But her arms were growing numb; her body was shutting down. So cold…
Danielle's breath came in short pants as she pulled herself up onto solid ice. Everything hurt. For what seemed like forever, she lay there, willing herself to get warm.
Finally she forced herself to get up, keep moving. It took a very long time to get off the frozen lake. Once she had, she faced the mountain with exhaustion, but even more determination.
I will not let you win, Scarecrow!
Walking helped. Not much, but it did.
A snowy graveyard lay just up the hill from the frozen lake. Almost thirty tombstones, all bearing names of her friends, family, and students…even Zsasz oddly. Each mound covered with the sinister blue flowers. What kind of monster was Scarecrow, anyway?
The path was getting steeper. She listened carefully for the roaring of fire, the sign that the Scarecrow was approaching.
"Where are you?" Was that the wind, whispering?
She peered around the corner cautiously. Her heart leaped. The giant Scarecrow's eyes were focused on the ruined snowfield below. It looked so small now from up here. Her hair began to tingle, and she hid as the Scarecrow turned his gaze in her direction. Lazily the deadly golden beams swept the mountainside, seeming to linger on her hiding place. She held her breath. Could Scarecrow sense her fear?
On her hands and knees she crawled up the slope, avoiding his glare, and finally reached a flatter area.
Her mouth fell open. She was at the summit already! The Bat-Signal's bluish light shone against the stormy clouds overhead. That was it! If she could just sneak forward-
Suddenly the area was flooded with the scary light. "What are you doing?" She ducked quickly down the slope. The gaze remained, and the snow was beginning to melt on her head. What if the Scarecrow could burn through the whole mountain? The thought panicked her. A quiet, menacing chuckle drifted over the high winds.
She took deep breaths. What would Batman do? What would Kairi-sensei do? They would conquer themselves, before they attempted to conquer the mountain. Slowly her heart rate dropped back down. As she began to think of a plan, the Scarecrow's lights suddenly left. Safe.
Whispering footsteps. She crept up to the ridge. No turning back now. One last breath, and she raced forward-
Outside the darkened apartment...
"Rise, my dear," the Scarecrow whispered, and the teacher raised her bloodied foot, placing it firmly on the fire escape railing-
In the nightmare world...
The Bat-Signal's metal was cool to the touch. She grunted as she tried to move it. Where should I point it? Where will Batman see? Suddenly the wind roared, and those terrible beams swept along the summit and landed squarely on Danielle-
Outside the darkened apartment...
A second foot up on the fire escape-
In the nightmare world...
Danielle ducked behind the Bat-Signal as the snow around her turned to dust and then flames.
"I see you!" the Scarecrow cackled in all his deranged joy.
Angrily, she gritted her teeth. Die here? I don't think so!
She heaved against the Bat-Signal, directly to where those murderous beams of light were coming from. She could see the rainbow moon behind the Scarecrow's head. "I'll blind you, you fucker!" she screamed into the wind. A single tear rolled down her face.
For Greta!
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The giant Scarecrow howled as the Bat-Signal's light pierced him. Cracks appeared in his jack-o-lantern face, spreading out and out, until suddenly, with a great BOOM! he exploded, pieces raining down onto the snowfield below.
Danielle collapsed beside the Bat-Signal with a groan.
It was over.
For a long time, she lay in the snow, gasping and thankful. Finally, she sat up.
Everything was back to normal. The snow was sprinkling peacefully, the sky no longer an orange-red but grey and mellow.
The Scarecrow was gone. So was the Bat-Signal.
It was really over. Now it was just her. Just her and the mountain.
Danielle shook her head to clear away the haze. One question occurred to her now: How do I get down from here?
"This is just a dream…"
She flinched a little. Looked like the wind was still speaking to her.
"You don't have to descend slowly. You can jump."
She looked over the edge. It was a long way down.
"Jump. It's not hard at the bottom. It's just snow."
Her stomach protested. It wasn't the normal safe way down. But Danielle's imagination, childish once again, told her that anything was possible in this dream world, even soaring off a mountain. No matter what, she would wake peacefully, now that Scarecrow was gone. There was nothing to worry about ...was there?
Outside the darkened apartment...
The self-defense teacher's hair was wild in the wind now. Her feet were on the top railing of the fire escape. No safety net. This was it. Silly teacher came to teach, and now it was time her classes burned, along with her noble cause.
The self-defense teacher was ready… to die.
Scarecrow whispered one word:
"Jump."
Inside Danielle's dream...
"Jump," whispered the wind, and Danielle decided she would oblige.
For the briefest moment, she wondered if she might fly.
She took one step off the side of the cliff-
CRASH! The window broke even more as a black shape hurtled out of the night, spearing the self-defense teacher before she could fall. Batman flared his cape, and he and Danielle burst into the living room, rolling onto the broken glass, away from the window.
The shadow of the night lifted his head, fearsome eyes peering into the darkness.
"Crane!"
He heard a rustle of burlap and saw the supervillain's silhouette as he fled through the front door.
The self-defense teacher was in bad shape. Cuts all over, a piece of glass wedged in one foot. But worst of all, needle marks in her left arm. Batman's eyes widened. The marks were turning black, no doubt Scarecrow's toxin making their rounds. He counted eight syringe marks - two doses! Too much!
"Ugh… ughhh…"
Danielle's eyes were open and unseeing. Her throat gurgled, soft choked noises coming out, and she clawed at the air with her hands. She was going into shock!
In the blink of an eye, Batman plunged the syringe into her heart. The antidote pumped in.
Danielle Lee gasped and threw back her head. Batman held her body still as it shuddered, fighting not to die. Tears were running down her face, but she couldn't speak. "C'mon, Danielle! Pull through." He dialed 911 as he watched her writhe. "Operator! We have an emergency at 3203 West Ellis Street, apartment 710. A young woman has gone into shock. Send help immediately!" The elevator dinged in the hallway, but he knew it wasn't the paramedics. Someone was going down.
"C'mon, Danielle…" He didn't want to imagine what nightmares she had seen to make her this way. He knew well enough from his own run-ins with the malevolent Dr. Crane.
Gently, he brushed the sticky hair back from her face. It had an effect: she shut her eyes. A few moments later, her body relaxed and her breathing deepened. He checked her pulse - 50 bpm. She was going to be OK.
He sighed and stood up. He wanted to stay with her until the paramedics arrived, but there was a maniac on the loose. He took one last look down at her - "Sleep well now," and with that he was gone.
"CRANE!"
The bellow filled him with such delicious terror. The Bat was soon to catch him and punish him… He didn't know how Batman had managed to interrupt his appointment with the teacher, but it didn't matter anymore. With the dose of fear toxin he had given her, her heart would give out soon enough, hours before anyone came for her.
When he was finished with Batman...
He stopped and tilted his head. Shadows flickered; that streetlamp really needed a new bulb. Or perhaps it was the late autumn leaves spiraling down. This time of year always made him think of Sleepy Hollow. The brown and dying leaves falling around the dilapidated Church, with his grandmother screaming prayers and curses into the wind… The fluttering of wings-
He felt the wind shudder and knew, in an instant, that the great black Bat had landed behind him.
"CRA-"
SSSSSSS!
The gas exploded into Batman's cowled face, courtesy of the dispenser Scarecrow had hidden up his sleeve. Batman's jaw slackened for just a moment… And then, before Scarecrow's delighted eyes, the rodent crumpled forward, hands clutching his mask. The madman whooped triumphantly and then gazed almost pityingly at his adversary. Tsk, tsk. He really should know better than to sneak up when the scientist is working! Hah! That worked quicker than I imagined… What are you afraid of, little bat? His technical mind began to catalogue: subject is more subdued, growing woozy and listing from side to side... Delightful!
"Tell me what you see," he hissed over the vigilante's coughing.
"Hck- hck- I- hck- see- you-"
Scarecrow leaned forward.
POW!
"OW!" The vigilante unexpectedly clocked Scarecrow in the face.
"I see you haven't learned anything from our last confrontation, Crane." Batman looked up into the mad doctor's eyes and... he… smiled.
"How?! How could you adapt so quickly- ulp!" The black gauntleted hand was now around his neck, fingers clenched.
"I knew you had something up your sleeve when you were wearing this outfit! In spite of being fitted with syringes, you only wear this when you're planning to use an aerosol version of your toxin! Your mask is a rebreather - keeps you from getting a dose of your own medicine!" Batman ripped off the Scarecrow's mask. "Now TALK!" Scarecrow cried out as Batman bent his wrist backward, straining the tendons dangerously. "Tell me who hired you, or prepare to face your worst nightmares! I know how your gas works - you're terrified right now! One puff of this, and you're in Nightmareland!"
"Does-" Crane tried to gloat, "Does the Batman feel frustrated at failing to save another life? Scared, maybe, that he's losing his touch-?" Batman heard a slight crack."YAAAAAAHHHH!" Scarecrow gasped for breath.
"That was only a minor fracture. Give me a straight answer, or I will gas you, Crane!"
"It w-was the Falcone family, of c-course," he spoke though gritted teeth. "Are you ruh-really that dim that you couldn't put it together? And Edward... claims you are actually a fair rival-"
"I saw the Falcone's paperwork on your ship back in Arkham City. I wondered when he would be requiring your services."
"Of course you did. I was observing you while you were poking around in there. Did you have any nightmares after your visit? Mmmehehahaha…"
"So Falcone hired you to kill the self-defense teacher. Why?!"
"She's bad for business. The Falcones had a matter with one of her students. They weren't able to get as much information as they needed from him; he was uncooperative. Mr. Falcone blames her classes, naturally."
"And were you asked to do this, or did you volunteer personally?"
"I was paid to do this. And yes, I volunteered for the job."
"Why?" Batman spoke quietly. "I would figure you of all people, Crane, would see some good in these classes. All your youth you were bullied, first by your grandmother, then by the kids at school… Wouldn't you want to see other people avoid your fate?"
"You don't get it, Batman, do you? With my weapons, no one can bully me again. It doesn't matter who they are. No one is stronger than fear!" Dr. Crane smiled. Batman stared at his demented, contorted face - thin, almost nerdy, but with an inhuman hatred sparking behind those eyes - joy almost, at the power he held over his victims - and he found Dr. Crane's real face even scarier than Scarecrow's. "Crime pays, Batman. The self-defense teacher sells her students a lie, a belief that if they are just strong enough, then they can be invincible to anything. No one is invincible to fear." He smiled, showing shiny teeth. "And now she's lying, dying on the floor, having a heart attack as we speak. It doesn't matter that she didn't go tumbling out the window - it would have been poetic, by the way. The dose I gave her was too much. You are too late to save her."
"You poisoned her for weeks." Batman's voice shook with anger. "You left your toxin on her notes, and left trace amounts of it in the air in her office. She must have felt as if things weren't quite right, as if she were slowly going mad, but without knowing why! You killed one of her students - you orphaned two kids when you killed their mother in front of them! And then your grand finale… making the teacher jump off her fire escape, appearing to have committed suicide from the stress of it all! You're sick, Crane! A monster! What could make you hate her so much?"
"I didn't hate her. It was all in the name of science."
"Do me a favor," Batman growled as the police sirens began to approach them from the distance. "When you get to Arkham, send Dr. Kellerman my regards. Tell him that the antidote he prepared worked like a charm." Batman released the Scarecrow, and the villain realized that Batman had tied him up as they talked. He slumped against the side of a car and glared up at the masked menace. "He defeated you, Crane. Again."
Batman disappeared, and Crane could do nothing but wait patiently for the police to arrive... and be thankful that the Bat hadn't done worse than a fractured wrist...
The world moving… Molasses slow…
The sluggish sensation of eating too much junk food...
"Ughhh…"
Something crunched under her. Not snow - glass.
Danielle's eyes fluttered open.
"Oh God no…"
When she tried to sit up, pain shot through her left arm. Her foot didn't feel so great either. But her thoughts were clear. For the first time in weeks, the fog was gone.
It was dark, but she knew where she was. She would know that smell of tea and old rice anywhere. Her apartment.
It was as if a hurricane had gone through it. Two bookshelves lay overturned, books and training gear and photo albums strewn about the floor. A frosty breeze blew in through her shattered window; glass lay everywhere glittering in the dim streetlight from outside. The front door was wide open. Her home, like her, had been utterly violated.
Scarecrow!
Danielle bolted to her feet - or tried to. With a cry she fell down, only now seeing the huge shard of glass sticking out of her shoe, embedded in her foot. There was blood all over the sole.
"Shit!" she peered through the darkness. Where was he? She had to get up, get to the phone or a weapon of some kind! She was a sitting duck if she stayed there! Where was the phone?!
"No time to be gentle," she murmured before yanking the glass free of her shoe. The sensation of tearing skin was horrible, but it wasn't as bad as she had feared. She pulled off her shoe and looked down at the cut. The First Aid Kit was still on the coffee table. She began to crawl over to it, when her hand brushed something sticking out of the wooden floor. Her mouth fell open in astonishment.
A batarang.
Batman! He came after all. He saved me from the nightmare world! Tears of joy sprang into her eyes. He probably chased Scarecrow away! I'm safe.
Problems one and two solved; now she needed to find the phone and call the police. Images were flooding her head now, of Cindy and Mrs. Phillips on the park bench, throats cut - and her family lying dead in the straw, heads missing. Would Scarecrow really do something like that?
She found her cell phone. Looking down at the screen, panic swept through her.
7 missed calls from Dante.
She began to shiver uncontrollably. Cindy's boyfriend never called her. He never needed to. Unless something had happened.
She listened to the first message: "Hey, it's Dante. Are you still out with Cindy? She said she'd be home by eight, and she's not picking up her phone. I was just wondering if she was still with you. Please call me back, it's getting late. It's almost ten now. Peace!"
OhGodOhGodOhGod… Again, she saw her best friend dead on the park bench in the cold moonlight. Not Cindy! Oh God, my dream was real!
With shaking hands, she began to dial the police. 9-
BRIIING! Her phone rang in her hand. She looked down at the caller ID. Cindy Gibson. "Thank God!" Danielle picked up the phone, smiling shakily, "Cindy! Thank God you called! Listen-"
"Cindy's not... in at the moment."
Fear hit her like a bucket of ice.
Zsasz.
"But I would be happy to take a message for her, after her salvation, of course. The little piggy is dying to speak to you."
Was she still in the nightmare world? Was this really happening? She felt sick.
"What have you done to Cindy?" she asked slowly.
"Oho, so worried! You have no faith in me, do you, Danielle?"
Why him? Why, of all people, did it have to be him?
"I'll do anything you want."
"I bet you will!"
"Please let her go."
"That…depends on you, my sweet Danielle. There's a special game I want to play. Just me and you."
"Name it."
"You have a choice to make. See, your little piggy's not alone." Danielle's heart plummeted at each word Zsasz spoke. "I have three little piggies here with me, just waiting for me to cure them of life. Precious people of yours, Dani dearest! Now the question, my sweetheart," he said, his soft voice turning sinister, "is, which one will you save?"
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