A/N:
Batfangirl: I totally agree, dialogue can be so telling about characters, what they do and don't say, how they react to each other... I'm a huge dialogue fan! :D I totally imagine Zsasz trying to pull a "Hannibal Lecter" on Danielle and freak her out. XD
4SeasonsChick: I knew you'd like Cindy! :D She's one strong girl. She's based on Maxine Gibson from "Batman Beyond". :)
Random thought of the day: does anyone else think Deadshot (the Arkham City version) looks slightly like Adam Baldwin (aka Jayne from Firefly)? :D
Enjoy! :)
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Redemption, Restitution, & Resurrection
-Chapter Fifteen: RUSH-
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The old Sionis steel mill loomed before the yellow taxi. In the darkness, it seemed like more than a building. Once a majestic palace of dreams and business, it sat abandoned at the edge of the city, peering out enviously across the bay, toward the more glamourous and recent endeavors of Gotham's decadent inhabitants. The steel mill was not alone; rather it was the crowned jewel of this sad neighborhood, and all around lay the ghosts of industry past, all broken windows and boarded up doors. But the mill, at the top of the hill, was the most visible structure by far. Cold, dark, no longer bedazzled by thousands of tiny lights - a memento from the Arkham City days - it no longer belonged to Sionis nor Joker. It belonged to history best forgotten. A sick monument of sorts.
Danielle shivered a little as she stepped out and paid the driver. Even though the smokestacks were no longer hot, the air stank of rust; no doubt the mill was corroding from the salty breeze that drifted in from the bay. She could hear the waves as she raced up to the entrance. Was Zsasz really here? Had he taken her friends to this godforsaken place?
Just before the main door she stopped in her tracks. Something glinted up from the pavement. She knelt down.
It was a small silver charm bracelet, and Danielle's eyes stung. She and Mrs. Phillips had given it to Cindy last year for her birthday. They were in here!
Her fingers fumbled with the phone. The police line rang and rang, and Danielle put it carefully just outside the main entrance to the steel mill. The police could track her signal, she hoped. If she couldn't save her friends… No. No, that wasn't even an option right now. She steeled herself before opening the door.
The loading bay was empty. No sign of them. But oh, if just being in here didn't make her hair stand on end! Among other things, the lights were still on. Why were the lights always on in here?! Too well she remembered the creepy night she had spent in the manager's office above her. Fleetingly she wondered if the pictures of the Joker were still decorating the walls.
Where were they?!
She took the first door on the right, the one that rather ominously said "Death Ride". Just an empty room with an elevator. Sprinting now, she went into the next room. Nothing but a conveyor belt and old equipment, no sign of her friends. Dust everywhere, this place hadn't been touched in months! She went through, room after room, her panic growing. They had to be here! They just had to be!
But there was no one there. And she couldn't hear any voices. Maybe that's good. If they aren't screaming, then maybe I'm not too late. Maybe they're still OK...
Or they could already be dead, she thought fearfully. What if she was too late? What if, as she searched, Zsasz had called her back and begun murdering her friends?
She stumbled back to the loading bay on the verge of panic. They just had to be here! Cindy's clue, the bracelet outside, there wasn't anywhere else they could be! There were two more doors to try. The one on the far side of the room only lead to the office upstairs! She gritted her teeth. One door left...
This one led to an old freight elevator. The accordion doors directly in front of the lifts were long gone, torn off their hinges. The two elevators were on the bottom floor. Her stomach dipped as she registered just how high up this shaft was. If she fell...
She would probably have to slide down using the metal cables. Then she could land on the roof of one of the elevators and crawl through the slim opening at the top. She was reaching out for one of those cables when the doubts hit her. Even if she got all the way down there safely, there was no telling how she'd get back up to the top. And if she was wrong, she'd be helpless down there. Helpless to save her friends. Zsasz could be somewhere entirely different with them, and he would successfully torture them to death, if she made this one mistake... Should she really do this?
She searched her instincts. They said exactly what she expected.
With renewed determination she began to descend the shaft.
Cindy had long stopped trying to reason with Zsasz. There was nothing, absolutely nothing she could say, that could get through to this monster.
How did Danielle survive so long with him?! she wondered. All alone, month after month, how did she do it?
Were they really going to die here? In a dirty, stinking boiler room, inside a cage?
The Butcher walked close to Mrs. Phillips' cell. The old woman drew back as he swiped the bars with his blade, metal grating the air.
"Can you feel the time approaching, little pigs?" Zsasz began to laugh. He was quickly becoming more unhinged, agitated, as he paced back and forth among them. His eyes were wild with malice, and he leaned closer to drink the fear from their eyes.
"You…" he whispered to Theodore, "you I will gut like a fish!" The more he talked, the more psyched up he was getting. Any second now he would make that phone call—
Cindy thought fast, trying to delay him. "Don't you think you'll get caught? What are you gonna do if the police catch you?"
"The police… ohohohoho… Danielle never told you, did she? I have been arrested more times than I can count! It's never stopped me from completing my great work." He shook his head with amusement. "Eventually I get out again, and I save more people."
"You keep track of every person you ever killed, but you can't keep track of your arrest record?" Cindy couldn't help but snark.
"Spoken like a true best friend of Danielle's! You see, the arrests are unimportant. I do not keep track of unimportant things." He laughed as he waved the blade. The hilt was rust-red. He looked down at Cindy menacingly, and she felt a coldness inside.
"Let us call Danielle now," Zsasz held up Cindy's cell phone. "Let us see who she will choose to save." He dialed, the keys pinging as he punched the numbers he had now memorized, and the line rang. The hostages all held their breaths, waiting for Danielle to pick up, waiting for the choice that might damn two of them...
And the phone...
Kept...
Ringing...
And...
Ringing!
The room was so quiet that they could hear each ring, each unanswered summons. Why wasn't she answering? Was she leaving them to die? Zsasz's face grew colder at each passing moment, until finally...
"Hi, you've reached Danielle Lee, please leave a message…"
Beep! Zsasz disconnected, fury darkening his features. For a moment, he didn't do anything but clench the phone, so hard that it looked as though he would snap it in halves. Would he go crazy? Begin slashing them without rhyme or reason? The cages would not protect them; Theodore, Mrs. Phillips, and Cindy were painfully aware of this.
Moments passed, and the tension in the room was palpable, so thick it could be cut with a knife. Only then did Zsasz finally tilt his head back… and he began to giggle.
His chilling mirth rang out for all of them to hear, and at that moment, each of Danielle's friends knew they were going to die.
"Oh, oh, this is too perfect!" he snickered. "Danielle… Your precious Dani dearest is too afraid to make the choice! She cannot stand to sentence any one of you to die, even if it means saving one of you! Or," he smiled, "she really did consider all of you the burden, and she wanted me to rid you of your miserable lives."
"That's not true!" Cindy burst out.
"Well, no matter…" Zsasz said, unfazed. "I'll take good care of her for all of you, I promise you that. Yes… I'll call her back in a moment. I'll let her listen to your screams. But first I want a taste. I want to know who will scream the loudest for Dani dearest." He waved the knife and turned in a slow circle, deciding who would get it first.
"I guess I'll have to start with you."
THUMP! Danielle landed on the metal cage below. She had lost her grip early - hard to hold on with all the armor weighing her down. Luckily the same armor protected her. She landed on her side and lay there for a moment panting.
Then the self-defense teacher was on her feet again, determination on her face. Don't give up now!
Cindy's eyes widened in horror as Zsasz raised the knife. His other hand held the keys. In a second he would open the cage and stab her, and she would die! She clutched her crucifix tightly.
"Yes… Feel the end coming, little pig! Feel your salvation!"
Cindy's heart was thundering in her ears.
He paused. "Actually, I think I want Danielle to hear this. She can pick it up if she likes. Just so long as she hears her best friend die." He dialed again. No answer. "C'mon, Danielle – WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Quickly he regained his composure. "She's probably sitting next to her phone, fearing to hear which one of you I kill first." As Cindy watched, his frightening mask slipped into place: there was nothing in his eyes but total emptiness, the single-minded murderous urge. "She'll regret not playing along. Soon she'll be all alone, and then she'll be mine."
He approached the cage with a slow gait, knowing it would intimidate her more than if he rushed. Her eyes widened suddenly.
"Are you so afraid of your own death?" Zsasz tilted his head. No wait. The piggy is looking behind me. I didn't hear— It's Batman! Instinctively Zsasz spun around—
WHAM!
…Not into a black gauntleted hand, but rather a baseball bat!
"Danielle!"
The next blow came swiftly.
WHAM! Zsasz flew across the room, landing in a heap, blood trickling from a head wound. He saw Danielle approaching him like a fireball out of hell. She wasn't wearing her usual attire, he noticed. In place of his Alive Girl stood a warrior wearing a chest protector, arm guards, even a Gotham Knights catcher's helmet, wire across obscuring her face. But he could read the fury coming off her in waves. With her baseball armor, fierce posture and the way she held the bat, he swore she looked like a damn samurai.
She bore down, slamming the bat at him. He rolled out of the way and rose swiftly, knife in hand. Swit! She raised an arm in defense, and his blade glanced off the guard. Swit! His second blade cut through the fabric near her right shoulder, an unprotected area. She caught his hand, pressing down into the soft flesh near his thumb. The knife clattered to the ground. Before she could take advantage of more openings, he withdrew, retreating a fair distance to appraise her better.
"So you found us, Danielle. I'm impressed. And in style, too! How did you do it?"
Danielle stole a look toward her friends. They were safe! They looked worse for wear, but no major cuts or injuries that it seemed… She noticed suddenly that the three of them were looking as if they had seen a ghost — but their terrified eyes weren't focused on Zsasz. They were focused on her. It was then she understood that in spite of everything her friends had experienced, they had never seen violence like this before. Zsasz was right. They didn't know her real self. They couldn't.
When she had entered the room and witnessed Zsasz menacing Cindy ...she saw red. Sneaking up on him had been the least she could do when every muscle in her body screamed to rip him to shreds.
Now, now that she knew they were all alive, she tried to reign in the rage and concentrate. His guard was up. Spotting or making openings was going to be difficult, and at any time he could go for one of her friends...
Zsasz wiped the blood from his forehead, smearing it across his skin. "Won't you dance with me?"
"No time for da—"
WHOOOOSH!
A blur of silver - Zsasz's knife flying toward Mrs. Phillips - a split-second of terror -
CRACK! The bat slamming the knife out of the air sounded like a whip, and Mrs. Phillips flinched before, finally, succumbing to terror. She slumped forward, unconscious. Cindy and Theodore watched with astonishment at the knife fell from the blow, spiking hard onto the concrete floor.
Just as suddenly, Zsasz had Danielle pinned against the back wall, a knife to her throat. Danielle had raised her bat, pushing back against his arms.
Vaguely she could hear her friends, yelling her name in alarm.
Zsasz leaned close to her, peering through the wires.
"Why don't you take off that mask and give me a kiss." His expression contorted suddenly. "I was this close, this close to liberating you from them, and you ruined it! But it's not too late… We could be together, Dani-"
She forced him backward.
"Together! You don't even like me, Zsasz!" She ignored the shocked look on his face. She swung at him again, and he dodged, but his astonishment remained. Suddenly the words came rushing out.
"The only reason, and I mean only reason why you like me is because you were lonely at exactly the wrong time! I wouldn't die on your command, and you respected that, maybe even enjoyed the challenge… But then it was summer, the worst time of year for you, and I was simply there! Just there to distract you from everything you have no control over! I'm not special, you don't like me for my stunning intellect or because of some non-existent superpowers, or even because my personality appeals to you. You like me because of circumstances, and nothing more! Because I amuse you, and because you think you have power over me. You crossed a line when you went after my friends! And now, you knife-wielding asshole, I'm taking you back to Arkham!"
Zsasz laughed, as if her words were nothing more than whispers in the wind. She tried to edge her way over, get between Zsasz and the cages. No matter what happened, he must not get through her! She readied her bat.
"You know that armor will slow you down…" She noticed the second glint in his hands. He'd already rearmed.
"Do you have an endless supply of knives or something?!" she finally asked the question that had always irked her.
"Yes."
"Psycho."
"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful, Danielle."
WHOOOSH! Another knife!
CRACK! That one fell just an inch from Theodore's cage. The young man covered his face, and Danielle hardened her stance.
"You want them, you'll have to come through me!"
Zsasz's eyes were burning with anger. "Even now you fight for them, even when they burden you! You know they'll die sooner or later, so why do you fight it?!"
Danielle remained unmoving.
"This isn't over!" Abruptly the malevolent murderer fled, running past Danielle and the cages to a nearby conveyor belt full of purple ceramic penguins. He scrambled through the narrow opening, and they could hear the clang of boots hitting metal as he ran.
"There are stairs in the back!" Cindy called out. "That's how he brought us down here!"
Danielle spun around. "You guys! Thank God- Where are the keys?"
Theodore pointed. Zsasz had dropped them near his cell during the struggle. Danielle picked them up and swiftly released her friends. "Are you guys OK? Did he hurt you?"
"We're fine, Miss Danielle," Theodore adjusted his broken glasses nervously.
"Dani…"
"Cindy!" Danielle hugged her best friend fiercely.
"Dani, what happened to your arm?"
"Oh, it's nothing, probably where Zsasz—" She trailed off.
Zsasz had cut her sleeve open, but he hadn't broken the skin. Cindy was looking wide-eyed at the now-bruising needlemarks from the Scarecrow. Her stomach turned. Hard to believe that a short hour ago, she was still stuck in his nightmare world.
Their eyes met. "Girl, you've been through a lot this evening, haven't you?" Cindy uttered, refusing to break eye contact. She didn't look scared, but… but there was something in her gaze. Something had changed. It could have been her ordeal with Zsasz (it probably was), or it could have been seeing her real best friend, how violent she really was… Whatever it was, it made Danielle sick at heart to know that nothing would be the same for any of them, ever again.
She looked down. "Nothing as horrible as what you've been through tonight, Cind." She turned away abruptly and opened the last cage.
"Mrs. Phillips…" she held the old woman in her arms. There was still a pulse - hopefully she had just been frightened into passing out. She checked the back of her head tenderly. There was a slight bruise. "Oh no…" She cradled her close. "I need to get to my phone… I left it upstairs dialing the police."
"So that's why you didn't answer it."
"I couldn't risk that he would hear it ringing if he called while I was looking for you." Her head was swimming. She could barely hear her friends. "I needed the element of surprise."
"You got here just in time," Cindy's voice trembled with relief. "He was going to cut us up."
"I'm so sorry," Danielle sobbed, holding Mrs. Phillips even closer. The old woman groaned in her sleep and shifted slightly. "I got you guys into this mess—"
"Don't blame yourself, Miss Danielle!" Theodore protested vehemently, making Danielle look up in shock. "Remember what you always tell us in class? That it's not our faults when someone decides to make victims of us? It wasn't your fault whatever he decided."
"He shouldn't have put any of us in that situation, Dani! He's a monster," Cindy's face twisted. "I can't believe you've had to live with him targeting you for so long!"
"You should have seen Cindy!" Theodore blushed. "She didn't let him intimidate her at all. She was amazing!"
Danielle grinned through her tears. "Why am I not surprised? You've always been a badass, Cind."
"Badass best friends!" Cindy laughed, high-fiving her. "And for the record, I was terrified!"
"The phone down here doesn't work." The girls turned at Theodore's gesture; indeed, there was a phone on the wall, but the lines were ripped out. Cindy's cell phone was nowhere in sight; Zsasz must have taken it with him. "He's crazy, Miss Danielle."
"Yes…" she noticed the dried blood on the ends of the ripped cords. "Yes, he is."
"I got her," Cindy took Mrs. Phillips in her arms gently. "Go, Dani."
"Here." She handed Cindy her mace. Somehow the sight of it in her best friend's hand filled her with a sense of rightness. "Just in case he comes back. I'll make sure the police are on their way. Wait, one more thing…" She placed the charm bracelet, now warm from her pocket, into Cindy's hand. "If it hadn't been for your clues, I'd have never found you guys. You are beyond amazing, girl."
Cindy smiled up at her.
"Be safe," Theodore whispered.
She took one last look at her friends, burning their images into her memory, and then she was scrambling through the conveyor line and up the hidden stairs.
The ascent took forever. She listened for Zsasz's footsteps. Nothing. He could be long gone by now… Or lying in wait.
The hidden stairs let out into a dark little room, maybe a janitor's closet. When she opened the door, she saw she was back in the Loading Bay. Quickly she raced for the doors, throwing them open, and spotted her cell phone lying on the ground ahead. She ran to pick it up—
WHAM! The world spun. She found herself on her hands and knees, looking up into Zsasz's face.
"Sorry, Danielle, can't have you calling the police just yet." SMASH! Her phone exploded into sparks as he stomped it into oblivion. There was a clatter, and Cindy's equally smashed phone landed next to hers. "Now, let's just-"
He straightened up suddenly, his eyes widening at something Danielle couldn't see. "Batman!" He tore off at full speed, feet pounding the gravel. A moment later she felt the cloth of Batman's cape as he landed next to her.
"Danielle, are you alright?" she heard his baritone, and nothing sounded sweeter.
"I'm OK. He got my friends - they're downstairs inside the steel mill, in the boiler room. He was gonna kill them. I stopped him." She got to her feet and smiled slightly, finally letting it sink in. "I stopped him."
"I'll call for an ambulance," Batman dialed and spoke quickly on his cowl. As he did, Danielle picked up her fallen baseball bat and strode away purposefully.
"Where are you going?" Batman was by her side in an instant, hand clamped on her shoulder. Danielle's gaze shot up to him. "The police will be here soon. Go back to your friends."
"No."
"WHAT?"
"I'm going after him. I've got to take care of him once and for all."
She started to walk off, and once again Batman stopped her. "It wasn't a question, Danielle. You're staying here."
"HE WENT AFTER MY FRIENDS!" Danielle exploded. Batman looked taken aback, though he quickly regained his stoic appearance. Somewhere deep inside, Danielle knew that she shouldn't be yelling at Batman, that she was completely in the wrong for doing so, but dammit, she was so frustrated!
"If I let him go now, he'll go after them again! You know how he is, Batman, they won't even be safe in the damn hospital! He won't stop until they're dead! That sicko won't stop until he's killed the whole world, starting with the people I love! The police can't take him down, he eats them for breakfast. Don't you get it? He says he wants me to play his game. So I will! I'll trick him, beat the hell out of him, and then I'll drag him back to Arkham myself this time." She tried to pass Batman and this time he grabbed both her shoulders.
"Don't you understand that this is not your job!" Even knowing he was a force of good, Batman's harshness shook her from head to toe. "You are not vigilante. Leave it to the people who are supposed to handle it!"
"Batman-" for a moment her voice faltered as she looked up at her idol. He looked intimidating with his scowl, but everything else about him… His bravery, his integrity, his dedication… How can anyone ever repay him for all he does? "You do more for this city than anyone, Batman." You've always inspired me. "You carry the whole weight of Arkham, and more, on your shoulders. You know this, right? Thank you for everything you do." She gently removed his hands from her shoulders. "You do so much on your own... Can't you let someone else handle just one of them?"
"No."
"OK then." She took a deep breath. "He went this way!"
She sprinted off suddenly and Batman shook his head. "She's going to get herself killed if I don't go with her. She might anyway." With great reluctance, he ran after her.
Danielle had cleared the gates of the steel mill when she felt Batman beside her. "I disagree with what you're doing. Just so you know."
She smiled. "Thank you, Batman."
"Don't thank me yet. How do you know he went this way?"
"A hunch."
"What?!"
They stopped suddenly in the street. Batman held out his hand. "Give me your bat."
She handed it over. Batman looked at it intensely, and she realized he was scanning it.
He looked down at the ground. "You can verify that this is Zsasz's blood on your bat?"
Danielle nodded.
"He went this way."
They continued forward, Danielle following Batman's lead. By now the regrets were sinking in. Not for pursuing Zsasz, she wouldn't regret that — but for yelling at Batman, her ally. For not being more respectful of him. For getting her friends into this mess. For this whole evening. She heard the wail of an ambulance somewhere behind her and breathed a little easier. Her friends were safe now—
Batman was gone.
She looked around in growing shock and indignation. He had ditched her! Well, what else could she have expected—?
"Oh crap!" The yelling startled her. She glanced left and saw two thugs pointing in her direction, beer spilled. "Look out! It's the Bat—"
Hah! Batman didn't leave after all. She turned to grin at him, but he still wasn't there.
"—ter!"
Her head whipped around. What did they just say?!
A third thug came on the scene. All three of them were pointing at her. "Yeah, it's the Batter!"
"Mavis didn't say anything about her wearing a costume!" the first thug yelped.
"Maybe she's upgrading!"
Wait… What?! "What did you call me?!" she demanded.
"Skinny chick with a baseball bat, dark hair – it's you!"
"Hey batter batter batter!"
"You beat up our buddy Mavis three years ago! Took his brass knuckles off him!"
"You beat up some of our other friends too!"
"I did…?" She remembered a few months ago when some Penguin goons had tried to mug her. Come to think of it, these guys were wearing Penguin decals too... "Oh."
"What's wrong? You beat up so many people you can't even remember them all?"
"You're worse than Batman!"
"You guys…" You're delaying me from getting Zsasz! "You're morons, and I don't have time for this."
"Oh hell no! She's just gonna walk away! Stuck up bitch!"
"Get her!"
Danielle turned, fluidly moving past the first punch. OOMPF! Her bat jabbed into his solar plexus and he dropped to his knees, winded. She swung, and he went down all the way. His two buddies were not far behind, and Danielle made short work of them. One grabbed her arm. She reversed his hold and kicked the back of his knee, forcing him to the ground clutching his leg. The third one charged with a furious yell. She clocked him in the head, knowing him out cold.
The goons who were conscious remained on the ground as she walked past. They did not try to attack her again.
She turned and nearly bumped into Batman. "Well done," was all he said, before he strode off with a swirl of his cape, not even bothering to address the broken men on the ground.
"Where to now?" she asked anxiously.
"The trail's almost cold. If we lose him now there's no telling when he'll resurface." She read the consternation in his voice. "If Zsasz approaches you again for any reason, you need to contact me. Don't go it alone, Danielle, no matter how much you want to!" With their history, it's an almost-certainty he'll pursue her. I can use his fixation on her to lure him out, catch him.
"But how will I contact you?"
"You'll know. I'll make sure your new phone is fitted with a way." He held his hand out suddenly. "Wait here!"
He ran ahead. She heard a yell. Curiosity got the better of her. "Just a quick look, just to make sure he doesn't need help…" The excuse sounded stupid even to her own ears.
When she crept into the clearing, she was in for a shock.
The cry had come from Zsasz. He was surrounded, with at least ten attackers closing in on him. Batman was rushing in — from the looks of it, to save Zsasz! But that wasn't the craziest part.
Zsasz's ten attackers were wearing all black and wielding huge swords...
They were ninjas!
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