Redemption, Restitution, & Resurrection

-Chapter Sixteen: REVELATIONS-

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"Alert the master! It's him!"

"Oh boy…" Batman muttered to himself. In a moment he flash-stepped to the zealot who had spoken, knocking her out with a solid punch to the jaw.

This evening was turning out to be crazier than he had foreseen. Crane and Zsasz's shenanigans he could deal with; that was his "Tuesday" – or literally Friday – so to speak. But it now seemed that he had decided to play his hand early.

The next ninja gave a shrill cry as she swung at him. He sidestepped her attack and counterattacked from the outside, where her defenses were weak. Even as she went down, two more kunoichi came at him, one on each side. He countered them both and knocked their heads together, but clearly not hard enough…

All the while Zsasz struggled against his captors. Two men – martial arts experts, no doubt – held him, hands behind his back, against a white van. Batman saw a flash of silver, and Zsasz slashed one of his captor's arms. The other one punched Zsasz hard in the gut and the serial killer doubled over.

There were too many of them. Six more swordswomen stood in between him and Zsasz.

WCHA! The sound of a whip made everyone turn. A black shape hurtled out of the night, landing on one of the ninjas.

"Oh Batman, you shouldn't have started the party without me!"

There in all her sassy glory stood Catwoman. When she saw Batman, a huge grin blossomed on her face.

She jumped at another ninja. The kunoichi swung, and the feline-lover ducked. Then she kicked the sword out of the woman's hands and popped out her claws. "This is gonna be fun!"

As the two superheroes fought the ninjas, Danielle saw that Zsasz was slipping away from his captors. One noticed and grabbed him, slamming him face-first into the white van. In an instant, Danielle was behind them, whacking the ninja hard in the back of the head. He dropped like a stone. Zsasz looked over his shoulder and smiled crookedly.

"You chose a wonderful time to be heroic, my sweet Danielle," he purred.

She rolled her eyes. "You're not going anywhere, Zsasz."

He made a sudden dash for it, and she jumped on him, grabbing him around the shoulders. He lost his balance and they crashed into the back of the van. The door opened, and someone fell out.

Together Catwoman and Batman made short work of the ninjas. Catwoman was running her fingertips over Batman's chest seductively (and he was whispering "not here") when they heard a yelp.

Zsasz and Danielle were staring in astonishment at a lump on the ground. As Batman and Catwoman came closer, they saw who it was, and that she was in bad shape.

Translucent green skin, with chlorophyll running through her veins. Long red ratty hair that hadn't been brushed in ages. Bruises under her eyes – for she hadn't seen the sun in months. The nymph-like woman looked up at them weakly.

"Are you… Poison Ivy?" Danielle breathed. She was so entranced that she didn't notice Zsasz shaking with anger.

Ivy's cracked lips parted, and she offered Danielle the softest of smiles. Hard to tell if it was genuine, or if she was just so grateful to be free.

Then the woman looked over and saw Zsasz. Her whole demeanor transformed. "You!" she snarled.

Before anyone could react, Zsasz had hauled Poison Ivy to her feet, his hands around her throat. Just as abruptly, vines sprouted from the ground, wrapping around Zsasz's legs and chest and holding him up in the air. Both supervillains were at least a foot off the ground, locked in the grip of mutual fury.

Batman, Catwoman, and Danielle stared in stunned silence.

Finally, Zsasz hissed, with deeper disgust than they had seen, "How did you escape?!"

"Zsasz, let her go!" Danielle was the first to break the trance. She approached him, laying a hand on his muscular arm. Zsasz wouldn't break eye contact with Poison Ivy, who was likewise glaring at him. "Zsasz!"

"C'mon, Red…" Catwoman tried to soothe Ivy into releasing her vines. As the women tried to diffuse the situation, Batman strode over and raised two batarangs menacingly.

"Both of you let go of each other. Now."

Zsasz and Poison Ivy immediately did so. Both slumped to the ground. Batman wasted no time in handcuffing both of them.

"Now, tell me what you're doing mixed up with the League of Shadows!"

The plant lady sighed as she stared up at the stars; summoning her plants had cost precious energy. "Shouldn't you know already, Oh Great and Mighty Detective?"

"If it's so obvious, then why don't you explain it?" Catwoman asked.

Poison Ivy smiled bitterly. "Hello, Selina. Aren't you supposed to be home playing devoted wifey to Bruce Wayne? Since when do you work with Batman?"

"I've always had a soft spot for the Caped Crusader, you know that, Pammy," she walked slowly around Batman, as if to emphasize the point. "And you do realize I married Bruce Wayne for his money, not that he needs to know that."

Batman looked vaguely amused. "Poor man! You would do something like that!"

"Bruce Wayne's wife? Wait a minute…" Danielle came right up to Catwoman and looked intensely into her face. "Oh my God! It is you! We met at the zoo one day!"

"This one's a little slow," Ivy snorted. Catwoman waved her off, her face flushed with pride.

"I never got to thank you for saving my life," Danielle grinned. "Wait, does Bruce Wayne know you're out here saving the world?"

Catwoman smirked, her green eyes sparkling. The two women stared mischievously at each other.

"I won't tell if you don't!" Danielle said quickly.

Somewhere to the left of the two women, Batman rolled his eyes.

"Something big's going on here, Red, and I don't know if I like it." Catwoman returned to the matter at hand, appraising Poison Ivy's distress. "I'm guessing you don't either, or else you wouldn't have been locked in a van by those maniacs. You know something."

Ivy looked conflicted, and she gazed pleadingly at Catwoman.

"Don't say anything!" Zsasz hissed.

Ivy snapped her head around to glare at him. "And what makes you think I'm going to listen-"

"Poison Ivy, I promise you if you say anything, I will hunt you down, no matter how long it takes, and-"

"Both of you shut up," Batman said. "Now, I'll ask again - what. were. you. doing. with. them?"

"If you don't talk now, we could just separate you guys and see which one of you tells us everything," Catwoman said casually.

Zsasz glared at her with utmost loathing. "We have unfinished business to settle as well, Catwoman!"

"Of course we do. Now talk, or I'll slash up your marks again!"

"In case you haven't noticed, there aren't that many to slash up now!"

"There's always your forehead…"

"It was Rā's al Ghūl!" Ivy burst out. Everyone turned to look at her, even Zsasz who gritted his teeth.

"What did he want with you?"

"They violated me!" Ivy began to sob. "They stole all the toxins and serums from my body!"

"Why?!" Catwoman was horrified. "Why would they do that?"

"They were trying to harvest my powers over life itself! How dare they! At first, I was charmed," she lamented. "I thought they were going to create a utopia for the plants. I didn't resist – it seemed like the perfect team up. Rā's al Ghūl believes that humanity must be greatly culled, in order to let nature thrive in this industrialized world. I shared his vision! But I learned something the hard way…"

"What was it?"

"Rā's al Ghūl is an unrepentant misogynist. He doesn't believe that women can wield power the same as men, not even his own daughter. He wouldn't let me do it myself. It would have been so much easier if he had merely augmented my powers – I would have remade the world! But instead," she said with disgust, "that pig tried to steal them from me!"

"So that's why you've been missing for the last few months," Batman noted. "We'd thought you had gone on a long retreat, or to some tropical country to be away from humans. I never imagined where you really were."

"Save your sorry speeches, Batman, it doesn't matter. I'm no threat to you, I don't intend to stay in Gotham. I intend to go back and rid the world of that pig!"

"You know where he is?"

"Yes!"

"Tell me."

"Of course not, are you crazy! Rā's is mine!"

"You will tell me!"

"Threatening to torture me, Batman? Didn't you know Rā's is a master torturer? You can't do anything to me that he hasn't already done!"

"…And what did he want with you?" Catwoman interrupted, staring down at the sulking Zsasz.

"Oh, him? He was Rā's al Ghūl's favorite, his own personal lapdog!"

"Shut up, Poison Ivy!"

"What was the price, Zsasz?"

"Price?" Zsasz scoffed. "You say it as though I could be bought."

"If you weren't bought, then you were held against your will. I know you, Zsasz, you've never been one to work with others when you can help it. You don't play well. Did he bring you back to life when you fell from the Sprang Bridge?"

"What are you talking about?" Danielle cut in. "Zsasz didn't die! He couldn't have-" She trailed off. Zsasz was staring at the ground, uncharacteristically silent. She tried to lean down to see into his eyes, but he avoided her gaze. A horrible feeling settled in her bones.

"How did you know, Batman?" Zsasz asked quietly. Unlike the malice that usually graced his voice, there was nothing - no inflection. He sounded so defeated.

"Oh no," Danielle whispered.

"That chemical I found floating in your veins… I had seen it before," Batman explained. "When I collected Rā's al Ghūl's blood to counter the TITAN sickness during Arkham City, it was a perfect match to the regenerative compound Mr. Freeze needed to stabilize the antidote. Lazarus. Rā's al Ghūl resurrected you, didn't he, Zsasz? You really did die three years ago, and up until two weeks ago, you were his prisoner the whole time…"

Danielle's mouth hung open in horror as she looked at Zsasz. He really did return from the dead. I killed him.

"And what makes you think that was the only time I died during the last three years?" Zsasz asked coldly, eliciting gasps from Catwoman and Danielle.

"He put you in his pit, either long enough, or so many times, that it erased your marks, made you younger… and it quite possibly erased your memory as well," Batman continued. "Or maybe when you returned to Gotham, you had recently been submerged beforehand, and you had lost your identity temporarily… Or maybe it had something to do with that chip we recovered from your head. What happened, Zsasz? Did he train you? Induct you into the League of Shadows, or—"

"He used him," sneered Poison Ivy. "Used him as his personal slave. Told him to go kill, and he followed like a good, mindless little soldier. It was beautiful. I can only imagine the filthy meatsacks he must have slaughtered! Rā's was very proud of him."

"Like you were any better!" Zsasz shot back. "I saw the way you fawned over him in the beginning!"

"But why? Slaughter is something Zsasz is good at on his own-" ignoring Zsasz's soft, sarcastic "why thank you, Batman", he continued, "Why would Rā's make Zsasz his slave? And how?"

"Mmm mmm mmm. Loose lips and all that, Batman."

"Who is this Rā's al Ghūl?!" Danielle burst out. "Who is he that he can control life and death?!"

Batman, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Zsasz all exchanged a look.

"Rā's al Ghūl is a man who has been alive for 600 years," Batman began.

"As I said, his greatest ambition is to cull humanity so that we may have an ecological utopia. In short, he's an eco-terrorist," Poison Ivy continued.

"He's one of Batman's oldest enemies, though he's crossed paths with all of us from time to time." Catwoman added, "He has a daughter named Talia. One of Batman's former girlfriends. Every bit as homicidal as her father." Batman gave her a harsh look. "You know it's the truth, Batman!"

"Rā's al Ghūl has these… Lazarus Pits." Zsasz sensed her real confusion. He struggled to explain, hating that he could remember so much. "They contain a bath of chemicals… they are naturally occurring, much like an oil well. Except these Lazarus Pits have regenerative properties. They can save a sick person from dying, and they can even revive the dead. I know it sounds crazy-"

"It does," Danielle admitted. "But… well, we live in Gotham. Gotham is all about crazy." She shrugged and nodded to Ivy. "I just met a woman who can control plants with her thoughts, I don't think I have room to talk. It's just- is he like a God or something? Why hasn't anyone else found these Lazarus Pits? Why hasn't this guy been in the news if he's so infamous?"

"He's got good publicity, maybe?"

"He leads an organization called the Leagues of Shadows. Ninjas."

Danielle nodded to the unconscious bodies of the ninjas around them. "I can see that."

"They do his dirty work. Assassinations, moving illegal cargo, captures as well apparently… Rā's has amassed a large amount of wealth to fund his operations."

"His daughter's no slouch either. I heard that she's got a special project in mind, especially for you, Batman. She's practically obsessed with it. When the bitch wasn't torturing me - what, don't look at me that way, she deserves the title! - she was ranting and raving on and on about how her father would see the house of al Ghūl glorified. Mother Gaia, it was annoying! I just wanted to strangle her with my vines!"

"Really, Pammy, you want to strangle everyone with your vines. Do you get some kind of sexual thrill from it?"

"Well, I did tie up Wonder Woman once…" Ivy said coyly. Batman's eyes widened.

"Really?" Catwoman purred.

Ivy shrugged dismissively. "She got away."

Batman smirked. Catwoman gave him a dirty look before turning back to Ivy, almost casually checking her "nails". "So does Harley know about your little vine-and-lasso session with Wonder Woman?"

Ivy glared at her suddenly. "Harley needs to be kept safe! Promise me you won't breathe a word of what's spoken here tonight!"

"Whoa, chill, Red! What's—"

"Don't you get it, you fools?" Ivy sneered. "The ultimate plan? Rā's al Ghūl's ultimate plot to destroy the world?"

"Aside from trying unsuccessfully to steal your powers?"

"He needs a champion for his cause, and he's planning to resurrect him!" Ivy shrieked. "That psychotic creep, that clown — Joker!"

"WHAT?!"

Everyone turned to look at Batman. He still appeared to be stoic, but his jaw was popping and twitching, the only sign of his inner turmoil. And everyone knew why. Joker had been Batman's most important enemy, before he died four years ago. If he came back...

"That's the entire reason why I broke out of Rā's lair!" Ivy continued to rant. "Like I am going to let that psychotic creep take away everything I've done for Harl…"

"Harley Quinn is still in Arkham Asylum," Batman intoned, and Ivy visibly relaxed. "As long as word doesn't get out, she'll have no idea that her puddin' even has a shot at resurrection. We need to keep this under our hats."

"Suit yourself, Batman, but I warn you, if that clown comes back—"

"He won't," Batman said fiercely. "I'll stop him!"

"Zsasz…" Catwoman looked at him curiously. "If Rā's is resurrecting the Joker to be his champion… Then am I right in guessing you were a test subject, a trial run of sorts?"

Now Ivy looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"The Joker and the al Ghūls had bad blood," Catwoman elaborated. "If they really wanted Joker for their champion," her eyes darted over to Batman, but he wouldn't return her gaze, "Then they would want some sort of way to ensure he wouldn't betray them. Especially as he had chronic backstabbing syndrome or whatever." Her eyes lit up. "The beacon in the back of your head! They used it to control you, didn't they?"

"It was a failsafe for when I…disobeyed," Zsasz said softly. "The Joker's murderous tendencies are similar to my own… Or rather, similar in terms of his insatiability. They would have wanted to make sure they could keep the Joker on a leash..."

"So they collared you first."

Zsasz glared hatefully at Batman.

"They made him hear voices," Danielle murmured. "When I saw him, he was half out of his mind, yelling at people who weren't there, people who stole his marks. So that's what happened to you, Zsasz…" Her voice was heavy with regret: "You became his victim."

"Now Danielle, I know you don't want anyone to know all the intimate secrets you and I share - you would think you'd know to respect my secrets as well!" Zsasz snapped. Danielle looked down, chastized.

"Zsasz," Batman said warningly. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you honestly think I would be this fixated on Danielle if I merely wanted to kill her?" Zsasz leered at them.

The other three looked back and forth between the two, and one by one it dawned on them. Batman looked away. Poison Ivy's mouth fell open. And Catwoman...

Before anyone else could move, Catwoman stalked over to Zsasz. WHAM! Zsasz's head flew back from the force of her punch. "You bastard!" Catwoman raged. "So that's what you did to her! That explains why she was so much worse off than your other survivors! Any other victims I should know about? Anyone else you sexually assaulted?!" She held up her hand, popping one claw at a time. "Tell me right now, or I swear to you-"

"Enough." Batman took Danielle by the arm and led her away from the others. She could hear Catwoman continuing to shout at Zsasz.

Batman put his hands on her shoulders. It was noticeably gentler than he had earlier that same evening.

"You shouldn't be here," he said, and Danielle hung her head. She knew he was right. She wasn't going to argue with him anymore.

"Please go home. You've had enough of an ordeal tonight, you don't need to see any more. Take care of yourself. Let us handle this monster."

She nodded, trying to stay strong. "Alright."

He leaned closer to her. "When you get your new phone, it will have a code in it so you can contact me. If you need me, if he comes anywhere near you, dial #2287."

The numeric code for 'BATS'. She almost smiled. "I got it." She wanted to say so much more, but the words wouldn't come out. Giving Batman one more nod, she turned and slipped out of the clearing of cars and into the maze of buildings. Zsasz watched her go.

Catwoman's snapping words brought him back and he glared at her for interrupting. "Don't you dare go watching her walk away! You don't deserve to-"

"Catwoman." It was Batman. "Could you come over here, please?"

Catwoman threw up her hands in frustration, but went over to him. Zsasz could hear them whispering, no doubt about himself and Danielle.

Poison Ivy looked curiously at him. There was a long silence, and then Zsasz broke it.

"Could I possibly interest you in a deal, Ivy?"

"I can't believe what that creep's been doing to her!" Catwoman raged.

"Neither can I," Batman agreed. "I didn't ever imagine Zsasz to be capable of something like that."

"Well where he's going, he won't have time to worry about it!"

"Which brings me to the real reason I brought us over here: how are we going to make them spill the location?"

"What's this deal, Zsasz?" Ivy snapped. In spite of her own seduction of countless weak-willed men, she didn't want to spend too much time talking to this rapist. Did this make her a hypocrite with double standards? Quite possibly, but she really didn't care.

"You make a little potion up for me using your pheromones, and I free both of us."

Ivy scoffed. "Even if you could really free us, why should I?"

Click!

Zsasz grinned at Ivy's shocked face. "Did you really think I learned nothing during my time with the League of Shadows?" He held up Batman's previously unbreakable batcuffs with a smirk, and just as quickly put the blade to Ivy's throat.

"Now make me a potion, and I won't cut you."

"I'll scream!"

"You'll scream if I don't let you go free. I'll keep my word, Poison Ivy. Make me the potion, and you will have your freedom. Do it quickly! We don't have much time."

Ivy sighed, "What kind of potion?"

"We could threaten to tell Harley about Joker. That might make Red talk."

"No good. She might just clam up even more."

"It's worth a shot, though."

"…Just a little bit more."

Zsasz was holding an empty beer bottle to Ivy's face. All the nymph's remaining strength was pouring into producing sweat. Drops fell from the tip of her nose and down the neck of the bottle, collecting inside. It wasn't ordinary sweat; it was thick and golden and smelled vaguely sweet. When the bottle was an eighth full, Poison Ivy stopped, gasping.

"There, it's finished! Now let me go free!"

"Of course," Zsasz smiled creepily and began to pick the cuffs with his knife.

"Or we could-"

"Wait a second," Batman cut her off. He looked around grimly, and Catwoman followed his gaze, gasping when she noticed...

The unconscious ninja were gone!

"Get Zsasz and Ivy!"

Before they could move, smoke filled the air. And they were beseiged a second time by a wave of assassins!

It took longer this time, but Batman and Catwoman finally managed to beat back the ninjas, who retreated hastily in another cloud of smoke. Gasping for breath, the weary superheroes made their way back toward the van. Instead of Ivy and Zsasz, two neatly stacked batcuffs lay in the dirt. Batman picked them up.

Catwoman sniffed the air. "Do you think the ninjas took them, or-?"

"I don't know," Batman answered. "But I don't think we've seen the last of them."

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