A/N: this particular chapter is dedicated to creeves59 and all the other people who pushed me to go with his suggestion.

XXXXXX

Ivy was fighting a hopeless battle. Zeus would simply swing his Claws in a random direction and kill a number of her plants. This caused her a great amount of pain every time he did it. She didn't even seem to be slowing him down at all. If anything he was becoming even more aggressive.

Mercer hacked and slashed all the vegetation he could with his lethal Claws. He might have looked like he was just sprinting around all guns blazing, but he had a plan. He deduced that every time he cut down one of Ivy's plants, it was like putting a cattle prod on her face, so cutting down and killing several of her 'babies' as she called them would eventually have her focussing more on her 'children' and her pain than on him. A thick vine swooped down from the ceiling and wrapped itself around him. If Alex still needed to be able to breathe, he would have suffocated. He freed himself by making several of his tendrils shoot out of him and cut the plant to ribbons. He earned another shriek from Ivy. He dropped back to the ground and began making his way upwards.

She sent a myriad of thorny vines at him, attempting to shred him to ribbons. He just kept running as they scraped deeply into him. Ivy looked at the vines he had allowed to dig into him, and instead of seeing blood, she found a strange black slime coating them. After running through all the thorns, Zeus changed his right Claw into his Blade, and began running up the thick plants to get close to Ivy. Whenever he met an obstacle, he would either shred it apart, jump past or over it, or cut it down so it made a small incline that assisted him in getting even closer to Ivy. Finally, after nearly eight minutes of slashing, cutting, dodging and trimming, he made his way up to an elevation that was equal with and extremely close to Ivy's leafy vantage point.

Looking at him as his Blade turned back into his Claws, Ivy began to pray that Batman would do his random appearing act, and stop Zeus before he finished his job. She didn't like the Bat at all, but she also desperately didn't want to die, and Zeus looked like he wouldn't take prisons to save his life. Zeus jumped over and onto the shrubbery platform that now kept both of them in the air.

"Time to pull the weeds," he said menacingly as he scraped his individual Clawed fingers along one another, filling the room with an almost metallic ringing.

In an act of great desperation, Ivy quickly put her hands on his shoulders and brought herself up to him and kissed him. After a short second, she pulled away from him. She waited for him to begin suffocating from her poison, but he merely stood there with a confused look. She looked at him in shock.

"Thanks?" Zeus said not understanding what had just happened. He lifted up his right foot, and thrusted it into Ivy's abdomen. She went flying and hit the concrete floor with a loud thud.

Ivy moaned in agony as her vision became blurry. She felt so much burning pain that all she could do was stare straight up to the roof. The plants all over the warehouse began to wither slightly as their mother struggled to stay conscious. Her view allowed her to see Zeus step off of the now half dead platform and land on his feet right next to her. The amount of sound his impact had made suggested he had created a small crater. He stepped over her and dropped to his knees so that he was straddling her. He raised his right Claw into the air and pressed the fingers together so that they formed a lethal spear head. He was about to thrust it into her when he froze. His face said that he was having a fight with both sides of his conscience. After a long moment, he lowered his weaponized limb, and made both of his arms return to normal. He shook his head slowly and let out a defeated sigh.

"You'd better fucking appreciate this," he said to her as he lifted himself up. At that moment, Ivy's world turned completely black.

After Ivy passed out, Mercer carefully picked her up so that he was carrying her in a bridal way. After making sure he had a firm and safe hold on her, he ran out of the warehouse and into the night, making a beeline for Arkham. He knew exactly where the asylum was because he had spent the entire day learning the lay of the land while looking for a place to call his new temporary home.

XXXXXX

"I was just making rounds in the mansion, when suddenly I hear a knock echo through the halls," Jeremiah Arkham started as he led Batman across the grounds of Arkham Island and through the Specific Treatment building. Jeremiah had called the police force, who in return called Batman who raced over to the asylum as fast as he could. "So I run to answer it, and there standing in the dark was a man holding Miss Isley like she was precious to him. He asked if she could be treated for her injuries here. Once I answered yes, he gently lowered her down, and then walked off into the dark without another word."

"What did he look like?" Batman asked. "What was he wearing?" He had a suspicion that only one man could do this to someone as powerful and dangerous as Poison Ivy.

"I couldn't get a good look at his face because of it being the middle of the night, and the hood on his head didn't help either. As for his getup, a leather jacket, the brown hooded sweatshirt, and a white button-down shirt. Jeans." He looked forward and stopped, as did Batman. He pointed to the specially designed cell that had extremely thick bullet proof glass for walls. Batman stepped up to the transparent barrier and looked inside to see Poison Ivy lying down and covered in a bed fast asleep. Jeremiah left the room. He didn't want to get wrapped into this madness.

"Pamela," Batman said through an intercom on the glass wall as he knocked on it. Ivy lifted her head slowly and saw him. "I want to talk about Zeus."

"He almost killed me. What else is there?" she asked as she slowly and somewhat painfully lifted herself up into a sitting position.

"'Almost' is the key here. I've run into him myself. One of the first things he ever said to me was his intentions of killing all the villains in Gotham. He almost took out Zsasz effortlessly before running into you."

"Why does he want to kill all of us? Is he some kind of sadist looking to make a name for himself? Become more feared than the Clown?"

Batman shook his head. "Just the opposite. He's trying to achieve redemption for something he did before coming here. He claims to be worse than some of you. But the major question is why did he force himself to spare you, and then go out of his way to bring you to the only people who can actually help you? What did you do to him?"

"Nothing that would inspire or motivate him to lift a finger to help me. I did nothing but try to kill him."

"Did you kiss him?" Batman knew firsthand that a kiss from Poison Ivy meant either mind control or a swift but still agonizing death and was curious if it had any affects on Zeus.

Ivy nodded. "He stared at me for a moment, thanked me awkwardly, and kicked me down to the floor. Then he landed next to me, got on top of me, and prepared to shove his dagger fingers into me, but I think an inner conflict stopped him."

"I think I know why. He probably feels a small connection with you."

"Why? We never even knew the other existed before a few hours ago."

Batman didn't have a definite answer for her. He turned and made his way out of the building and made his way to a now conscious and heavily restrained Zsasz inside the Intensive Treatment building.

"What can I do for you, Batman?" the sociopath asked from inside his highly secured cell. "Here to learn about your friend Zeus?" He knew the Caped Crusader wouldn't have any other reason to see him.

Batman now knew Zeus was a force to be reckoned with. Zsasz almost never called anyone except Batman and some of the super-villains by their names or aliases; he almost always called people zombies or pigs, and viewed them as such. To say anyone whom Zsasz saw as an actual person was dangerous was the understatement of the year.

"What happened before I arrived to stop him Victor?" Batman wanted to know all he could about this new vigilante. He currently had Oracle running a scan on his facial features captured by the security cameras that had footage of him when he dropped off Ivy to try and find out who he really was. Nightwing and Robin (Tim Drake) were currently out in the city looking for him in case he decided to blow off some steam. Damian was safe in Wayne manor since his father felt that even though he had been trained to be a killer since birth, he still wouldn't stand a chance against Zeus.

"I was free, and felt an irrepressible need to add another mark to my current amount. Then I saw him, standing in front of multiple televisions, learning that I and two others were now on the loose. I decided to release him from his pointless existence and sliced open his neck. I got ready to add the tally on my arm, but I noticed that he was still standing up. He thrusted his arms and shoulders back, and I felt a tremendous amount of force push me back into a wall across the street. I waited for my dizziness to clear, and I saw him walking towards me. His neck looked perfect, like nothing had happened to it at all. He now had a strange spiked armor on his arms, and his fingers had become swords. He grasped me and raised me into the air like I was nothing, and then put one of his swords on my neck. He was about to do to me what I had attempted to do to him. Then you came along, and you know the rest. Personally, I'm glad that he struck me when he did, otherwise my count would be off."

Batman looked at Zsasz intently and silently for a moment, and then walked off and returned to the Batmobile. While speeding down the ancient and deserted roads, he sent out a call for Oracle.

"Oracle, I think I know why Zeus stopped himself from killing Ivy."

"What is it? You said he wanted to wipe Gotham clean."

"Yes, but I think he had a personal reason not to kill her. Zsasz told me about his encounter with Zeus, and it was more revealing than I expected."

"What did he tell you?"

"Basically, he told me that Zeus isn't human. At least not entirely."

"What makes you say that?" Oracle was starting to get extremely curious and confused.

"Zsasz drove his knife into Zeus' throat, and dragged it the entire way across. Right after his neck had been torn completely open, Zeus merely flexed his arms back into Zsasz, and sent him soaring a hundred feet into a solid wall. After that, Zeus then had the same armor on his arms the woman described. He picked up Zsasz as if he weighed no more than a feather."

"Wow, this guy is not one to mess around with. Good thing he wants to kill all your enemies and not you."

"I'm actually relieved about that too," Batman admitted.

"But what does any of this have to do with him saving Ivy?" Oracle asked getting back to the original matter.

"I could tell that he thought of himself as a man with nothing to lose and had decided he should do all he could to make up for whatever he did. But he felt that was what he HAD to do, and he actually wanted something else. I think he wants to be accepted by someone, and since he and Ivy are both so inhuman, he sees her as someone he could relate to."

"Or she could have simply put him under her control to save her." Oracle didn't believe that anyone alive could feel a positive connection to the half-plant eco-terrorist without being completely at her mercy.

"No. She told me that she tried to stop him with a kiss, and he responded by thanking and then viciously kicking her."

"Wow. Not even YOU can resist her at times."

"I know." He then felt a microscopic sense if doubt. Anyone who couldn't be controlled or poisoned by Poison Ivy either wasn't human, or had an unbreakable will. Batman began to think Zeus had that sort of commitment and determination, or stubbornness, and wouldn't stop himself from doing what he planned to a second time.

XXXXXX

"I'm only going to ask you this once," Mercer said to the gangster he was holding in the air with his Clawed arm. After leaving Ivy at the asylum, he had set out to continue with his agenda. Finding the thugs wasn't hard, and maiming them was just plain easy. The man he was grasping by the neck was the only one who was still conscious with no shattered bones. "Who controls the city's underground?"

"Well there's a few guys," the punk answered with a panicky voice. He was sweating bullets and was scared halfway to his grave.

"Names," Mercer demanded. When the thug hesitated, he tightened his grip and made it impossible for his victim to breathe for a few seconds.

"Okay! Okay!" he said gasping for air. Mercer allowed him to receive oxygen again. "It's mostly Black Mask and the Penguin. They run the show!"

"Thanks." Instead of using up anymore of his time demanding for more answers, Mercer thrusted his free Claw into the gangster's head, impaling him in four vital places, and proceeded to Consume him. The man didn't know the whereabouts of Black Mask, but he knew exactly where to find the Penguin when he wasn't stealing something.

As he walked away from the numerous broken bodies, he stomped on one of them and his foot went right through the man's back. Mercer consumed him as well and took his gun.

"What kind of city has common street thugs that carry automatic rifles?" he asked himself as he checked the amount of ammo the firearm had left. He had mauled the gun's holder before he could even fire off one round.

XXXXXX

Oswald Cobblepot was happily sitting in his private office on the upper floor of his Iceberg Lounge. He had just sealed the deal on a multi-million dollar black arms exchange. He lit himself a cigar and casually glanced at the security monitors when one of them caught his eye. Normally it would have been nothing special; it was just a random man standing outside the front doors, except this particular person had an automatic assault rifle in his hands, but that wasn't the detail that had caught Cobblepot's attention. It was his arms. They were pitch black with random red streaks and blots, and his fingers were like small swords.

"Isn't he that... Zeus person?" Cobblepot wondered out loud. He watched as Zeus kicked open the front doors and aimed his weapon inside the building. The Penguin instantly sounded the alarm, and grabbed one of his weaponized umbrellas as he made his way to the door. "I think that god needs to be brought back down to Earth."

XXXXXX

Zeus fired off a few warning shots as he walked into the club. Some people screamed, but all of them gave him their attention.

"Where is Cobblepot?" he shouted loud enough for everyone in the building to hear. He then heard a series of rapid clicks, and looked around to see several men in suits pointing a variety of guns at him.

"Looking for a job, Zeus?" He looked up to the upper level and saw a short, almost obese man in a classic suit and top-hat. For a reason Zeus couldn't come up with, the man was pointing the tip of an umbrella at him. "I like men like you. Fearless. Battle-ready. A horrible sense of self-preservation." He let out an annoying squawk-like laugh.

In response, Zeus fired a bullet into the head of the goon closest to him, and then more than thirty armed men and their boss began firing at him.

XXXXXX

A/N: One of the Prototype comics clearly indicates that Mercer can still develop a liking towards a woman.