Chapter Fifteen: It Just Doesn't Make Sense!

(AN: Batman is not mine)

It had taken some persuasion, but things were finally underway. The Blue-Jay would not be free for long.

Batman brought the Batwing in for a smooth landing on the roof of one of the buildings not far from the vine. The police had evacuated and blocked off several blocks in either direction, and they could see several bugs mulling around and ripping apart the occasional car, but not showing much interest in the buildings, being more content to eat garbage and the occasional stray animal.

Blue-Jay had sent the Wraith back to the Roost earlier, so it was no longer present, she would have hated for it to be destroyed on its first time out.

The bugs had all 'hatched' and the pods were shriveled and empty, with no signs of more growing. The bugs themselves now seemed to become more active as the sun set, their eyes beginning to glow eerily. Blue-Jay picked out the big one by its one glowing orb to the others pair.

Before they went down, Blue-Jay voiced something that had been bothering her for a while. "Why would Poison Ivy go through all the trouble of making these things, she doesn't have much reason too, these things were obviously not meant to attack Gothcorp, after all?" "All the criminals in Gotham want us dead, that's a perfect reason for her to do this." Batman said, but Blue-Jay wasn't satisfied "But it doesn't make any sense, even for a super-criminal like Ivy. The norm for attempts on a vigilantes life is for the criminal to lure or force them into a position where the vigilante would seem helpless. Also, Poison Ivy would want people to know that this was her work, and let's not forget the tendency of a criminal to monologue."

He paused for a moment to consider this, before tying a grapple to a gargoyle and jumping over the edge of the roof. Blue-Jay followed moments later, still troubled.

She must have showed her preoccupation, because they were only about three floors down when she slipped slightly and Batman reached up and grabbed her. It took a lot for her to hold back a squeak of surprise and indignation when he did this and tried to squirm out of his grip. "What are you doing?" she hissed, glaring at him. He didn't respond, only tossed her up slightly and catching her around her waist, pulling her up against his chest as he continued down the wall.

"Stay focused." He said into her ear as he climbed. Blue-Jay tensed slightly

"I've never dealt with anything like this before." She hissed, slightly defensively.

"All the more reason to stay focused, now snap out of it, or I'm taking you back to the cave."

She glowered at him, "I don't like ultimatums, Batman."

"Then don't make me give them.'

Blue-Jay felt an argument coming on and said quickly "Let's just get this done, then we can argue, 'k?" he didn't say anything, just continued down the wall.

Without warning, Batman kicked off from the wall and let go. They fell four floors before he grabbed a ledge and swung them onto the one below it.

Once he was balanced, Blue-Jay thumped him on the chest and hissed, "Don't do that again!"

"Then don't let yourself get distracted." His face was in shadow, but Blue-Jay was almost positive she had heard a trace of mirth in his voice. She opened her mouth so give him a smart-aliky reply, only to have to suppress another shriek when he let go of the wall and kicked off for the second time.

They dropped the remaining three stories and Batman went into a roll that caused him to end up on his feet, undamaged, and with Blue-Jay still held against his chest, slightly annoyed, but unhurt.

Before she could start hissing at him like an angry goose, he ducked behind a car and bent over her, his cape draping down like a tent, concealing her from view and rendering her blind to the world outside.

Blue-Jay didn't move, for she could hear at least one insect very close by. That must have been why Batman had jumped, the thing would have seen them if they had stayed up there much longer and Blue-Jay felt a slight blush creep into her cheeks as she realized what he had meant by not getting distracted. But there was something that Blue-Jay was confused about: Why couldn't it smell them?

Then she realized that Batman's cape and costume smelled odd, not bad, in fact, he smelled completely and rather strongly of cedar. She was surprised that she hadn't noticed it before, he smelled as if he had just rolled in a pile of fresh cedar chips.

"You smell nice." She commented, once she was sure the insect was far enough away that she wouldn't be heard "New aftershave?"

"It keeps them from recognizing my scent, Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl also sprayed down."

"What about me?' she asked, a little hurt that he hadn't offered to treat her costume.

In response, he removed a small green capsule from his belt and threw it against the ground. Instantly, Blue-Jay was covered in the scent of cedar. "Thanks." She whispered, he didn't respond.

Instead, he let her go, setting her gently down before darting out from behind the car. Blue-Jay followed, keeping low and trying her best to keep her cape around her, to conceal the blue of her costume. She didn't know weather or not the bugs could see color, but had decided not to risk it.

It was as she darted behind a dumpster, that Blue-Jay got her first opportunity. One insect had picked up a garbage can and was in the process of swallowing it whole. It had started with the bottom and the lid was missing. Quickly, Blue-Jay armed a capsule and lobbed it into the can, moments later; the can had vanished completely down the bugs' gullet.

It made to move on, only to lose control of its legs and fall to the ground. It started to convulse and then just lay there, twitching.

The time it took for the insect to succumb to the poison had been about thirty seconds, and Blue-Jay had been unable to look away as it died.

Suddenly, she felt Batman pick her up again and dart away from the dumpster as other creatures came over to investigate the twitching body of their fallen comrade.

Somehow, the bugs failed to see them as they crossed the street behind the group.

When they reached the darkness of an alleyway, Batman hissed "I thought I told you to stay near me?!" but Blue-Jay didn't seem to register the question, in fact, she didn't seem to be listening to him at all, her eyes were still fixed on the dead creature and her face was as white as a bleached sheet.

Blue-Jay couldn't look away from the dead thing; everything else seemed to just vanish, leaving nothing but its twitching form. Only when she was forced to turn away from it did she return to reality.

The first thing she saw was Batman looking at her, his white eyes slightly wider than normal. "What?" she asked, confused. He didn't answer, but kept looking at her for a few moments, making her feel slightly unnerved. She tried to take a step back, only to find that he still had a firm grip on her shoulders and was holding her in place.

Finally, he let her go and turned to look back at the group of insects. His eyes narrowed as he observed the twitching one for a few seconds, before reaching down and seizing Blue-Jay about the waist again as he shot a grapple up to the roof of one of the buildings that they were standing between. She didn't protest as he lifted her up to the roof with him, in fact, she hardly seemed aware of it.

"I want you to go back to the jet and wait for me there, alright?" Batman told her as they reached the rooftop. The small girl nodded and he set her down and she handed him her capsules of poison. The jet was visible from where they were standing and Batman watched as Blue-Jay took one of her own grapples and ran for the edge of the roof. Leaping off the ledge, she shot the grapple off and swung around the side of the building as it pulled her up to the roof. He watched until he saw her climb into the jet and the cockpit glass slide closed over her. Only then did he turn his attention back to the streets and the problem at hand.

As he returned to the alleyway, he was thinking hard, wondering what had caused the girl to react to the dying animal the way she had. It didn't make sense; she was one of the toughest people that he knew for obvious reasons, so why would something like this elicit that kind of response? Batman shook himself; he would have to think about that later, right now he had work to do.

Blue-Jay sat in the Batwing in silence. After a moment she shivered and didn't stop shivering. Pulling her legs to her chest she wrapped her arms around them and pressed her face into her knees.

She knew that they were not people, and she had had no trouble with killing one. But as it had died the way it had twitched and shuddered, it had been just like the people in the old asylum as they had died, ripping each other apart like just so many animals.

Until this point Blue-Jay had suppressed most of the experience with meditation and concentration, but the sight of the dying creature had brought back the memories with cruel clarity.

She knew that Batman was right, she had to go back to the asylum before it drove her mad, which it was already starting to do. But she didn't think, no she knew that she would never be able to go alone.

She could ask Robin, he wouldn't hesitate to go with her, but she didn't want him to have to see what was down there. Actually, she was pretty sure that Batman had blocked his view of the videotape she had brought with his cape, so all Robin had really experienced was the secondhand screams and while those would have been bad enough, they would have been no where near as traumatizing as having actually seen the whole thing first hand. There was no way Blue-Jay was going to expose her boyfriend to that place. But then who could she ask?

Nightwing? Not likely. He might not hate her but he wasn't very fond of her either. She guessed that that was partially because she hadn't put forth as much effort with him as she would have liked, due to the fact that he wasn't around as often as the others were. Also, she had the feeling that he felt that she was trying to put his adoptive little brother into a hard situation. It was becoming common knowledge that a romantic relationship between RJ Falcon and Tim Drake was quickly becoming a reality; the problem was that Tim was the only one besides Pierre that knew that Blue-Jay and RJ were the same girl, meaning that Nightwing felt that Blue-Jay was attempting to screw up Robins love life.

Batgirl was a more likely candidate that Nightwing, but Blue-Jay didn't think she would take the place very well. All that really left was Batman. Well, she supposed that she could give someone outside Gotham a call but that would be awkward and not to mention selfish to call them away from the city that they had sworn to protect. But how could she ask him, and why would he even consider coming with?

Blue-Jay sighed softly; she would probably just have to go alone in the end.

AN: Please Review.

P.S.: It's my senior year of high school and that combined with my job is causing my stress level to go through the roof! But still I finally got past my writers block and am updating again! Thank you to all those who continue to read and review on my work!