Chapter 5: Lost

"Remind me again just why you had to have me tour a construction site with you at seven o'clock on a Saturday morning."

"I'm adding to Gotham's soil database." Andi handed Pam a plastic jar while she pulled on a pair of latex gloves. "It's shockingly small and I wanted to help expand it." It was a long shot that she would stumble across a match to the cave. No telling how far underground that had been, and soil could change several times in an acre, especially with all of the pollutants in Gotham and no rare chemicals in her sample. Still, she was short on other ideas, and it was a chance to talk to Pam, something she'd been needing lately. With the Batman loose, Andi's friendships had subconsciously been moved down a step on the ladder of importance. She was determined to fix that mistake, starting today.

Pam sighed but obligingly held the jars while Andi dug around, collecting soil and rocks from several different areas in the site before she was satisfied. "Why didn't you invite Leena?" she asked as they were leaving and Pam unlocked her car. "I mean, aside from the fact that we're trespassing and climbing over chain link fences to get these."

"I did, but we'll meet her at the hiking trails, our next stop."

"We're going hiking?" Pam suddenly didn't sound so put out.

"Mm-hmm. I was going to just invite you for that, but I wanted to talk to you beforehand."

"About what?"

"Leena." Andi's hands shook a little bit at the name. "I haven't been around to talk with her lately, but I know she started with the Joker last week. How has she been doing with him?"

They had carpooled in Pam's hybrid, plastered with environmental bumper stickers, and she carefully pulled onto the interstate's light traffic before she answered.

"It's difficult to say. Leena still seems the same, mostly, but she won't shut up about the Joker. Even though she's been with him for a week, she still doesn't seem to be scared of him. Or realize that she's never going to reach him. And from what she's said… well, I suspect that he's letting her think she can reach him if she just gives him a little more, lets him into her head a little farther."

"He's toying with her?" Not that Andi hadn't thought of the possibility, but hearing her suspicions confirmed made it worse. Knowing Leena, she probably thought she was actually making a difference with him too. The Joker wasn't just messing with her, he was laughing at her. And in the meantime, Andi had been gallivanting off on her own personal crusade. She felt something poisonous writhe in the pit of her stomach.

"As far as I can tell," Pam growled, hands tightening on the steering wheel. "Can't you or one of your police friends do something?"

"I'm already doing all I can." Andi hoped that was true, hoped that it would be enough. If Leena got hurt and she could have done more… "Most of the cops are limited by legal red tape. But I'm keeping an eye as best I can."

Pam grimaced but subsided and Andi decided to change the topic. "So have you made any progress towards convincing City Hall that they should tighten laws on releasing toxins? I've heard something about a rally being held next week…"

"You heard? That means we're finally getting the word out! Yes, there's a rally Tuesday after next. I doubt it will do anything though—Luthor Corporation and a couple of others have been lobbying hard in the other direction, and they've got the media firmly in their pocket too." Pam sighed. "It always seems like you take one step forward and two steps back doesn't it? The labs have finally got decent funding from the government for the first time in years. And a large grant from Wayne Enterprises. That's something."

"What's it been going towards?"

Pam immediately began to launch into the latest news on how they had been trying to hybridize a rare vine that seemed to immunize against some hallucinogens, soon getting so technical that Andi was forced to just nod and smile. She was glad that Pam seemed enthusiastic, though. Pam's little sister, Ivy, had died of contaminated water back in their sophomore year at GSU, and Pam had been nearly obsessed with finding cures for the poisons and toxins that infested Gotham ever since. That, combined with her dedication to rooting out the bureaucracy she held responsible for allowing the toxins, made Pam get more than a little intense at times. Fanatical probably came closer. Andi had never understood such single-minded devotion until her kidnapping. Now, if anything, she thought she might have a worse case of obsession than Pam did.

They had only driven for ten minutes, but Gotham had suprisingly little in the way of suburbs, and the construction site had already been on the edge of the city. Although Andi knew civilization was a bare five miles away, the wildlife park they pulled up to was peaceful, summer wildflowers blooming all around the weathered wooden playground at the entrance, with several trails leading into a large swath of woods. At this early hour it was deserted except for Leena, who sat waiting for them on one of the swings.

"Andi! How have you been?" She called out the second they were out of the car, Andi shouldering a backpack bulging with empty plastic jars for the soil. "Pam's been at me like a mother hen with her last chick, but I haven't had a real conversation with you since you stopped by Gotham General. Has work been hectic?"

"Never mind me, how are you?" Andi asked seriously. Leena's smile faded slightly, and without it Andi saw that she looked even paler than usual, shadows forming like bruises under her eyes.

"Worried," she admitted. "The Joker's not exactly been an easy patient. And I haven't been giving nearly enough time to my other patients with him around. He's such a hard case. I think I'm making progress in understanding him, but he's so dark. He thinks… he thinks that the world is all evil, and that my trying to help him see that there's still good is funny of all things."

Pam gave Andi a look that as good as shouted "What did I tell you?" and stalked ahead of them both on the trail. Andi bent to scoop up loam and leaf litter in one jar, filled another with the deeper soil and rocks, then followed with Leena.

"You didn't answer my question though," Leena said, "How has work been?"

"Fine. Nothing as interesting as yours or Pam's," Andi lied, hoping that her face was straight enough. Luckily Leena always trusted you to tell the truth, and Pam hadn't realized yet that anything out of the ordinary was going on.

For reasons that she couldn't fully justify, Andi had decided against telling either of them about her experience with the Batman. Sure, Leena already had more than enough on her plate with the Joker. And, yes, if Pam ever found out she would probably not let Andi leave the house without assigning her an armed guard. But it still felt wrong not to be talking to her two best friends about the most important thing in her life right now, especially when she knew it was what was distancing her from them. The only thing that kept Andi from choking on guilt was the knowledge that she simply couldn't endanger them, even if it meant keeping secrets. If the Batman ever realized what she was up to… well, Andi didn't want Pam and Leena trying to track him down later from a misguided sense of vengeance or something.

"Hey, you two! Look at this!" Pam's voice came from somewhere slightly off the trail. Andi and Leena traded wary glances but followed the sound only to find Pam bending over something that looked very much like a small, ordinary cluster of mushrooms.

"Aren't they extraordinary?" she asked, "I don't think I've ever seen a strain that grew like this. Look, do you see how this one's pileus has those strange curves?"

"I've never seen anything quite like them." Andi agreed obligingly, trying not to think of the mushrooms she'd bought from the grocery store three days ago. Pam pulled out a pocket knife and began to cut away at the base of the rotting log the cluster grew in.

"Can I borrow one of your sample jars Andi?" she asked excitedly, "I've never seen something like this little guy before. If I can get one of them back to the lab…"

Andi handed it over, taking the pause as an opportunity to collect another dirt sample. Leena, who had never really liked the outdoors, took a seat on a fallen log and sighed.

"It's hard to believe we're still so close to Gotham," she said. Andi saw that she was staring at a bright red cardinal—aside from the pigeons in the parks, birds were a rarity in the city.

"The wildlife around Gotham is incredibly diverse," Pam said absently as she carefully tried to slide the mushroom into its jar without it breaking apart. "It's the river combining with the seawater. Plus a bunch of other things. Sometimes I wonder what we're destroying as we keep expanding… Ah, there it goes." She put the lid onto the jar and carefully tucked it into her purse. "Come on you two, keep up!" She flitted back towards the path again, for all the world as if she hadn't been the one to cause their detour in the first place. Andi and Leena shook their heads at her and followed more slowly.

Andi jerked from sleep suddenly, alert as if a fire alarm had gone off in her ear. A glance at her alarm clock showed her that it was still shy of five in the morning, but she couldn't make herself relax. Tension vibrated in her as if she was a plucked guitar string, some sixth sense alerting her to danger.

I'm not alone. Slowly she climbed out of bed, straining her eyes and ears for anything that might give her a clue as to what was happening, bare feet edging carefully along the floor. She didn't know how she knew, but someone else was there with her. She was certain.

The digital clock's red numbers went out, the plug pulled, and Andi's eyes snapped blindly in that direction as she backed up slowly, feeling for the wall, for something solid and safe. Oh God, oh God, oh God. It was most definitely a prayer. The wave of fear mounted to a crest in her, broke apart, and she shrieked, turned, sprinted for the door, a light switch—

And a heavily armored arm wrapped around her arms and body from behind, yanked her hard into its chest, while another arm covered her mouth, smothering her scream.

"Don't move or I will hurt you." The voice in her ear was guttural, harsh; somehow it put her in mind of boulders crumbling. Andi was motionless, in that same frozen stance she had seen rabbits hold when a hawk passed overhead. Her frantic pulse and stifled breaths were the only sounds. Slowly the hand released her mouth and Andi unstuck her throat.

"What do you want? I fixed you didn't I?" she asked hoarsely.

"You did," the Batman agreed, "I came for two reasons. First of all, to thank you."

If Andi had been more like Pam, she would have told Batman exactly where he could shove his thanks. Luckily, she was somewhat less suicidal. She cleared her throat instead in an attempt to make her voice less squeaky. "The second?"

There was silence for several seconds. Andi considered trying to break loose but decided that, if he was thanking her, he probably didn't want to kill her. Better not to provoke him then. "You don't like me," he finally ground out, "But you agreed to help me anyways. Why?"

Andi shifted slightly and felt him tense, grip tightening. Apparently he didn't plan on letting her move an inch, even to face him. Smart man—she had been trying to turn enough to bite, leave her teeth marks on his skin. "I wouldn't expect you to understand it," she told him. "But it was the right thing to do."

"And is hunting me down also the right thing?"

If Andi had been frightened before she was terrified now. He knew what she was doing. But he was quiet, apparently expecting an answer, and Andi was not going to back down just because she was afraid. She had known this might come when she decided to start tracking him. Her choice was made.

"Yes," she whispered fiercely, and somehow it was easier to keep going once she had started. "Yes it is. You've murdered and hurt other people. Worse, you betrayed Gotham when it needed you most. You need to be brought to justice and if you won't turn yourself in, I'll make sure they find you."

"Is there any way to convince you to stop?"

Andi swallowed hard, but for some reason she was more afraid of showing her fear now than of what he would actually do to her. She was a dead woman anyways. Might as well try not to be a dead coward at least. "I'm not a corrupt cop you can buy off," she hissed. Defiantly, to cover her shaking voice. "I won't leave it alone. No matter what you do to me."

"Fine." he growled, suddenly releasing her and shoving her hard. Andi barely got her hands out in time to break her fall, her breath rammed from her chest, and it was several seconds before she could roll over and force her legs to support her. She tried to keep herself from wondering how long she would last if he decided to try breaking her. Or if she would even survive until tomorrow.

But he didn't do anything, didn't move towards her again. Andi suddenly realized that she couldn't even hear his breathing. She crept over to the light switch, and when she flicked it on, the only clue she could find that he had been there at all was her open window.

He let me go? Why? Surely he wasn't going to just let Andi track him down. Still shaking, Andi wrapped a robe around herself and went into her kitchenette to make coffee. No way was she going back to bed.

By the time the machine had finished brewing, some of Andi's shock had worn off. She crossed to the patched old sofa and flicked on her TV, more for its reassuring background noise than because she thought there would be anything interesting on at five in the morning. In the state she was at, she doubted anything short of a national disaster would catch her attention right now.

Alright. Think, she ordered herself as she tossed the coffee down without paying any attention to its lack of sweetener or scalding temperature. If med school hadn't already taught her to just swallow the stuff, two years working for MCU would have.

He wouldn't have let me go unless he thought I would never reach him. Andi slowly turned the thought around in her head, holding it up and examining it as if it was fine crystal. It seemed to hold true. But he knew she was tracking him. And he wasn't going to kill her. Which meant that he had no idea just how much evidence she had gathered or…

Andi's mug dropped from her hands but by the time it hit the floor, she was already up and dashing for her room to pull on some clothes. Either Batman didn't know how far she'd gotten or he was going to make sure that she never went any farther. Could the Batman get into her lab? Stupid question. He was the Batman. He could get anywhere he pleased. Could she get there first? Not likely but she had to try.

Even at six AM on a Sunday morning, a skeleton crew was still manning the police building and Andi didn't have any trouble getting into the lab. Once there, though, she could only stare in dismay.

It didn't look that different. Anyone who hadn't known what to look for probably wouldn't have noticed much out of the ordinary. But Andi could tell. Her meticulously collected soil samples for the database were gone, as was the original. Her mass spec and other equipment that recorded the information they provided had had their memories cleared. Every file folder related to the Batman had vanished, and when she switched on her computer, it was to find her anti-virus software screaming that something had attacked and erased everything that vaguely referenced the Batman. Even the small whiteboard she'd used for brainstorming had had its scribbles replaced with a neatly drawn bat silhouette in black marker. Andi erased it furiously, scrubbing at the board long after its faint shadow had disappeared.

There were still a couple things she could check, but Andi knew it was all gone. She sat down hard in the folding chair, buried her face in her hands. Somehow she felt even more shocked, violated almost, than when Batman had shown up in her room. She had expected that in a way, made her peace with the risks she was taking by tracking him. But for him to go into her lab, to just rip away all her hard work…

"You think you've won. You think you can get away with this," she whispered at last through gritted teeth. "Well I'm not giving up. The only person calling off this chase, Batman, will be me."

Author's Note: Major kudos to LOTL Stephanie.L, vertigirl, Elientjeuh, and Deer of the Sea (love the screenname by the way) for putting Unmasked on Story Alert, and especially to Ellmarr, and softballlover268 for favoriting!

On a (random) side note, I just finished the book Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins! Yay for college keeping me behind on my reading! If any of you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy I would highly recommend it; it's a fast moving adventure story that makes you pulse with adrenaline like nothing else.

I think there needs to be a new word entered into the dictionary that will tell how great reviewers are, but for now I'll just say that y'all are the best! Any and all criticism or encouragement (even flames if you think I deserve them) is very much appreciated.