Chapter 23: Sides

Bruce pulled up short just inside the apartment's lobby, stock still, listening with all his might. The GPS kept in the police car had gotten him to the corner, but he'd had no clue where Andi had gone from there until he'd heard—

Another scream came from upstairs, quickly choking off into sobs. "Andi!" Bruce charged up the stairs three at a time, and started to kick in doors. "Andi where are you?"

He almost missed her, half a dozen rooms through the hall. She was curled up tight on the floor, unmoving, a pained tautness trapping every line of her body. Oh God. Bruce paused to make sure the gas mask around his lower face was strapped on tight, then turned her over to face him. "Andi?"

Her eyes flicked around blindly, until they finally caught on his face. She squinted, then flinched in recognition. "Bruce…" she mumbled, "…go 'way… don't see me like…" her voice trailed off into incoherent mutters, then whimpers.

Bruce ignored the resistance in her muscles as he pulled her arms from where they were clutched tight to her chest and stretched them out so he could examine them. Sure enough, there was a small bruise forming around a tiny puncture wound on her left wrist. She hadn't just caught the disease, she'd been injected with it. That must be why she was so badly affected, and so quickly.

"Andi I'm going to have to move you," he whispered, his voice distorted through the mask, "I'll take you to the Manor and we'll start treating you."

"No. Lemme alone…" Bruce carefully got his gloved hands under her, and lifted her up. For such a light woman it was surprisingly difficult; she twisted constantly in his arms, either from the pain of the injection or some bizarre desire for him to let her go. It took some maneuvering to get down the steps and outside while keeping his grip on her. Much to his relief, the Lamborghini was still where he'd left it in the deserted parking garage and it purred to life without a problem.

It was eerie to see the streets so deserted. Two hours ago, Bruce had had to push through riots as he carried the Joker to Arkham, but as news of the biological attack finally leaked, people had leapt into the safety of their homes. Now it was only Bruce, a few ambulances, and one or two of the more adventurous or desperate on the road. He used the empty space to his advantage, flagrantly ignoring speed limits, the speedometer edging up a few more miles every time Andi suppressed another shudder or moan. How had she done this? Thirty minutes after she left Gordon and she had somehow tracked down the person responsible. She must have. That was the only explanation for the presence of the injection mark.

The car was zooming at a speed closer to two hundred than one by the time he pulled up the Manor. Andi lay still now, eyebrows pinched together, breathing ragged, not even reacting when he lifted her into his arms and sprinted up the stairs.

"ALFRED! Alfred get over—"

"Master Wayne!" The butler hurried over, a gas mask already strapped to his own face. "Has she—"

"Been injected. I need you to get on the phone with Fox, find out what antibiotics are showing the most promise, and hook her up to whatever she needs to make her lucid." Bruce carried her into her room as he spoke and laid her out carefully on the top of her bed. Alfred followed.

"Potentially damaging ones included?"

"What?"

"There are some promising medicines, but they have some… unfortunate side effects, sir."

Bruce hesitated. Andi knew vital information. If she was hurt in the process of finding out what that was… she would be willing to make that sacrifice. But this was his call, not hers. "No. No, just ones that will actually help her. But no heavy pain medications that will keep her from thinking straight if she does wake up."

"Yes sir." Alfred bustled out, already pulling out a phone, then came back in a minute later, wheeling different bits of medical equipment and jabbering a mile a minute with Fox. Bruce leapt to help, but Alfred gave the same stern look he had given when Bruce was a child and glanced pointedly at an armchair. Bruce obediently took a seat, watching as Alfred finally hung up the phone, deftly inserted an IV, added a few other medicines to the saline solution, and attached pulse and breathing monitors. He gave Bruce a sympathetic look over the gas mask.

"There's nothing else we can do for her now sir. You should probably—"

"I'm not leaving. There's nothing Batman can be doing right now anyways. Not until Fox can figure out how to stop the virus or Andi tells me who's responsible."

Alfred sighed but headed for the door. "I'll prepare a spot of tea then, sir."

The room was absolutely quiet except for the beeping of the monitors and the sound of their own breathing. Andi was still except for her slow, shuddering breaths that almost sounded like sobs. For the first time, Bruce noticed how small she really was. Not as tiny as Dr. Quinzel, but still short and, in this state, surprisingly fragile.

He closed his eyes, put his head in his hands. What am I doing? He could almost feel Rachel standing over his shoulder. Wasn't one woman dying for him enough? Was he really going to keep dragging Andi into trouble as well? What were all his efforts to save Gotham worth if he couldn't even protect one person?

Andi groaned and slowly shifted her body. It felt… heavy. Too heavy for her to move without the greatest concentration. She focused on breathing, the sensation clean and painless now and, when she had reassured herself that she could think clearly again, slowly opened her eyes.

Bright sunlight left her blinded at first, but the sensation didn't send the lancing agony she'd expected into her head. Slowly, her eyes adjusted, and she saw that she lay back in her own oversized bed, someone leaning over her, a gas mask obscuring the lower half of his face. "Bruce?" She thought she remembered him finding her, but at that point she'd been so far gone it might just as easily have been hallucinations.

"Alfred! It's working, she's awake!" Bruce bellowed over his shoulder. Andi heard footsteps shuffling towards the room and a moment later the elderly man joined them, a gas mask on his own face.

"How do you feel, Miss Andi?"

"I…" How to describe it? Not just the lack of pain; she felt extraordinarily refreshed. As if she'd woken up from a deep, dreamless sleep, but without any of the grogginess. "Really well actually. That—"

Her elbow twinged as she shifted her arm and Andi glanced down at it, at the IV bag hooked up to her. "What's in this?" She half-shrieked the words.

"Antibiotics. One of them must have started working for you to—"

"Oh gosh, no! Get that out, you could contaminate it!" Andi started to tear at the surgical tape holding the needle in, her clumsy fingers tangling in the tubing until Bruce caught her wrist. He refused to let go no matter how she twisted.

"Andi, calm down. You've been infected, but you seem to be responding to one of the medicines. We've got to keep the IV in and see if we can figure out which one. Just stay still, alright?"

"No, no listen, I'm not sick!" The frantic, hysterical tone was never going to convince anyone. Andi made herself lower her voice, but it was still desperate and pleading. "I've never been sick, I got injected with the cure not the disease, but with all these new chemicals pumping into my body, isolating it's going to be next to impossible."

"You're not sick? Do you have a vaccine or an antidote?"

"Antidote; vaccines only work on viruses. The way it was explained to me made it sound like it fights the exotoxin and—look, that's not important. Just get this out of me, get samples of my blood to labs, and then we'll talk biology alright?"

Bruce stared down at her for several seconds, then slowly released her. Andi finished ripping off the tape and yanked the needle free. He didn't say anything, so she wadded the sheet over the blood and turned to Alfred instead. "You wouldn't by any chance have a way to collect blood would you? We need to get mine to the labs as soon as possible."

"Give me a minute, Miss. I'll see what I can find." Alfred left the room and Andi leaned back. Her body felt good, but as she relaxed her mind started to dredge up memories of the past few days. That was enough to make her want to sleep again.

"Are you alright?" Bruce asked softly. Andi cracked an eye open and gave him a wry glance.

"Aside from getting knocked out twice in the past three hours?" Truthfully it was the least of her pains, but she didn't really feel like bringing any of the others up.

"I'm sorry. About my part in that I mean."

Andi stared. Had Bruce just said he was sorry? She decided to push her luck and see if that meant he would talk with her.

"What happened? With the Joker. And Leena." 'Andi's friend the Bat captured him.' Did that mean Bruce had seen Leena? Or had Leena just seen him or even figured out their connection later?

"He's in Arkham now."

"Arkham?"

Bruce shrugged as he unbuckled the gas mask from his face. With it gone, Andi could see that he looked even more tired than usual. "The police station's been blown up, and the doctors there have at least some experience dealing with him. Gordon and I had agreed weeks ago that it was the best place, and he's been keeping policemen there around the clock to take him off my hands. Besides, nobody will think to look for him at Arkham."

Andi was about to point out that perhaps this was because the Joker could walk out of there any time he so chose, but Bruce scooted his chair in closer, his face becoming very solemn.

"About Leena… I'm afraid I have some very bad news Andi. When I was fighting the Joker, I found your friend Dr. Quinzel as well. Battered, but alive. As soon as I captured the Joker, though, she attacked me. I tried to help her, to convince her to come with me, but she refused." Bruce flinched, and it sounded as if he had to force himself to speak the next words. "Andi, I don't know how to tell you this, but he's broken her. Your friend has gone mad."

Andi stared straight ahead, seeing the bruised, pathetic madwoman that was all the Joker had left of her friend. Harley. What he'd done to her was worse than murder, worse even than rape or abuse. Those took apart your body and life but the Joker… he had destroyed Leena's soul.

She would kill him. She'd kill him, and she'd make it hurt, and then she would laugh. She'd laugh, not him.

"Don't let him do this to you."

"What?"

Bruce shifted uncomfortably. "I see that look in your eye Andi. And trust me, if there's anyone who knows what you're going through, it's me. But whatever you're planning… it won't make Leena come back. It'll just let the Joker win."

Andi grimaced and felt something very much like tears prick the corners of her eyes. Not coming back. Her friends were gone. "Why Leena?" she asked desperately, "She was so innocent. So giving. Why would he have chosen her?"

"For those very reasons I think." Bruce shook his head. "The same reasons he keeps trying to break me. Why he did break Dent. Because all of us in some way stood completely opposed to him, and if he could change us then he would believe he had a chance to convert other less sterling examples of humanity."

Andi stayed quiet for a minute, trying to choose her next question. "You captured him, you said?"

"Yes."

Something was wrong, and Andi couldn't quite put her finger on it. "He just left you a note, and you went and got him? That sounds… easy."

"Well, it wasn't." Bruce's voice held a grimace. "Have you ever tried to take down a criminal mastermind who also happens to be a psychopathic pyromaniac? Try it sometime, then come back and tell me how 'easy' things are."

Andi decided not to point out that she'd asked to try and he'd knocked her out instead. Her mind was following it's own track. "Maybe easy is the wrong word, then," she muttered. "But it still sounds simple. For the Joker at least."

"What are you saying? Do you think he wanted to get captured?"

"I don't know. I'm no psychiatrist, and you know him better than me. Would he do something like that?"

"He has before. I suppose it's possible. If he has something to gain, if it would make things worse somehow…"

Make things worse. Can you help me break him loose? "Leena's… Leena's gone crazy, you said?" Her voice cracked on the words despite everything she could do. "As in… she's changed sides?"

Bruce stared at her for several seconds. "You think he wants her to come after him?"

"He always tries to prove people are evil, doesn't he? Well, we don't know why Leena… in the warehouse…" she couldn't make herself say it. "But maybe she had a reason. Maybe she might still be a good person, deep down. If she goes after him now, though…"

"It would prove that she's his." Andi flinched at Bruce's iron tone. He nodded slowly. "It's his style. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that's what he's after. But in that case… how do we stop her?"

Both Andi and Bruce stayed quiet, lost in their own thoughts, only broken free when the door opened again and admitted Alfred.

"Let's start drawing that blood shall we?" He slowly wheeled in what looked to be average blood sampling paraphernalia and carefully took it around to the other side of Andi's bed so that he could collect from her undamaged arm. "Are you feeling strong enough for this, Miss?"

"It's just blood Alfred. Physically, I really do feel fine," Andi said, holding out her arm obediently so Alfred could wrap the tourniquet around it, then swab her inner elbow with betadine. His movements were slightly less practiced than when he had put stitches in, but assured and calm for all that. For an elderly man he had remarkably steady hands. "Why do you have this stuff anyways? Hospital equipment I can understand, but I would have thought you'd just go to Fox if you needed information on blood samples."

"For occasions like this, Miss. Master Bruce has sometimes encountered toxins, and we often need to draw blood to create an appropriate antidote."

"Oh." Andi watched, unflinching, as Alfred expertly slid the thick needle into a blood vessel and filled the syringe. Bruce cleared his throat and leaned in while Alfred squirted the contents into one of his vials.

"So what happened? Did you figure out who was behind it? And how did you find them in the apartment?"

Andi fully intended to tell Bruce everything. Tell him that she had seen Leena go mad, that Pam had given up and, worst of all, about the guilty suspicion in the pit of her stomach that said she hadn't done enough. Hadn't been enough.

But as she opened her mouth, she couldn't do it. Not the same way she hadn't been able to tell Pam about Bruce. That had been a conscious decision. A realization that something was too important to tell, and the choice to keep quiet. This… at the thought of telling anyone, even Bruce, especially Bruce, Andi's stomach clenched and she almost choked on her own breath. No matter what they had done, she couldn't betray her friends.

"Andi?" Bruce laid a careful hand on her forehead. "Are you dizzy? Relapsing?"

"No. No I'm fine," Andi forced out. Something soft pressed against the crease of her elbow, and she realized that Alfred was pressing gauze on it, unwrapping the tourniquet.

"We've collected quite enough, Miss. I don't want you getting sick or weak."

"I really am fine Alfred. It's just my mind that's having trouble right now. And the labs will need as much of my blood as they can get their hands on."

Alfred waited for Bruce's nod before he reinserted the needle and took another sample. Bruce turned back to Andi with a patient expression.

Lie. If I can't tell the truth, give him something that might help at least. "I—I called Pam for help," Andi began. She needed this to line up with her cellphone record in case Bruce had been keeping an eye on that. "There aren't many scientists in Gotham with the know-how and resources to engineer this and I thought she might be able to give me a list of people to start looking at." She paused. Not too distant from the truth. Perhaps that was the best way to go; keep it simple, keep it realistic.

"She mentioned one of the weirder scientists who had worked at her lab, one who always seemed to be a bit… off from the others. Dr. Jason Woodrue. She gave me the address." Woodrue had been one of those killed in the destruction of Pam's lab, but it would be easy enough to manipulate evidence so that it looked as if he had faked it. It had taken dental records to identify him and Andi could swap them or something without too much trouble. And, from everything Pam had said, he had been a genuine creep. Andi didn't feel too bad about smearing his name.

"The building was abandoned for years though," Bruce pointed out. Andi made herself shrug casually even though inwardly she was beginning to sweat. She was making this up as she went; figuring out details like that were what was going get her caught.

"Pam seemed to know more about him than just a colleague," she invented. "I have a feeling they went out before she realized he was off the deep end. She knew enough to pass on where he probably was to me, and things had gone so wrong I didn't want to take the time to find out how she knew."

Bruce arched an eyebrow. "Alright. But he was he there when you went in?"

"Yes." Back on safe ground. "He let me in and started to tell me about a mushroom he'd found…"

From there she kept the story as close to the truth as possible. Pam's name was replaced with Woodrue's, and she made it sound as if he didn't care that the bacteria was spreading so that Leena could be edited from the story altogether, but the basic structure was the same. The only pause she took was when Alfred finally finished with the blood work, but he stayed in the room, as intent on her story as Bruce.

"… I thought he'd given me the toxin at first," she concluded, "But he said it was actually the antidote. And for all that had happened, he still seemed very honest. Crazed, but honest. He genuinely believes in what he's doing."

"Why do you think he gave you the cure, then?"

"I really don't know Bruce." That was the truth, pure and simple. Andi might be Pam's friend, but she hadn't thought Pam would risk all of her plans for destruction to save Andi. Perhaps it meant there was some good still in her.

She had gone quiet, Andi realized suddenly. Bruce was watching her closely, and she made herself not twitch or look away from his gaze.

Finally he nodded to himself and the moment broke. "Do he say anything about other plans? Or what—"

"The Joker. He wants to free the Joker." Andi said unthinkingly. Bruce stared.

"How did he even know the Joker was captured?"

Damn. Just when she had thought she was in the clear… "I don't think he does," Andi covered quickly, "But he seems to be relying on the mayhem the Joker creates to help cover his tracks. If the Joker's back at Arkham, Woodrue might let him out so that he'd distract the police from finding him."

It sounded rather lame to her, but Bruce nodded slowly. "I'll head to Arkham, then, tell them to increase security against him."

"The bacteria? Are you sure you'll be—"

Bruce tapped the gas mask sitting next to him. "Fox figured out it's spread by breathing in air almost directly from an infected person. So long as I wear this when I'm within two feet of anyone, I'll be fine. And they think they've managed to contain it to a few sections of the city; it's still hundreds of people, but it looks like this won't turn into the apocalypse at least. Now you should get some sleep."

As she had told them several times before, Andi was not the least bit tired, but she didn't bother arguing. The door closed behind them, and Andi curled up under the covers, trying not to think.

Bruce and Alfred left the room together. "Get those samples to Fox immediately and have them tested." Bruce said the moment they were out of earshot from Andi's door. "Call me if you find anything useful."

"Yes sir. Might I ask where you're going?"

"Checking with the news stations to make sure they don't know the Joker's captured yet, or at least where he's been put. Then to Arkham to check that he's being kept under high security, then back to that apartment. I'm not a trace analyst, but I still might be able to find something."

"Master Wayne…" Alfred hesitated and Bruce could practically hear his loyalty warring with his discretion. "I think Miss Andi is hiding something."

"You picked up on it too?" Bruce shook his head. "Andi's not telling us everything, but I don't know if it's because she's afraid or she just doesn't want to bother us with it or maybe even her mind is playing tricks on her; it sounds unlikely for Andi, but she has been through a lot of trauma in the past two days. But I trust her. She'd tell me if it was important and with all she's been through in the past few days I didn't want to push."

"Very good sir. Just as long as you are aware of the situation."

Bruce left for the media room while Alfred went in the other direction. GCN was already playing on its large flat screen, and he lounged against the wall, not bothering with any of the seats. The disease was the main news story, but after about five minutes the anchors cut to speculation that the Joker could somehow be involved in the attacks. The theory wasn't getting much support; the Joker's flagrant desire to take the credit for his mayhem would have brought him out of the woodwork by now if he was behind it. But if the theory was on the table then the public in general still thought the Joker was at large. Odds were Woodrue wasn't trying anything yet if that was the case. That was all Bruce needed to know. He turned to go, only for the sound of gunfire and screaming on the screen to spin him back around.

The news anchors had already fallen, red splashed across the pristine set-up, but the shooter remained hidden behind the cameras. Others, presumably the crew and staff, were shrieking or yelling off-screen and he saw one man run in front of the camera before jerking strangely as a bullet punched through him. A couple more loud gunshots and the whole studio went still.

Then a blonde woman skipped onto the scene.

Andi heard him coming, was already starting to sit up, when her door crashed open so hard that it slammed on the wall and bounced back. Bruce caught it on his arm without looking and strode inside, a deliberate fury in every step.

Despite herself, Andi flinched. She had thought she had seen Bruce at his most dangerous—breaking into her apartment, fighting the Joker—but that was nothing to this. It took an effort to meet his eyes, and when she did, every instinct in her body said to flee. She despised it for that. She had thought she wasn't a coward, but it took a monumental effort to stay in control.

"You know."

Bruce folded her arms and stared darkly down at her with the same murderous severity of the Batman. "Get up."

Andi considered disobeying, but frankly she thought she might deserve whatever wrath he was holding back. She swung her feet off the bed, and Bruce seized her by one arm and dragged her from her room through the winding hallways. Andi stumbled behind him, trying to keep some semblance of balance and match her steps to his rapid long strides.

"Look, Bruce, I know I wasn't entirely truthful but—"

He stopped, yanked her close to him. His whole body was shaking with fury, his grasp bruising on her upper arm. "'Entirely truthful?'" he snarled, "You lied. You knew who was behind this, you could have given information that would have helped, and now people are dying because you didn't."

Dying? Bruce almost dragged her into the room with the TVs where she'd first seen Leena's kidnapping play. He more threw than guided her into a chair, then picked up a remote and started up the footage from a few minutes ago.

"Watch it," he growled, but Andi needed no prompting. She stared, trapped in horror, at the dead bodies of the newscasters on the screen.

Leena skipped on camera first. She ignored the chairs behind the desk, instead hopping up onto the ledge and flipping the slumped body of one of the newscasters off to take a seat.

If Andi hadn't known it was her, she might not have recognized her friend. Her hair was still in those ridiculous pigtails and bangs but the rest of her… a loose long sleeved shirt despite the warm weather, divided into quarters that alternated between bright red and faded black. She wore equally baggy black pants, held up by a thick scarlet belt, and a pair of too-large combat boots. Her face was painted like the Joker's, but gave a mottled appearance with all the blotchy bruises underneath. She had clumsily applied dark red lipstick too, mercifully at least not etched into a smile, but it was the same color as the crimson diamond patterned over each eye and the three tiny ones clustered on her left cheek. She twirled a gun in one red gloved hand.

"Hiya!" She beamed at the camera. Andi didn't know how she made her grin so huge with her face as battered as it was. "I'm Harley Quinn. A-and this is…"

She waited for someone to complete the sentence, and when it was clear no one would, she stood on the desk and bellowed: "C'mon, Red, you need to introduce yourself too! Don't be shy!"

'Red?' Andi knew who Harley was talking to, of course, but where had this name come from? After a second, Pam strolled into view. Or maybe sauntered was the right word. She moved like she was on the runway and dressed like it too. Where Harley's whole look was falling apart at the seams, Pam's was cool and collected. Professional almost. Tight brown leather pants, and a sleek, green silk halter top that bared her midriff would have made her look exotic in any company except Harley's though. There was even green make up, not just in huge swoops over her eyes, but in her lipstick as well, and emerald sparkles glinted on her cheeks.

"I'm Poison Ivy," she told the camera, lounging against the desk rather than sitting down. Her voice was a seductive purr. "And I'm the one who's created the toxin. I also have the cure. But I have two conditions before I'll release it."

She looked at Harley, apparently expecting her to speak first, but the blonde sat down again and motioned grandly for Pam to go. Pam cleared her throat.

"First of all, there is a mushroom here, growing in Gotham State Park. Now, I know most of you are oblivious to the wants and needs of the environment, but allowing the city to build over it? Are you really so blind to the needs of our planet, including this endangered species? This extraordinary mushroom has a property that will save lives and all you can think about are new housing complexes? I don't—"

"Hey. Hey, Ivy, let's get to the point. I think there might be some coppers heading our way by now and we don't wanna have to hurt 'em." Harley idly fired her gun into the air a couple of times. Ivy took a deep breath and calmed her voice.

"What is left of the Gotham city council has until midnight tonight to disband its plans for construction on that land. It must then be legally donated to a legitimate environmental agency in such a way that even if I'm arrested, the land will remain protected."

"My turn!" Harley tried to fire the gun again, but when it only clicked, out of bullets, she shrugged and resumed twirling it. "So, I know the Batman and these news guys didn't want to tell ya, but the Joker, Mr. J, got caught by the big black bad guy. Ya see, though, the joke's on them." She stopped swinging the gun around and tipped the camera a huge wink. "You, my fine friends, get to choose. If Mr. J stays locked up… then I'll tell Ivy here not to let a single one of you get the cure. If, however, he was to get free somehow…" she raised both eyebrows and spread her hands innocently, as if to say 'there you have it.' "So-o, just write to your wonderful city rep—um, if you still have one that is—and find my Mr. J! And then, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank."

The camera faded into fuzz and Andi took what felt like her first breath since she had watched the bulletin. Bruce turned towards her. "Well?"

Perhaps she'd breathed too soon. Andi wanted to speak, but her throat kept getting stuck. Maybe that was a good thing. She wasn't quite sure of what to say.

"I'm sorry," she finally whispered.

"You're SORRY? Sorry?" Bruce looked to be on the point of losing it completely. "Andi I trusted you. And you just endangered not just you or me, but every citizen in Gotham! What do you think is going to happen out there now? This city is going to be tearing itself apart trying to find the Joker, people are going to be—" He broke off for several long seconds, and when he did speak again his voice was under such tight control Andi was surprised it didn't break.

"Just tell me why you lied."

All the effort trying to justify herself to herself and suddenly the truth floated to the top of Andi's tongue without a pause.

"Because I couldn't betray them, Bruce."

He stared at her as if she'd struck him with a heavy weight. Andi's voice was very small. "I haven't given your secrets to them… but I couldn't give theirs to you either. You entered this war to fight for Gotham, and that's great, but I did it to save them. So when they turned against everything they had once believed in… what could I do Bruce?"

"And look where fighting to for your friends got them!" Bruce snapped, stabbing a finger at the TV. "Well done!"

As if she needed reminding.

Bruce stepped so close to her that Andi had the option of either staring straight at his chest or into his face. After a minute, she chose the latter. "Andi, you can't keep doing this," he finally said. The fury was still in his voice, but so was a complete calmness, as if he'd reached a decision of some kind. "You might have come into this fighting for all sorts of things, but if you're going to be here, if you're going to keep this up, you can only do it for one. Because it's right. This is bigger than me, bigger than you and, yes, bigger than even Pam and Leena.

"So it's your choice. If you walk out of here, you're free to find your friends, to try to get the Joker, to do whatever you damn well please. But if you're going to stay, I want you in. You are going to be dedicated to this mind, body, and soul, and there is no turning back. No more fence-sitting. Do you understand?"

Andi stared at him for a second, then looked away. Bruce's face might have been carved from stone for all the sympathy his look held. His eyes glittered, though, fierce and utterly determined. He meant this. Could she really do what he suggested? Put something else, even Gotham, before her friends? Betray Pam and Leena?

No. Not Pam and Leena, she realized, Ivy and Harley. The friends I had are gone. And without them, was there really anything left that she wasn't willing to give up?

Andi met Bruce's glare and refused to flinch. "I'm in."

Author's Note: So there you have it! The reason why the Joker went down so easily.

To be 100% honest, I'm a bit nervous about how this chapter turned out (there's a big surprise...). I liked it. I figure that with both of her friends turning evil, it makes sense for Andi to at least flirt with the 'dark side.' Despite all her wonderful attributes, she does have her flaws and one of them is that, hyper-rational though she is, she just refuses to see reason when it comes to people she cares about. Hence her running to the top of a skyscraper with absolutely no plan in mind to catch a serial killer. Or going to an abandoned apartment complex to meet an eco-terrorist. Or, in this case, lying to cover the tracks of a pair of murdering maniacs. That's just my take though; I can see why others would disagree.

As y'all may have noticed, this post is a whopping week early! And why is that? Because I'M GETTING PUBLISHED! It's only a short story in one of my college's lit magazines, but it still had me frantically calling everyone I know and screaming at the top of my lungs when I found out. Anyways, as a thank you to all of you amazing reviewers who have helped to whip my writing into shape, I decided to post early. So you guys? All I can say is that y'all don't have the slightest idea how much your thoughts, criticism, and encouragement have meant to me. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!