chapter 22

"It looks completely dead," Barbara said quietly. The building where Selina had met Crane was on the outskirts of Gotham, a small ghost town that wasn't used any longer. Jonathan Crane had taken up residence in one of the smaller buildings — about the size of a one room apartment. They were watching from across the street, peeking through ratty window shades. The stakeout had already been going on for about an hour with no luck. Bruce was pacing anxiously a few feet behind her. Selina hadn't met up with them yet, though she'd been planning to. Her plan was to meet up with an old ally of hers — Pamela Isley — per her request. And she still hadn't shown.

"If Ivy did something, I swear to God…" Bruce muttered, not processing Barbara's comment. The redhead gave him a look over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. She knew that Bruce and Selina were no longer sleeping together and that the romantic tension was coming to a halt, but Bruce would always would a special place in his heart and mind for Catwoman. Barbara was having trouble dealing with that.

Babs licked her lips uncomfortably, not knowing how to comfort him in this situation. I'm sorry for your loss? At least she died planet-friendly? Green is the new cat? She held back a snort, imagining Poison Ivy strangling Selina with her vines and then tossing her in a recycling bin. Or better yet, maybe she just fed her to the plants…

The door opened loudly and they both jumped, looking towards Selina who was breathing hard and flashing them a smile. "Sorry I'm late, Bats. What'd I miss?"

"Where have you been?" Bruce growled, his Batman voice coming out even in the privacy of the small room. She flinched back but recovered quickly, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry… Miss me?" She asked, blinking her long lashes. Barbara held back a gag and settled for ignoring them, looking back out the window and staring a hole through Crane's hideout.

"I was worried," Bruce clarified, flashing a look at Barbara in his peripheral. "What did Ivy want?"

"That's between us girls," She said and turned to walk towards Batgirl. "Seen the old hay bale?" She asked sarcastically and kneeled down on the gross shag carpet, looking down at the street in front of them. Her face was void of emotion for a few good moments and then there was a flicker of unease. "Has that car been there since you all arrived?" Selina asked, pointing. Barbara narrowed her eyes and looked down.

"Which one?"

"The black one, the Crown Victoria."

"That's not a Crown Victoria," Barbara said.

"Yes, it is! Just answer the question."

Barbara rolled her eyes. "It's been there all morning. Why? What's so special about it?"

Selina's tongue flicked out across her lip and she frowned. "It wasn't there when I came by to get the vaccine. Someone's here. Or has been, at least." Both of the Bat's brows lowered in suspicion.

"It's been completely still this whole time… Who do you think it is?"

"Crane?" Bruce said. "It could just be his men's car."

Selina shook her head. "The van is his, the white one parked down the block. I would know, I was thrown into it." She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do we do?" Both of the girls looked at Bruce and he blinked, not having an answer. Gnawing at the inside of his cheek, he approached the window, pushing the blinds down to peer out.

With a sigh, he said, "We need to get Crane alone. Even if it means waiting all night for that car to move."

Selina pursed her lips. "Maybe we don't need to."

Barbara raised an eyebrow. "What'd you have in mind, kitty?"

She smiled. "You need to get in there, and I need to keep my distance from Crane. But… He trusts me…" Barbara watched as the gears turned in Selina's eyes and slowly her blue eyes widened as she understood.

"That's crazy," Batman finally said quietly.

Slowly, Batgirl and Catwoman shared a smile. "But… I think it might work…"

The Cat slinked her way towards the building, though her movements weren't as graceful as usual. Less feline, slightly more intense and less… Carnal. She knew she couldn't face Crane head on. He knew her, knew her face, but his men didn't. Not like this. They wouldn't know if something was off. They wouldn't know it was Barbara Gordon in Catwoman's clothes. She stealthily made her way to the side door and her gloved fist knocked three short times. Barbara was sweating, her heart racing, doubting this would work. She didn't have her cowl on, which meant she couldn't contact Bruce if need be. She was all alone.

It took five minutes for the door to open and she was sure it was because they were checking out who was outside. The goon that answered the door was big and burly, bald and had a tattoo of a crow on the side of his head. How fitting. "Cat," He greeted, pushing his jacket back from his hip, alerting her of the presence of his gun. Barbara smiled tightly and cleared her throat, trying to mimic Selina's purring voice.

"Useless thug," She said, her voice low and seductive and she felt ridiculous talking that way. She fluttered her eyelashes and gracefully stepped in, licking her lips uncomfortably as the door closed. She'd have to move fast. As soon as it closed and the thug moved beside her, she was behind him with an iron grip on his neck. He grunted quietly but couldn't get the air to do anything more. As he fell unconscious in her grip, she grunted under his weight. Humans were very heavy when limp. With shifty eyes, she dragged him behind the wall and then took his gun, disassembling it quickly and hiding the parts in various places of the room. Then she ventured in further. The next two thugs were easy. She wrapped Selina's whip around the next guy's neck before jerking a knee up between his legs and then choking him as soon as he fell to his knees. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Finally, she heard Crane speak. "Ms. Kyle, did you come to see me or not?" She swallowed heavily and made her footsteps obvious that they were closing in, avoiding using her voice. The henchmen wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The Scarecrow would. She prepared a Batarang in one hand and then turned the corner into the small, makeshift office.

It was empty. Suddenly there was an arm around her neck, pushing into her trachea and she tried to gasp on reflex. "What are you doing here, kitten?" Crane's voice growled, distorted by the mask. She felt the burlap rubbing against her skin and shuddered, memories of their last encounter taking over her thoughts. She grunted loudly and then he jerked her around, about to say something but he stopped, staring at her with those bright blue eyes, his hands still wrapped around her throat. "Well, isn't this a surprise?" There was the sound of footsteps and Barbara tried to turn around. Who was it? Who was coming? "Come to foil our plans, hm?"

"What does she want?" A cold chill shot down Babs' spine. Ra's. He was here. In Gotham. Jonathan jerked her back around, pressing her into his body and showing Ra's who she was.

"Looks like Batgirl decided to take a spin in her boyfriend's lover's shoes." Then he chuckled. "This could be fun."

"No… Don't hurt her," Ra's said, circling them with narrowed eyes. Barbara watched him with wide eyes, heart pounding. "Like I said… We could use this to our advantage. Get the camera. Gas her." Crane — no, Scarecrow, most definitely Scarecrow — laughed again wickedly, a laugh she'd only heard once or twice… When the real Scarecrow came out. Her head was getting light from being choked and on reflex, she gasped loudly as he released her, as she toppled to the ground onto her knees. At the same time he released a cloud of white mist and she gagged, choking on it, the fear hallucinogen working it's way into her system. Terror contracted in her chest and she screamed loudly, visions of gore and guts and anguish overpowering her senses. Crane's laughter sung her to sleep.

It seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Horrors that Barbara hadn't thought possible of even the darkest human imagination tortured her. She was certain that she would never escape this hell. Still, there was a tiny fragment of her mind that said it was worse last time. For some reason, she wasn't sure if that was true. While that was vivid and crippling and real, this was as though she were sucked straight into her worst nightmares. Some of them contained Bruce.

Not all of them.

But some.

She shuddered wildly, her voice coming out hoarse and ragged from her sore throat as she screamed for what seemed the hundredth time in that second. Would Bruce find her? Did him and Selina even know what happened? Of course not, how would they? Her skin ached and crawled and she felt as though thousands of tiny insects were burrowing under her skin, her esophagus felt like it was filled with foreign things, knives poking through her eye sockets and wiggling their ways into her brain. Dick lying dead on the concrete, his skin raked red from his nails as the fear compound liquified his brain from the inside out. Bruce, not caring enough to find her, not wanting her, walking away with Selina, hissing you can have her. Alfred — kind, sweet Alfred — being beaten over and over for crimes that he didn't commit. Her father… Her father finding out the truth. And hating her for it.

She sobbed loudly, clawing at the ground and she was vaguely aware her skin was grating on the concrete beneath her cheek. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as the things she was imagining, though, although the sane corner of her psyche told her to stop, that she was hurting herself unintentionally, maybe even getting the wound infected because who knew what was on the ground here… Something registered faintly in her shrieking ears. Voices? Someone was talking? No, not just talking, it was a conversation. Two voices, talking back and forth. Who? Crane and Ra's?

Terror filled her again. Two of the worst people on earth that she could think of. Other than the Joker, they were the two people she knew who had no reservations for taking a life. The reasons were different, but the action was the same. It disgusted her. Even the Joker would hesitate before killing Batman, or even Harley Quinn, but Crane? He had no one. It was him and his split personality, and he would never ever part with the Scarecrow. And Ra's? The only family he even had was his daughter, Talia, and Barbara remembered clearly when he'd threatened to slaughter her, just to get to Bruce.

Talia…

Barbara cringed at the thought.

Her and Bruce had been on and off lovers for years. Why was she thinking of this now? Wasn't she supposed to be hallucinating terrifying things? When the image of Bruce and Talia kissing, making love, exchanging sweet nothings appeared in her head… She understood. She was hallucinating terrifying things. Only… In a way she never would have assumed before. Barbara hardly registered that she was crying, her head in too many places at once to comprehend anything fully.

Bruce… God, she missed him.

She… Loved him.

Another sob racked her body. Bruce. Bruce, Bruce, Bruce, where are you? She so desperately wanted to crawl into his arms, have him rock her on his lap, stroke back her hair and kiss her until she finally returned to reality. But no. Instead she was here, on this cold cement, wearing Selina Kyle's clothes, writhing in imagined pain as her foes watched from across the room. She couldn't even bring herself to look around to pinpoint their location.

"— still talking about him?"

"It appears so."

A scoff.

Barbara froze, tears still spilling down her cheeks. Was she speaking out loud? Did she say Bruce's name? Panic set in again and she began to shake.

"Whatever. It's time. It's at full power now. In the next couple minutes she should really begin to freak out." It wasn't even affecting her fully yet? Oh, no, no, no… Someone grabbed her by the chin and jerked her head up and her vision swam. When she saw Crane, she screamed and tried to scoot away, not wanting to look at the image of his disgusting, evil looking mask. "Smile real pretty, Bat," He said in his distorted Scarecrow voice and she sobbed loudly, her vision rapidly swirling around until it finally locked on the shiny hunk of metal in his hands. She blinked the tears away until she could focus in on it.

A camcorder. And the light was blinking red.

Good evening, my darlings! I'm super thrilled about how close this story is getting to the end. The climax is about to happen... Pun intended, of course. (In Riddler's voice.) On the other hand, Too Much Good Whiskey is just beginning! Who's excited, hm?

batbatbat: THANK YOU. That means so much to me! I love having people backing me up with my writing. :)

Mrs. Wayne: I had to give them a little break... But as you can tell by this last chapter: things aren't going perfectly though. Nothing ever goes perfectly in Gotham! Stay tuned, girl, shit's about to get real...

deadpool: I hope your valentine's was lovely, Wade Wilson! Sadly, I was not tied up this year, I spent the night eating valentine's candy and watching shitty TV. But hey, there's always next year. ;)

Guest (1): Hmmmm... I like the sound of that. Very unique! I'll definitely have to try and come up with something to try it out. If I write anything worth posting, I'll make sure to mention it!

BatsonBats: Hell no, the spark won't go away! ;) What would we do without it? In fact... It might only get stronger... *wiggles eyebrows mischeviously* And no, I don't think Alfred knows yet... But then again, Dick may have told him... I haven't written it yet, so I don't know! I suppose we'll find out!

WonderBabe: And I love you! I'm so happy that you're still enticed by the story! Can't wait to hear from you again, just like always. 3