chapter 23

"Why is it so quiet? Where do you think she is?" Bruce asked Selina as they sat in the dingy apartment building and watched out the window for signs of movement. It had been an hour, and Barbara hadn't come out yet. Bruce was about two seconds away from barging in, fear gas or not. He had a terrible feeling that the vaccine would protect them from the new formula, but the old?

What if Barbara had been gassed?

What if she was lying in agony, terrified for her life and waiting for him to come save her?

He refused to believe that.

"I'm sure she's fine," Catwoman said bitterly. She had changed into a short black dress and a pair of tights — apparently the only other clothes she had in her bag. Bruce was gripping Batgirl's outfit in his fist and he thought if he didn't let go soon, his fingers would tear straight through. He gave Selina a look out of the corner of his eye and she shrugged, eyes wide as if to ask, what'd I do? Her expression slowly shifted to one of confusion and she looked up at Bruce curiously. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Listen."

Bruce frowned and focused all of his concentration on sound. It took him a few moments to pinpoint the noise but when he did, he turned to Selina with a lowered brow. "Is that static?"

"Sounds like a home video," She muttered and then stood, looking around the room in confusion. A low, dark voice interrupted their thoughts. It was slightly muted, as though speaking to them through another room.

"I know you're out there, Batman," The strangely monstrous, gravelly voice said.

"Oh, fuck," Bruce said and darted towards the window. He looked down through the blinds and saw that on the side of a building right beside them, a faded live stream of a video was playing. And Scarecrow was looking straight into the camera. Bruce shuddered at the image. Selina was beside him in an instant, looking out with a scowl. "She didn't get to him in time."

"Your little trick was smart, I'll give you that, and it saddens me to say I'm not surprised that the Cat betrayed me. Are you there, Ms. Kyle? I'm sure you are." Selina flinched next to Batman and he saw the cringe, responding to it with a frown. The Scarecrow rubbed his hands together and said, "Well, no use crying over spilt milk!" And then, in a dark growl that sent chills up both their spines, he said, "But I still have my bargaining chip." With a flourish, the suited villain stepped back and Bruce felt his stomach drop to the ground. Barbara, dressed in the Catwoman outfit, red hair toppling down from the back of the cowl, sweaty, face red, writhing and tied to a ventilator shaft. Laughter rung out through the hidden speakers and Bruce's fists clamped down on the plastic blinds, snapping them in half. He got her. "I think little Ms. Batgirl here is having a hard time. Why don't you say hello to your friends, Batgirl?" Crane asked, walking up to her and grabbing her chin, forcing her to look at the camera. Barbara blinked and as her dilating pupils shifted and focused, she started to shake until a hoarse, broken scream escaped her bleeding lips.

"No! No, no, no, please, please…" She moaned, trying to squirm away from him.

"Don't you want to see Batman?"

She froze in his arms and the shaking picked up again. "Batman," She breathed.

"That's right, Batman… I've got your girlfriend. And until I'm sure that your little plan to save the city is ruined, I'm keeping her." The Scarecrow stood, walking towards the camera and through the holes in the mask, Bruce could see his eyes quirking up and knew the madman was smiling. "I've got my boys on it right now. Clock's ticking, Little Bat." The camera moved, someone putting it down and about to shut it off, but before it clicked to black, Crane's evil, twisted voice said, "Greetings from the League of Shadows."

His laughter was the last thing they heard.

"This isn't going to work," Barbara gasped from the floor, lying beside Crane's feet. He gave her a look, unamused, and knelt down beside her. Patting her cheek, he smirked and straightened his tie.

"Listen, dear. If I know anything about anything, I know that fear and love are the two biggest motivators. Put them together and what do you have?" And then he chuckled and stood up and as he walked away, he sung, "Bippity, boppity, boo."

Barbara scowled at the ground, jerking her wrists against the cuffs that held her to the ventilator shaft. Her wrists were already bloody, bleeding down the limb and soaking her sleeves. They throbbed in time with her racing heart. Stop worrying… Bruce will get you soon. And then the other, more pessimistic voice in her head scoffed and muttered, Yeah, it's you or Gotham city, idiot. Who do you think Bruce will choose? And then a single tear welled up in her eye and trickled down the slope of her nose. A sob threatened her but she knew not to let it out, not this close to her enemy. Instead, a choked whimper released from her throat and she heard Crane pause a few feet away. She closed her eyes tightly, hoping he would just ignore her but instead he turned on his heel and walked towards her. In his hand, he clutched her jaw tight and looked deep into her eyes. "Maybe I'll just give you another dose. I don't like you when you're lucid."

"Don't," She gasped. "Don't please… You don't know what it feels like…"

"Yes I do," He breathed and then a harsh wave of gas expelled from the cuff of his sleeve and she choked and heaved and snorted as it filled her lungs and she started to shake on the ground violently. Crane laughed slightly as he walked away, watching the writhing, moaning form of his nemesis. Just for added effect, he sent a harsh kick into her stomach, just under her ribs and she screamed before he left the room. Ra's was standing in the doorway and raised an eyebrow at him. "What?" He mouthed. "She deserved it."

The older man shrugged one shoulder. "We need to get the virus airborne pronto. Otherwise everyone will be vaccinated by tomorrow. What do you suppose we do, Doctor?" The smaller man licked his lips as he thought and leaned against the wall beside his counterpart, and as they thought, the two admired Batgirl clawing at her skin, itching and growling and crying.

"I think I have an idea. Follow me," He said, folding up his mask and sticking it in his pocket. Ra's followed him through the warehouse until they reached the small makeshift chemist lab that Crane had organized. Jonathan tapped the shoulder of one his employees on the way, waving two fingers to command him to follow. The goon obediently tailed after Crane, ready to do as he said. The moment he was in the room, Crane subtly handed Ra's a mask and just as it covered his nose, he sprayed a generous amount of toxin into the room. The thug coughed and looked at his boss with wide eyes, terrified and betrayed and Jonathan's cold blue irises stared back, unfeeling. When it failed to do anything, the man looked up at him again.

"Boss, please," He murmured, backing away.

"Shut up," Crane growled and then lunged, his thin body jumping towards him and planting a syringe in his arm. He screamed loudly and fell to his knees, jerking the needle out. "Now, Mr. Al Ghul, if you'll direct your attention to my specimen…" The weakling crawling around on the floor looked horrified at whatever it was Crane was going to do next. "I just infected him with the same toxin I've spread through Gotham, and followed it with the exact percentage of cure that is being distributed around the city. Now, watch this."

He held up an aerosol can and Ra's raised an eyebrow. "And, what, may I ask, is that?" Crane grinned and then sprayed it. It took a few moments for it to take place but eventually the test subject started to scream, his pupils dilating wildly and the two villains watched with pleased expressions. "How…?" With violent, blood curdling screams coming from behind them, Crane gestured Ra's to follow him to his work desk. On it, he set down a single metal plate followed by grabbing another syringe, tapping it and pushing out just a dollop of the mixture onto it. It fizzled slightly, but you could see bubbles underneath. The toxin, just waiting to erode and come out. Then Crane poured a small drop of the thick honey-like liquid that was the cure. Ra's raised his eyebrows as the bubbles began to dissolve until they were nothing more than pinpoints. As soon as Crane sprayed on the new compound, bubbles began to pop forth, the pinpoints expanding more rapidly than they ever would have before. "How does it work?"

"The cure is a neutralizer. It's impossible to ever get the toxin completely out of your system without letting it run it's course. That being said, those small little dots are essentially the remaining sickness. When it reacts with this new chemical, that I call Xn2, the small bits of virus expand. It's to make the toxin flood your system, technically a cure in it's own right. Well. It would be, if the virus it was targeting wasn't as powerful."

"Brilliant."

Crane smiled at the still hissing puddle on his desk. "I thought so. The only problem is, is that the people who have already been cured… Stay alive. It won't end in a casualty. It eliminates the threat of death, but the effect of the toxin is still the same, and if they so choose to tear themselves apart in the midst, that's their choice. If we can get this out, into the public, or even into hospitals, we'll still have about four percent of the city dead by tomorrow night. And the rest in a panic." He leaned casually against the desk and watched as Ra's pondered over it. Crane's eye slowly glazed over and he stared off into space. In a lowered, hushed tone, he said, "It will be… Magnificent."

Ra's smiled at the other man. "Set things in motion. I'll deal with the Bat. You just need to cleanse this city. And soon."

"Yes, sir," Jonathan said and grinned, grabbing his mask again and yanking it over his head as he left the room. Ra's watched as the bubbles slowly fizzled out and a grin stretched it's way across his mouth. Things were finally falling into place.

Hello members of the Bat Clan! I apologize for my small vacation from updates and responses, but I'm here now so we can continue! (Lao's voice from the Dark Knight.) It's been a busy and absolutely terrible week, and I'm hoping to get all my emotions out in my writing. Which, most likely means making up for my lack of fic updates. How do you guys feel this close to the end? What do you think is going to happen?

BATSONBATS: You don't know how happy it makes me that it worked out! I was a bit worried that the idea was... Shitty, I guess. But the responses I've got make me very happy! :) Thank you so muchhhhh. You helped put a smile on my face!

RED: Expect the unexpected when you're reading stories by thechokesonyou. ;) Your review was intensely flattering and made me very thriled. Hopefully chapter 23 was just as good and I'm praying I'll have chapter 24 posted in a few days!

Mrs. Wayne: I hate that this chapter was smut-less but there will definitely be some coming up. Since it's the climax of the story and I'm very diligent when it comes to not writing PWP, I wanted to focus a bit more on the story line as well, but that doesn't mean the smut is over. The opposite, actually. What's a story without sex? Boring, that's what! I love Bruce and Selina as well! As much as in my head I ship Babs/Bruce, in the true DC world, where they aren't together, I think Seiina is the perfect girl for him. She's his polar opposite in some ways.

Guest (1): Secretly my typos are actually done on purpose to test you... Kidding, but sorry about that! I'm glad you liked the chapter though!

deadpool/silver: In response to both of your prompts, I just want to say that the idea was very interesting and got my mind spinning. I think that's a really cool idea, but in my mind, if that were to happen in this story it would be a little contradicting. Babs is working so hard to get him to fall for her and not Selina, and if she were to just take up the mantle as Catwoman it would seem almost as if she was using it to get to him, not really gaining independence. If she were to come up with a new persona, or a new character, it might be slightly different. But that's just me! What do you guys think? You all have always had amazing ideas!

Guest (2): You don't know how happy that makes me! Thank you so much!

Anonymous 01: Ooh, I like that... I like the idea of actually bringing Talia into this and not just thoughts of her. Since Ra's is in town, it does make sense for Talia to come, too. I'll have to play with the idea for a bit, and try and work with it, and maybe see if I can get it in there. Really loved the idea. :)

WonderBabe: That's my goal! (Overwhelming you in general, not a bad way...) I hope that you're still enjoying everything and hopefully this chapter was good, too! I can't wait to hear from you next time, sweetie. :)

Love you guys! I'll have 24 up as soon as possible!

- Chokes