JannaKalderash - Haha! When have I ever shown any desire to pair up Selina with Crane...except almost always. O_O Wait. I may actually ship Crane/Selina. (But I never will...or will I?)

bleedy - Mah, you've stroked my ego sufficiently. Thanks. ^_^

jacksparrowlovesme - I do enjoy the Riddler/Catwoman pairing, but this story might turn you off a bit as I'm going to be giving my love to Scarecrow and Ivy for a while (I wanted to try something a little different). I'll probably get back to Riddler/Catwoman at some point, plus I'd love to write a few chapters from Fireflies POV.

Violeta27 - When's your story gonna be updated? Hm? Hm? *nudge nudge*

Matchet Hatchet - Oh, did I get something wrong in the last chapter? If you could point out exactly where I got confuzzled, please let me know. I can fix it. Thanks.

Pinkqueen - I'd love to do another chapter from the Hatters POV. I might yet. I enjoyed writing it a lot.

Bootless Errand - Don't worry, things should smooth out nicely soonish. And I've been thinking of a few other POV chapters, so I'll definitely think about adding a Two Face chapter. Thanks for the suggestion.

KrnYong - Scarecrow is one of my favourites as well and I've actually been basing all the characters off of a site I found where actual psychologists analyze the more realistic psyche's of the villains. Which is why my Crane isn't a sociopath as many would write him, but he has a realistic social disorder that causes him to - for lack of a better term - shit disturb purely because it amuses him (this is also why he enjoys frightening people). This whole part of the story is going to be off and on from his POV so strap yourself in, because there's going to be a lot of Scarecrow coming up.

antihero276 - I don't know why people don't write Firefly, he's always been one of my favourite of the lesser known rogues (could be that I might be a pseudo fire bug myself). ^_^

The Fortune Teller - I agree. I enjoy jealous Eddie too and for some reason him being jealous of Crane amuses me too.

Geez, I'm sorry for the very, very late update kids. I've been so busy working on my original works that my fanfiction got brushed aside and I feel like a gigantic jerk for it. Anyways, here's a chapter I hope it'll tide you over until I can get another posted. ^_^

Chapter Five: The She Creature

**Ivy**

"If you're going to be breathing my oxygen and ruining my daily view," she explained, shoving a spray bottle of water laced delicately with plant food into Jonathan Crane's bony hands, "then you're gonna be put to work."

Frowning deeply at her, Crane stubbornly dropped the bottle on the floor. It had been in his hands for all of a nano second.

Ivy sighed deeply. Eddie had asked her to house him for a while, while he searched for a new hideout and Crane was adament that he was fine on his own, but with someone out there offing villains who escaped from Arkham, no one wanted to take a chance. Especially with the Purveyor of Fear off the ice with an injury.

But he was still a raging dick who had no respect for her or her work and got under foot as often as he could just to prove he was still able to move around.

"Pick that up," she ordered.

"No."

Her hand shot out and a sharply manicured finger slid into his mouth and painfully hooked him like a fish, dragging him down so that they were eye to eye. "Pick it up."

"Uhn," he grunted negatively.

Hooking her other finger into the opposite side of his mouth, she stretched it comically. "Pick the spray bottle up and get to work."

Dropping his crutches, he gripped her waist with long, bony fingered hands and hiked her up onto her worktable, setting her down roughly.

Ivy was amazed at that little feat of strength from the scrawny man and actually pulled her fingers from his mouth in shock.

"I don't like your weeds and I won't work towards their betterment." He snarled.

"You're a guest here," she began.

He cut her off with a snort. "That's the beauty of being an antagonist, Pammie. I don't have to care about the thinly veiled appearance of manners anymore."

She tilted her head as one of her vines wrapped around his good leg, pulling it out from under him.

The Scarecrow hit the ground with a jarring thump and slid backwards as the vine pulled him into the air to dangle above her head.

"If you can't stay out from under foot and if you won't help, you can rot up there like a ham in a butcher shop window." She replied, hopping off the table.

Two hours later, after dangling for an hour and fifty minutes, Crane sulked as he sat at her worktable, spritzing her sprouts with jaded malice. A sneer on his face, his chin cradled in one hand.

Ivy went about her own work, paying him enough attention to make sure he wasn't harming her babies, but generally ignoring him as he sullenly spritzed the plants.

"I don't agree with Edward's diagnosis of you, you know." He growled wearily.

She kept transplanting her babies gently, her back to him. "Oh?"

"I don't think you're a homosexual. Maybe bisexual. After all the only interest you've shown towards a woman is Harleen and she's hardly available. Of course, I don't think you like men either. Considering your treatment of the male of the species, I would imagine-"

Ivy turned on him. "I don't enjoy being analyzed, Jonny. Keep your psycho-babble to yourself."

"Everyone dislikes being analyzed, Pam. Why do you think I enjoy doing it so much?" He returned.

She put her attention back on her work.

"I wonder what it was, that triggered this extreme hatred. Rape, maybe? Someone take your flower without your permission?" He inquired.

Stabbing the seeding needle into the dirt, Ivy stubbornly ignored him.

"No…not rape. Maybe you were molested as a little girl? Hn? Daddy take liberties at bath time?" He went on, his voice a little closer.

Ivy continued to ignore him. All the Scarecrow wanted was a reaction, he was a psychological bully, liked to weasel his way into one's brainpan and play around with their psyche. She wouldn't play his game.

"Or maybe," he purred, voice right in her ear now, breath hot on her neck, "you were beaten and battered down by a dominant male…maybe, you were just some sweet, innocent girl until a man got his hands on you. Perhaps a man in a position of power. One you may have admired as an innocent school girl?"

Echoes of a cherub-like innocent haunted her memories and for a brief moment Ivy was just Pamela Isley again. That adorably geeky girl who loved nature so much, she studied plants in an effort to be closer to understanding them. But they died in horror and darkness, tainted by madness.

Blinking away the tears that were forming in her eyes, she gripped the trowel she had been working with and turned around to find Crane standing behind her, towering over her with his tall, intimidating form.

"You know, Jon," she began, her voice cutting off at the sight of his eyes. They were taunting or teasing, but merely probing, inquisitive.

Jonathan Crane was trying to figure her out.

It made her smile wickedly.

"Get back to work." She said and to her surprise, he listened to her.

The next few days confused her.

Not once did Crane make a nuisence of himself.

In fact - she noted - he actually tried to help her.

The Scarecrow didn't do anything without a purpose and she was on her guard at all hours waiting for something to happen.

He was such a strange creature, she decided.

Crane hobbled about on his crutches, perfectly able to ignore her presence. Not needing to talk constantly to fill the silence, he came and went quietly and after that first conversation about her origins, he never pressed her further for information about her previous life.

"Strange," she said as they sat around in her personal Eden, snacking on the ribs Jon had bought from a little barbeque place nearby.

He politely swallowed and daubed at his mouth with a paper napkin. "Hm? What's strange?"

"We haven't worked together much, have we?"

"Unless you count me stealing from your chem stores for my experiments, then no, not really." He replied.

"I've always thought you were some murderous misanthrope." She said. "But you're not exactly the evil monster I imagined you'd be."

A cold, almost inhuman smirk graced the man's face. "Give it time, Pam. I might just be lulling you into a false sense of security before I make my move."

"With a broken leg?" She asked.

"Could happen. You don't know the extent of my ingenuity."

"I know you're pretty much useless when you're altogether, so you're basically a blind kitten with a broken leg." She replied.

Crane angled his chin. "Don't challenge me, my child. I usually accept."

"Don't worry, Pam. I've been told his bark is a precursor to his bite, it'll give you time to shut his trap with your little green minions." Edward broke in, stepping out of the shadows of the outside world.

He looked as prepared for battle as a man in a green suit and purple domino mask could look and from the vines that draped about him, he had already fought Ivy's guardians.

Leaning on his trademark cane, Edward cocked his hip and eyed the two of them with a gleam in his vibrant eyes. "Hn, would have thought one would have killed the other by now."

"Those had better not be my morning glory hybrid vines you're wearing," Ivy snarled a cold greeting.

"Why, Pam, I was insulted they even attacked me. I'm such a dear old friend." Edward began with a dashing grin. "After all, we danced under the moonlight, you and I."

The red head caught the Riddler by the tie and yanked hard. "That," she growled, "was just me getting caught up in the moment, don't think you're anything special."

"Ow," Edward whined mockingly, "you hurt my feelings."

"What brings you here, Edward," Crane broke in calmly. "Besides trying to pick a fight with Pamela."

Studying the confident way the Scarecrow limped towards his good friend, back straight, chest out proudly, Ivy noted that there was a hint of amusement flickering in the pale depths of the man's eyes.

"I just wanted to let you both know I'm heading overseas," Edward said.

Crane chuckled. "And?"

"And what?" The Riddler inquired.

"And you didn't just come here to tell us that."

Pocketing his hands, the Riddler allowed his cane to dangle from his forearm. "You want more from me, Jonathan?"

"I'm expecting more than just a 'faretheewell'." Crane replied.

Edward beamed. "Well, if you're that bored. I may have something the two of you could work on for me." He fished around in his inner jacket pocket, "since the withdrawals are easing their grips on us, I still think it's a good idea to have some form of cure or easement for them. Black Mask was on my ass about it and with me going across the ocean, I won't have time for research, but you two, however, seem to have all the time in the world." He held out the baggie containing the pill from Arkham.

Ivy took it quietly. "Well, at least you're finally handing over the pill to someone even remotely smart enough to deal with it." She said.

The Riddler arched an eyebrow at her, but chose to keep quiet.

Touching a hand to his chin, Jonathan Crane studied his old friend. "Just who's going with you on this trip, anyways? Surely you're not going alone."

"None of your business, that's who."

"Sounds like 'Catwoman' is the answer," Crane replied.

Tapping his cane almost warningly at Crane, the Riddler turned and walked off, leaving Ivy and Jonathan to smirk at his back.

It was later as he was thumbing through a book on Civil War medical photography that he stole from the local library, that Ivy wandered into the area.

"He's flirting with danger, you know." She pointed out.

She watched as Crane stubbornly ignored her, studying the photo of an eighteen year old boy who lost most of his hand and three fingers to amputation. When she cleared her throat, Crane grunted a casual reply.

"I mean, she's going to eat him alive. That geek isn't prepared to cope with Selina's personality." Ivy went on, crossing her arms and resting her hip against a nearby tree. "Besides, she's pissed off at him right now. Apparently he slept with both those bimbos of his. Ha, I doubt it but-"

Flipping the page, Crane smirked darkly. "Who told you this?"

"I heard it from Jervis who over heard it from Selina."

"Where do you think Jervis heard it from?" Crane inquired.

Ivy crossed her arms and studied the man. He seemed pleased with himself for some reason. "I'm not sure. Why?"

"Just curious. I always like to trace gossip to it's roots."

"And just how far does this gossip go?" She inquired.

Jonathan Crane peered up at her simply, his face blank. "How would I know? I don't partake in gossip. Now, this is just macabre, why on earth would they photograph a grieving widow? Where's the corpse?"

Having enough of having to look at the disgusting war photography that he had immersed himself in, Ivy turned and wandered off back into her greenhouse. It was bad enough she hated human beings, but having to look at them at their worst was not something she wanted to spend her evening doing.

Checking on her babies as she wandered past them, she stopped at her workbench long enough to notice something was amiss from it. It wasn't anything major, but it was enough to give her that tingle that crawled up the back of her neck.

Somewhere in her garden a shadow moved among the leaves and fronds of the jungle plants and she gasped, her vines immediately going into protection mode and she took off running for the door to warn the Scarecrow.

A kunai came out the jungle and embedded itself into the trunk of one of her beloved sequoias just a hand's width from grazing her breasts and she pulled herself to such a short stop that her red hair flew out before her like a curtain of crimson.

Her vines were already working on criss-crossing between her and her attacker, giving her a shield of thick woody protection. She knew half of them would be winding their way through the greenhouse, seeking out intruders and wrapping them up securely, but it wouldn't be enough if there were more than a handful.

"Crane!" She called out as she neared the door. "Crane!"

Flames of pain sliced into her shoulder from behind and she staggered, but didn't fall, turning instead to throw a handful of thorns in the direction of her attacker, but another kunai sliced into the flesh of her thigh and she knew there were too many intruders for her babies to protect her from.

The pain began fogging the edges of her vision and she sunk to her knees, still prepared to go down fighting.

As a form came to stand over her, one of her nearby plants threw a cloud of spores up into his face, but the mask he wore prevented any damage from being done. The masked man gripped her by the arms and threw her headfirst into the trunk of the tree.

Ivy faded out of consciousness momentarily, when she faded back into reality she saw a blurry weapon raised, the blade prepared to deliver the death blow. She blinked and faded out again. Fading in long enough to find the blade gone, replaced with the curved metal of a scythe, she gasped in confused fear.

"You landed in the wrong Scarecrow's garden," the new form over her muttered darkly.

Then she was floating over the earth while the voice growled something to her. Or maybe they were growling in general, all she knew was that she couldn't make sense of anything.

Ivy knew she should recognize the tone, but the man's voice evaded her memory as she slipped into the darkness again.

The first thing that registered with her was the scent smoke.

Opening her eyes, she found a creepy pair of pale blue eyes peering down at her.

Ivy groaned and shoved Crane away from her weakly. "Get off me, Frankenstein."

He quirked a brow. "If I had feelings, you would have hurt them."

Sitting up suddenly, she remembered what had happened. "My babies!"

Crane gripped her tightly. "Leave them. The greenhouse is gone. Those bastards set fire to it when I started killing them off. They're suicidal."

Gazing into the distance, across the bridge of the small Chinese garden behind her greenhouse, she sobbed. "Bastards." Staggering to her feet, she raged harder at the blaze. "You fuckers!"

At her side Crane got to his feet as well, leaning on his scythe to steady himself. "It's for the best, Pam. The only way we survived is because they made the decision to go kamikaze and take everyone out. Come on, there might be more on the way."

She violently shoved him away from her as his hand touched her shoulder. "Go to hell! If you want to leave then leave! I'm not running from another home again!"

"Pam, you're smarter than this." Crane argued.

Stubbornly she flopped back onto the ground. Eyeing the blaze, she hoped that it would die. The sooner it died the sooner she could rebuild. Turning her eyes to the sky, she prayed for rain, something that would end the fury of the fire.

Beside her Jonathan Crane eased onto his ass on the ground and sighed. "Well, if you're not running, there's no way I'm going to look like a chicken shit by running. Of course this means you're going to kill us both, but whatever that's on your head."

"Don't hang whammies on me," she muttered, still watching the flames with determination. She was enraged about witnessing yet another greenhouse going up in smoke, but what pissed her off even more was having to admit that the Scarecrow may have just saved her life and that at some point she might have to thank him.

"Firefighters will arrive soon, I'd imagine." He pointed out.

"I'll hide until they leave."

"You should let me stitch you up, your wounds are still bleeding you dry." He said.

"I don't care."

Tsking, Crane eased back on his hands. "Well, then die for all I care."

"I don't need you anyways." She snapped.

After a long moment of silence, Crane shifted at her side. "You've lost all your leaves, by the way." He added bitterly.

She glanced down to find her modest coverage had fallen off somewhere between her being knocked out cold, to waking and scowled, immediately growing new coverage. She didn't care really, but she hated giving men a free show.

They both glared at the fire.

Ivy swore that she could hear her babies screaming out to her.

"I've seen better." Crane stated.

"Pervert," she snapped.