Hey all my Batbabes! I'm back! And guess what? I'm thinking it's time you all got an ending to this story, so expect more updates! You're all really kind people and I appreciate the patience. I know, I know, I'm the worst and deserve to be fed to Kill Croc, but won't you take pity on me? I do so love you all...
Chapter Thirteen: The Dead Talk Back
**Selina**
"So, we have a list, but I have to tell you, Lynns, I don't think any of these whacko's are behind this," she said as they strolled about the street like normal Gothamites.
Beside her Garfield Lynns, dark and stormy as he was, eyed every passerby almost accusingly, as though any of them could be the ones who wanted everyone dead. "It's probably some young kid looking to make a name for themselves. I bet we haven't even met the little worm yet."
"No newbie is that good," she retorted.
"Pride cometh before a fall," Lynns murmured, flicking his cigarette butt at someone who coughed loudly as he passed.
The man turned to say something, but the arch look Lynns flashed him had the smaller fellow backing away and hurrying on his journey.
"Don't be so miserable," she warned. "Play nice with the ants."
"I'm sorry, I don't do social," he growled.
"It's the shirt," she said, crossing Calendar Man from their list. He bit it a while back when all of this first started. Didn't shock her, he was a world class wuss.
"What?"
Selina motioned to a couple of businesswomen in tight pencil skirts who were watching Lynns pass quietly and almost hungrily.
"What are they looking at?" He demanded.
Reaching over, she gingerly pat his stomach, knowing the scarred tissue that lay beneath the grey shirt. "Six pack."
He glanced down at where her hand rested, before levelling his chin. "I hate this."
"That's because you're out of your comfort zone, sweetie," she said. "What about Anarky? He does like to make a grand point…but…he's been sleazing around Metropolis lately…but he does have that hatred for most of us…I'm going to add him to the list."
"This street would be beautiful licked in flames," Lynns said.
"This street is beautiful without fire," she pointed out firmly.
Almost nervously, he reached for the pack of cigarettes in his pocket and lit one, glaring at a businessman who walked by coughing.
A group of children pushed passed them wearing their backpacks for school, laughing and shrieking as they darted in and out of the people walking the street.
"Public School 54 up the street," Selina said as Lynns gave the children confused and mildly horrified looks as they boldly touched him to get him to move.
Bowing her head back to the list, she stroked off name after name, narrowing down their search according to living or dead, possible threats or harmless crackpots.
A car passed by booming their bass and it wasn't long after that the squealing of tires had her finally tearing her eyes off the paper in her hands.
Garfield was gone and there was a crowd gathering up the street.
She jogged towards the crowd, pushing her way through to find Lynns setting a small girl down, backing away from the crowd.
"He just snatched her right up," someone murmured appreciatively from nearby.
"That asshole was driving too fast, just too too fast," someone else declared.
A young woman snapped a photo of Lynns with her phone as the crowd grew.
"What's your name?" Someone shouted.
"You saved that girl!"
"Friend of yours?" A very familiar voice purred from behind her.
Selina glanced over her shoulder and sighed. "Bruce."
"Where's he going?! Hey come back! You're a hero!" Someone in the crowd shouted and Selina looked back in time to see Lynns high tailing it across the street, heading for an alley with his head down.
"Oh great," she mumbled, turning around to face Bruce. "What can I do for you, Bruce?"
"I was getting a coffee nearby, heard the commotion," he returned. "Can I drive you anywhere? Seems your friend left you."
"Please, I fell for that line once," she said.
Bruce pocketed his hands casually. "I thought you liked my lines."
She smiled a little.
"We need to talk anyways," he added.
"Do we?"
"Selina," he urged.
She glanced in the direction Lynns went nervously. They really shouldn't break up, not with things the way they were.
"I'll donate fifty thousand to the animal shelter," Bruce stated.
She glanced back at the alley Firefly had gone down and then back to Bruce. "Well, they could use more medical equipment…"
"Come on," Bruce said, gesturing with a tilt of his head to where Alfred was parked.
"Making Alfred drive today, must be impressing someone," she teased, sliding into the backseat, giving the alley one last worried glance, before the car pulled away from the curb.
**Firefly**
It was instinct when he grabbed that little girl. Nothing he had planned, just pure instinct to protect a little one.
Not that he had a particular fondness for the little imps.
But that crowd was too much, he was overwhelmed and his first instinct was to flee. The heat was too hot, he mused with a small grin.
He'd go back for Selina after the crowd dispersed, couldn't have his face plastered on the six o'clock news as Gotham's newest saviour that would surely be bad for business.
Moving down the alley with the intent on circling back for her, he kicked at a plastic water bottle and shoved his hands into his pockets.
He hated having nothing to protect him, felt naked.
Reaching for his cigarette pack, he realized that he had dropped his last cigarette in the rush to get to the kid and as such it was empty save for his lighter.
Crumpling up the carton, he tossed it into a nearby dumpster and gave his lighter a few comforting flicks, watching the flame dance seductively, before tucking the silver Zippo away in his pants pocket.
Figuring he should probably get back onto a busy street, he hurried towards the end of the alley, ears attuned to every sound around him.
A gentle thump, had him turning.
The silver gleam of a weapon came at him.
**Selina**
"A lot of criminals are turning up dead," Bruce said as they drove.
Selina sighed, watching the shopping district of Gotham blur by wistfully, wishing she were there instead of riding around in Bruce Wayne's car pretending they weren't two people who ran around in costumes after dark.
"Yeah."
"Unfortunately no one will talk to me about it," he went on.
"Funny how criminals don't really open up to a man in a bat suit who tromps them on a daily basis," she mused.
"I can help them."
"And then put them away?" She sighed and looked at him. "Bruce, we both know you can help them, but they won't take it because it'll mean going right back into Arkham when you're done."
"The law is the law," he said.
"It's not always so black and white," she argued. They had this talk so, so many times that she was beginning to understand why dating him had ever been a mistake. She liked her shades of grey, the world was full of shades of grey, things were situational. Bruce liked his black and white. There was them and us, in his mind. All or nothing.
"Look, Bruce, people are dying and yes, they're criminals, but they are still people and right now, they don't deserve to be hunted down and toyed with as they have been. Alfred, let me out here," she called up to the front.
The butler pulled over.
"Look, help them or don't," she said. "Just don't poke your face into the hornet's nest. They won't be accommodating at all."
"Can I least have Batgirl back?" Bruce asked.
She smirked. "I'll see what I can do. If it makes you feel any better, she's in no real danger, we're all too hung up on this threat."
"Figured as much or I would have been breaking down your door." He returned.
Stepping out of the car, Selina smiled softly back at Bruce. "I hope you can help, they could use all the help they can get. Egos are clashing, but…be careful."
He smiled back. "I always am."
"Bye, Alfred," she purred at the driver.
"Goodbye, Miss Kyle."
She hurried back to the area she last lost Lynns, hoping that he was waiting for her in the alley or failing that, she could pick up his trail.
It took her about ten minutes, running across rooftops in effort to avoid the crowd, before she dropped into the alley where he had disappeared.
In midday heat the garbage stunk, but she held her nose enough to meander her way down, thinking he'd be in a dark doorway waiting.
What she found wasn't what she was expecting.
The first body she came upon was crumpled against a dumpster, dressed in black and impaled on an old rusty pipe.
Unsettled she hurried forward into the alley.
The next body was singed and lying splayed on his back, the smell of natural gas penetrating the air.
The third body was the only body she cared about and Selina dropped to her knees before Firefly.
He was propped up on his knees by the sword through his torso, a long line of blood dripping down from his mouth. His body was cut up, his hands held out, open by his knees, defensive wounds on them.
"No," she whispered, suddenly furious with herself and everyone.
Taking his face in her hands, she shed a few tears, telling herself they were angry tears.
"Lynns," she cooed. "I'm so sorry."
Firefly coughed blood and she leapt back, startled.
He was still alive.
Hurrying to staunch the blood, she didn't know whether to call out for help or what…? What did she do?
"Bats," she muttered. She needed a damned phone.
Stepping away from Lynns, worried eyes on him as she moved to a nearby doorway, she pounded on it. It looked like the backdoor of some Italian restaurant from the looks of the noodles strewn around the dumpster.
A scrawny young man came to the door and she burst inside.
"I need to use your phone," she declared.
The place must have been a mom and pop joint, there was only this kid and another young man as she grabbed a phone from the wall and dialled Bruce's number.
"Bruce," she greeted, waving the kid off her, "I need you!"
"Where are you?" He asked.
"The alley where you picked me up, behind…what is this place?!" She yelled at one of the kid's.
"Paganini's!" He squeaked
"Paganini's! I need medical help!" She shouted. "Hurry!"
"I'll be there."
Shoving the kids aside, she headed back into the alley and knelt before Lynns.
She didn't want to touch the sword or impale it deeper, so she merely staunched the wounds to his arms, holding his hands closed tightly into fists to keep the wounds closed.
This was all her fault. Oh God, she wouldn't forgive herself if Lynns died. They were supposed to stay together for safety.
"You must have put up a hell of a fight," she warbled, trying to keep him conscious.
He was shaking from the shock of his wounds and it broke her heart.
She moved in a little closer to him, ready to protect him with her body if those bastards came back to finish the job.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, hands still clenched around his fists.
"Lina," he mumbled, blood falling from his mouth.
"Shh," she urged. "It's okay. Don't talk, just…stay awake, okay?"
"Le—"
"Don't…just please, stay with me?" She pleaded.
He slouched forward, impaling himself a little more on the sword.
She struggled to keep him upright. "Stay with me!"
"Leviathan," he whispered in her ear, forehead coming to rest against her shoulder.
Selina could only hold him as she heard a rumble in the sky of the rotating blades and it hovered above them.
Robin hopped out of the black glass interior.
"Careful," he warned, "keep the sword in him, it may be keeping blood flow to a minimum."
She nodded and gently helped Robin ease Firefly onto the board that was dropped for them.
The two kids from the restaurant stood at the door and watched them as the body was pulled up into the copter, where Nightwing pulled it inside the copter.
Another two ropes were lowered for Selina and Robin, who both ascended into the belly of the beast.
Inside Bruce flew the copter, Robin must have picked him up before they arrived.
"Alfred," Bruce spoke into his helmet, "go ahead and prepare the cave."
"Yes, sir."
"Keep pressure here," Nightwing ordered her.
Selina pressed her hand hard down on Firefly's stomach and felt the warm squish of his blood as it seeped out between her fingers.
"He's lost so much blood!" Robin exclaimed.
"We're almost there!" Bruce shouted from the cockpit. "Keep him stabilized, Alfred will have everything ready. I don't suppose you know his blood type, Selina?"
"No," she murmured.
"His Arkham records will have it." Bruce assured her.
Firefly coughed up more blood, it splattered across Selina's face, but she didn't once release his wound, holding it as though frantically trying to contain the life that was trying to escape his earthly vehicle.
"We're almost there," she purred to him soothingly. "Stay with us."
laal ratty - Sorry for lack of Eddie in this chapter, it bummed me out too. But! Plenty more in the next chapter!
NURSE J0Y - Summary time! The Arkham criminals were being drugged, they escaped, then they began to go through withdrawals, meanwhile Eddie and Lina have some weird something going on, and they're all beat up and exhausted from running from these sudden assassins who want to kill them, so they're holed up in a lighthouse trying to cooperate with clashing egos in an effort to figure out who is trying to kill them/wants to use them as test subjects...and that's basically where we are!
Katherine - I'm glad I made your day, I hope to make it more frequently now! I have a whole summer on my hands!
LittleGreyOwl - You read my mind on who is behind it all! ^_^!
jacksparrowlovesme - In writing this I've come to love Firefly, like totally and completely. Maybe it's just because I kind of love fire myself...not to his extent mind you, but burning stubble on the farm back home always was fun to me...O-o
The Hazard - Well! Thank you! I really appreciate reviews like yours. They make me want to keep writing!
Katherine(2?) - I appreciate you giving me the hard time. I earned it. Abandoning this baby for so long. You're all so patient. I really mean it when I say I love you guys for not being too hard on me! (Good news is I finished my first year of college without dying or failing...so there's that...)