After several spoonful's' of frosting Elizabeth got to cleaning, it took only an hour to clean the small apartment; the dust hadn't collected too much. When she was done she made herself some minute rice and flopped down on the couch to watch black and white horror movies. Today was definitely an in day. She had just finished 'The Ape Man' when there was a loud rap on her door. Apprehensively she peeked through the eyehole. Her landlord was standing outside his beefy arms crossed and an unlit cigarette stuck between his lips.

"Can I help you," she asked opening the door even though she already knew what he wanted.

"I want you outta here by the end of the month."

"I know, I'll leave as soon as find someplace else."

"Good, and if you cause any trouble before you leave I'll call the police and have you hauled off to jail."

"Gottcha'." He snorted with disgust and walked off. Elizabeth was about to shut the door when she saw Evan's bright blue eye peeking from a crack in his door.

"Hey Evan, how are you?" Evan gasped and shut the door quickly. She heard Carlos' whispering angrily. Elizabeth sighed and shut her door; she was headed back to her seat on the couch when she saw the answering machine overflowing with twenty-six voicemails. She wasn't too surprised but she dreaded the thought of having to listen to them but she'd have to sometime. Elizabeth pressed play and went into the kitchen to pop herself some popcorn for the next movie.

The first few messages were from various friends asking how her date with Bruce Wayne went and how, since she wasn't home, is must have gone well. Most of her friends couldn't grasp how she could have a perfectly friendly relationship with Mr. Wayne without going on dates with him, but since most of the also didn't know back then about her "condition" it wasn't that surprising. The next few were from Tuesday with the same friends calling to talk about how she looked like the murderess from Wayne Industries but with better hair; then came the "OMG", "I don't ever want to see you again", and "you make me sick" calls.

It was on the seventeenth message that there was a break from the disappointing calls with Alyssa calling to say she had just landed after a two hour delay, a message about reducing her car insurance by fifteen percent, and a call asking her to give money to help reduce crime in the Narrows. It was downhill from there though with the rest of the messages being hate calls from anonymous assholes. They all seemed to have called after her hearing when they knew she wasn't returning. Cowards. She fast forwarded through these and despite all she had heard on the machine that day the last message shocked her.

"Good day, Elizabeth." It was Edward! "I hope you are enjoying your new freedom. We watched your trial you did very well and handling the press like you did took guts. You looked very nice in that outfit, by the way." There was a shout in the background. "Harley says "Hi" Oops! Looks like the guard is returning. You better come and visit or we might just have to visit you. Good bye."

"Message left two twenty four pm, Wednesday, July June 22nd. To repeat message press repeat. To delete message press delete. To repeat all message press all then repeat. To del—" Elizabeth deleted all the messages. Her popcorn was getting cold and she still had two more movies she wanted to watch before she was ready to go to bed and face a new day.

It had been three days since her trial. Elizabeth had been trying to find a job without referring to the list of employers that Arkham had given her. Her attempts to find a new place of residence had been even less fruitful. She has tried most of the complexes around the area, none would take her, and most wouldn't even let her into the building. Near the shopping district had been the same and the business district was far too expensive for her small budget. All that was left was by the river and the dreaded Narrows. At this rate she might have to move out of Gotham to a city that didn't know her face or heard of her crimes. Maybe she could go to Metropolis or Star City.

Elizabeth walked down the street in somewhat of stupor. It was past lunch time so the streets were nearly devoid of all life. A lone black car pulled up to the curb where she was waiting to cross.

"Elizabeth Howard." A voice said from inside the car. Elizabeth looked up a slick looking man in a suit was leaning midway of the window. She took a few steps back and getting ready to make a run for it.

"I wouldn't do that. My employer wants to talk with you."

"Maybe I don't want to talk to your employer." The man rolled his eyes and took a gun out of his pocket.

"Don't make me do this. He hates damaged goods." The back door popped open. Elizabeth looked the man straight in the eye and then slid into the back seat of the car. There was another slick man in a suit, this one bald, already inside. In the driver's seat was a young kid who looked fresh from high school and very out of place amongst the other two men. As they drove off Elizabeth looked outside and thought she saw the tail of a cape disappear on the roof of the building.

"Are you going to tell me the name of your employer?" They didn't respond. The bald man shifted slightly. Elizabeth glanced at his reflection in the window pretty sure of what he was going to do. In one swift movement her plunged a syringe into her arm and pumped her full of knock out drug. Elizabeth slumped against the door her vision going fuzzy. Yep, she was right.

Batman watched the blinked dot of his tracer head over the bridge. No doubt about it, they were headed for Maroni mob territory. He kicked the bat-bike in to gear and shot off. His black suit and bike stood out during the day so usually tried to limit his actions to the dead of night but he didn't want to put a tracer on Elizabeth so he had to resort to manual tracking. It wasn't easy, Elizabeth was constantly on alert because of the threats she had received but catching the mob make its move was worth it.

The car was slowing down outside an abandoned factory. Batman sped up, it was a good thing there was no traffic because he was running red lights like a madman. He stopped three blocks from the factory and grappled to the roof. As always he was thankful Gotham's buildings were built so close together he could just leap across the roofs. Silently landing on roof of the factory he watched two older thugs carry Elizabeth into the building while the driver sat in the car. After the three were safely in the factory the car drove away. Thinking quickly Batman made the choice to follow the car and see if he could get any info from the driver. The mob wouldn't go through all this trouble just to kill Elizabeth and unconscious she was safe for now.

Dropping down to his bike he followed the car for a good half hour until it finally stopped in a parking garage near the train station. The window rolled down a crack and a thin stream of smoke rose out. Perfect he was relaxed, unprepared. Sneaking over to the car he saw that the doors were unlocked. Even better. The radio was blasting so the driver was completely unaware when Batman opened the back door and slid inside. He was disappointed to see that the driver was only a kid, must have been only eighteen or so, but maybe it was better this way at least the kid would learn young and be able to reform himself. Batman lunched himself at the kid wrapping his arms around him so he couldn't move. The kid gave a high pitch scream and trashed around trying to knock Batman off.

"Calm down and you won't be hurt." He growled in the kid's ear. The boy froze. "Good now tell me; what does the mob want with Elizabeth Howard."

"W-who?"

"The woman you just picked up. What do they want?"

"I-I d-don't know I j-just drive people around. I-I'm not told any plans."

"But you hear things, we all hear things."

"W-well they did say something about makin' her an offer. I don't know what though. They've been followin' her for a while now."

"See you did know something. Now what's your name, kid?"

"Jimmy, Jimmy Kalri." Batman had been so busy getting information from the kid that he didn't notice the boy grabbed a Taser from the cup-holder. The kid Tased him in the arm and usually it would have been alright but the kid was lucky enough hit his mini-computer. The result electrical shock made Batman let-go and fall back his entire left arm numb and useless.

"Fuck!" He swore as Jimmy leapt from the car. Stumbling from the vehicle Batman was hit over the head by a baton Jimmy had pulled from under his seat. Confused and dazed he was unable to deflect the next blow that rendered him unconscious. Luckily for him though Jimmy was too scared and new to do anything smart, like killing him, and just drove off.

It was surprising how much Elizabeth was used to waking up disorientated and in foreign locations. Moving around a lot as a kid, too much fun a college parties, and being thrown in Arkham did that to a person. So it was little surprise to Elizabeth when she woke up fuzzy headed in an empty factory office. What did surprise her though is that she wasn't restrained in anyway. Somebody was talking outside the door.

"She wake up yet?"

"No, haven't heard any screamin'. I'll check though." The door creaked open and Elizabeth pretended to be unconscious again. "Nope." As soon as the door was shut Elizabeth sat up examining the room. There were no other exits apart from the guarded door except maybe…no. The air duct was too high for her to reach. Well she had no other choice she'd have to face the men outside.

Elizabeth silently approached the door, it wasn't locked that was good. She pressed her ear to the door the guy was just outside and she could hear the other walking down the hall. Pressing herself against the door she pushed with all her might. There was a satisfying "GAH!" from the man and she heard him fall to the ground. Leaping over his body she bolted down the hallway. The second man turned withdrawing his gun. They said that they didn't want her damaged so she didn't think he would shoot. Elizabeth took the chance.

"Stop! Or I'll—!" He wasn't allowed to finish, Elizabeth had dropped into a roll towards him. She stopped just close enough that she was able to use her momentum and slug him in the gut. He doubled over and Elizabeth grabbed his wrist, disarmed him and pointed the gun back at the first man who was just getting up. He froze and held up his hands. Elizabeth pushed the bald man she had disarmed down as she turned and ran. She could hear them following her, she saw an exit to her left and dived through the door, then ran headlong into a two more men. They all fell to the floor and the gun flew from her hand.

"Grab her," the bald man shouted. The two new men immediately seized her arms and dragged her upright. Baldy retrieved his gun and pressed it against her back to stop Elizabeth from trying to escape.

"Now move." She walked with them across the factory floor to another office. The entire time Elizabeth was trying to take in her surroundings finding possible escape routes or weapons.

"Bring her in," a voice said before they even knocked on the door. The room was furnished much nicer than the one she had awoken in. She was seated in a rather comfy chair across from the desk. Monitors hung on the wall behind the desk and the person in the desk chair, who seemed to be in charge, was watching them.

"Good Afternoon, Miss Howard." He said spinning around dramatically. "I'm Cain Cuvier." He extended his hand and Elizabeth hesitantly took it. Cain jerked her forward dragging her towards him, he pulled off her wig.

"There we go that's better. Now take out your contacts." Elizabeth complied. "How wonderful…" He let her go and she sat back down. What the hell did they want?

"I saw your little escape attempt. You're very talented not many people could disarm my men. I'm sorry we had to take you this way you were supposed to go Stonegate."

'That's what Greaves said…' "What do you want?" Elizabeth said coldly.

Cain's eyes light up. "Well you see I'm a chemist, like you, and I'm currently under the employ of Mr. Maroni. You see Mr. Maroni wants an advantage against his competitor's men and against the Batman. He hired me four years ago, I was working in a warehouse but we had to move the operation. Unfortunately while my men were moving my raw formula they were interrupted by a lone building inspector…How disappointed I was that the Batman showed up as well. My stock was destroyed and I was arrested, put in jail for 3 years.'

'I was devastated but lo-and-behold when I was released I got wind of what had happened to that lone building inspector. You see something amazing had happened, my formula had worked! It had mutated her into a more powerful being. A meta-human if you will. So I set about making more of my genius but all the trails I ran failed. But then I thought why not take a look at the original?'

'So I sent my men to follow her and what did I find out? She was trying to reverse the process! How rude! Trying to deny the gift the power inside her. Now there were these two scientists working on their reversal formula but they both had weakness that I used to make them give that lone building inspector my own formula. And the result," he leaned down looking her dead in the eye, "was beautiful."

Elizabeth launched herself forward and tackled him to the desk. "You bastard!" She snarled her teeth gnashing. There was a cold press of metal against the back of her head and Elizabeth let go of the bastard's shirt.

"Back off nice and easy girly," the man pressing the gun to her head said. Elizabeth slowly stood up straight not taking her furious gaze from Cain.

"Come now, Dave. This woman is our hope for the future, don't be rude to her." Dave grunted and removed the gun from her head.

"Sit back down Miss Howard We have business to discuss…now you see the reason I brought you here is to offer a partnership of sorts. As I said I can't get my formula to work on anyone else and I want to know why it worked for you. Be my right hand and you will be rewarded handsomely."

"Define handsome reward." Cain smirked.

"How about two-hundred-thousand dollars and a penthouse in central Gotham for three years?" Elizabeth's eye twitched. That was ridiculous! Either he was desperate to solve his formula or was pulling her leg.

"Now define partnership."

"Well you see I would need to run some test see how much you were affected and then try and replicate the results on someone else and since you're the only one who knows what happened…just think of the advances that could be made in science because of this."

"…And if I say no?"

"Well no one knows you're here."

"I would be too sure about that." Elizabeth inclined her head to the monitors. While everyone had been watching her she had seen Batman slip into the building and he was making his way towards their door.

"Fuck!" Cain swore, "Dave. Paul. Go." Cain grabbed Elizabeth's wrist trying to drag her from the chair. Elizabeth wrenched her wrist from his hand kicked him hard in the knee.

"I'm sorry Mr. Cuvier but I decline your generous offer. I'd run now, Batman is coming." Kicking him again Elizabeth bolted out the door. Batman was dodging bullets from Dave and Paul but the other two, that had been standing guard outside, were already unconscious on the floor. Elizabeth grabbed a broke steel pipe and wacked Dave hard in his knee joints so he fell to knees and she delivered a blow to his head. Dave fell with a groan and Paul shifted his focus enough to her that Batman was able to run up and disarm him; and going by the loud snap break a bone as well.

"Come on." Batman said his cape sweeping as he turned.

"What about the leader?" Elizabeth cried. Cuvier would probably be gone by now but they could still try and catch him.

"Getting you out is the priority. Back up could be here any minute." Elizabeth growled in frustration but then ran after Batman knowing she should do as he said.

Once outside Elizabeth saw a black motorbike with wing-like detail on the side. Batman tossed her a helmet from a side pouch and got on to the bike. There was just enough room for two as Elizabeth squeezed behind him.

"Hold on." Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Batman tightly and they shot off.