Historia Reiss found herself appearing on the edge of Arkham Island in a massive shadow. Raven stepped out from behind her and placed her hand on her shoulder. Historia found herself leaning into her touch.
The entire Asylum had been made a wreck. Bodies lay about everywhere, and the buildings were nothing but rubble.
"I tried to warn the Commissioner this would happen." Historia said unhappily, as she surveyed the damage. "He should never have tried to challenge us."
Raven was taken aback by the carnage. "Who could have possibly done this?" She asked.
"My beloved husband." Historia said, her voice tart. "He was a dangerous man to try and threaten, and now these people have paid the price."
"What must be done?" Raven asked.
"The best we can hope for is prevent things from escalating further." Historia said. "Eren feels he was wronged… and he is right. But if your government makes amends-"
"Gotham is controlled by Batman-"
"Eren can handle Batman." Historia interrupted. "I am more concerned about the primary government of your country… and the Justice League."
Raven nodded. "I will advocate for you, as best as I am able." She said. "But I cannot guarantee that there will not be repercussions from this."
Historia smiled at her.
"You're a good person, Raven." She said. "The fate of my people rests in your hands."
She looked out over the Asylum. "It seems as if the battle is winding down." She said. "I do not see the Attack Titan anywhere."
"The Attack Titan?"
"The creature we saw charging onto the island. It caused all this damage."
"What is it? Where did it come from?"
Historia shook her head. "That's a 1,800 year long story, Raven." It seemed that she did not want to elaborate further. "We must put an end to this violence first."
Raven stared straight into the Asylum, her eyes narrowed. She could sense a handful of individuals fighting inside, but at this distance was unable to identify any of them. It was such a beautiful building, she thought unhappily, as she took note of the damage.
And then Poison Ivy just walked out the front door.
Raven grabbed Historia's hand and pulled her down. She was surprised at how quick and ready she had been able to get into position. She had not been lying about her background in the miliary. They lay quietly as Poison Ivy made her way past them, clearly on her way to the Botanical Gardens.
"Who… is that?" Historia breathed. She sounded rather taken aback and breathless. Raven rather thought she was nervous.
"That is Poison Ivy." Raven told her, her voice low. "One of the inmates here."
"Oh." Historia licked her lips. "An inmate."
"We should avoid her, if we can." Raven said. "She's quite dangerous."
"I like dangerous." Historia breathed.
"What?"
"What?"
Ivy turned the corner and disappeared out of sight. Historia shook her head, blinked several times, and then gave a befuddled look at Raven.
"What is she in for, exactly?"
"She is irrelevant." Raven said. "Our focus should be on ending the conflict."
"Yes… yes, of course." Historia said, still seeming very much unlike herself. She shook her head again. Upon sensing her weakness Raven held out her hand, and helped her to her feet.
"Forgive me." Raven said. "But to me it looks as if the Attack Titan has already left. If the Inmates are running free in this Asylum, it's safe to say the Attack on Arkham has failed.
"No, no it hasn't failed." Historia said. "Batman's plan was to release the Inmates into Gotham, forcing the city to take draconian measures to control the population."
Again, Raven found herself feeling a twinge of doubt.
"How do you know this?"
"Eren told us." Historia said.
"And you trust Eren?"
"Absolutely." She leaned forward. "Do you trust Batman?"
"Of course not." Raven said. "I know what he's like."
"And I know what Eren is like." Historia said. "He wouldn't like to us about something like this… he knew that I would never have tolerated an Attack on this city that's been so good to us, if there hadn't been a good reason."
She gripped Raven's hand a little bit tighter. "I know it's hard for you to have blind faith in him, but…"
"I don't have faith in him." Raven said, her voice cool. "I don't trust anyone. My priority is to protect the people of Gotham. That's all."
Historia gave her a dark look.
"Eren wants the same thing." She said.
…
Armin found himself shivering a little bit as he found himself outside Mr. Freeze's containment chamber. The temperature, in order to keep Freeze out of his suit and away from all of his weapons, was below freezing. He wrapped his survey corps jacket deeper around him and made his way to the cell.
Victor Friez was sitting on the cot in his cell. Like the Riddler, he had apparently chosen to ignore the wide open door to his cell and remained in place.
"Ah." He said, as they approached. "You have finally arrived. I wondered when you would."
Armin tried not to shiver as he stepped into the cold room.
"Victor Frieze." Armin said. "My name is Armin Arlert. I'm with the Survey Corps of the Kingdom of Eldia."
"Yes, I've read about you." Frieze said, unenthusiastically. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I'm here to eliminate all of the dangerous criminals of Arkham Asylum." Armin said.
"I see." Frieze said. "I do not care what happens to me, but please take care not to accidently kill my wife. She's being stored down the hall."
"Yes, I've read about your wife." Armin said. "I found your situation most interesting."
"Have you?" Frieze's expression was unreadable.
"Yes." Armin said. "I believe we can help you."
Frieze scoffed.
"You sound like the Batman." He said. "I can help you… if you do something for me."
"I won't deny that we are in dire need of your assistance." Armin said. "We are a civilization that has not advanced to the level of that of the outside world. We are in need of scientific minds from all walks of life to help us develop our infrastructure at a rapid pace." He paused. "But I think we may have access to something that may help your wife."
"I have spent years trying to save my wife." Frieze told him. "And nothing has worked. Whatever your plan is, it likely has already been tried."
"I doubt that." Armin said. "I know a girl who encased herself in crystal for four years. She did it to escape her enemies, but she was able to preserve her body for that entire span of time."
"Crystal?" Frieze repeated.
"Certain Eldians have the ability to from crystals out of nothing." Armin said. "And when encased around a body, these crystals can perfectly preserve it."
"You think these crystals can help my wife?"
"My understanding is that your wife is already cured of her illness. You simply need her unfrozen, which I'm sure the crystals will be able to help with." Armin said. "We will need to consult an expert, obviously, but in my opinion-"
"I do not need an opinion, Arlert." Frieze said, his voice sounding tired. "I need resources. I need time. I need research."
"We can give those to you." Armin said. "Even if the crystals don't work… if you come with us… we can figure it out. We can help you."
"No one can help me." Frieze said, his voice quiet. "Not you, not anyone."
Armin stared at him. He was conflicted. On one hand he had his orders to exterminate every inmate at Arkham. But on the other… he truly didn't want to.
"Get up." Armin said. "You're coming with us whether you want to or not."
Frieze offered no resistance as the squad moved on and wrapped their arms around him, and marched him down the hall, to his wife and weapons.
…
Barbara Gordon had a hard time getting a good look at what was going on in Arkham Asylum. The cutting edge surveillance system that they had implemented to keep a good eye on the interior of the building had been demolished. The satellites that the Justice League used to watch the world population could not peer into the deep underground chambers where most of the battles were taking place. Although Starfire had been a massive help in surveying the area and making regular reports, the giant that had destroyed the island had disappeared into thin air.
"Barbara…? Um, Oracle?"
"Yes?"
"I have seen nothing of the Eldian girl, or the giant."
"Hm."
Barbara sat back on her chair and cupped her face. She tried to tally up all the confirmed deaths in her head. Harley Quinn, Bane, and the Riddler had been found. Poison Ivy had managed to escape, but had apparently chosen not to leave the island.
The body count was always going higher, but she was confident that they would soon put a stop to it all. They always did, after all.
"Ah!" Starfire gasped.
"Starfire?" Oracle asked, completely taken aback. "What's wrong?"
Starfire did not answer. Oracle had to activate the small camera she had installed on her communicator without her knowledge to see. She had to stop herself from puking.
Beast Boy was dead. The symptoms of Poison Ivy's kiss was clear. It was obvious that he never had a chance. Starfire picked up his body and held it in her arms, and Barbara was taken aback when she saw that she was crying.
"Starfire." Oracle said quietly. "Stay with me."
"Who did this?" Starfire whispered.
"The Eldians." Oracle said immediately. "Remember what your purpose is, Starfire. You need to bring them to Justice."
"I must recover his body, before-"
"There is no time, Starfire." Oracle interrupted. "The fate of the city is at stake. You must-"
"The city can wait." Starfire said, her voice morose, as she rose into the sky. Oracle clenched her fist and gritted her teeth.
"Your friends are worthless, Dick." She muttered. "They're dropping like flies."
The only one she could really rely on was Batman. Cyborg was out of commission, Raven had vanished… only Dick was still active on the island. And he was, she was sure, only going to get in Batman's way.
She sighed, shaking her head. Having the Teen Titans here had been nothing but a disaster. If only Dick had never left them… he would have been better prepared to deal with someone like Eren Jaeger.
…
Robin, Dick Grayson, and Robin, Jason Todd, found themselves staring down at a number of inmates nervously milling about the yard. They had been set loss during the chaos, apparently, and were busy attending to their whims. Strangling each other, satisfying other urges, or simply taking a moment to enjoy the outside air.
"The Eldians are targeting the super criminals for sure." Robin, Dick Grayson noticed. "The Attacks seem focused on their cells."
"But they certainly don't seem concerned about the innocent." Jason pointed out. "Look."
He pointed to a pile of bodies of beheaded men that were simply lying in the barely lit yard.
"Those Eldians sure do love their beheadings." Todd noted. "Must be a cultural thing."
Grayson glowered at him.
"Would you not joke about that?" He asked. "You sound like a psycho."
"Maybe I am." Todd grinned, tapping his head. "I belong in here with the rest of them."
Grayson turned away, shaking his head.
"You have to be just a little bit crazy to do the things we do." Todd said. "Dressing up in costumes, punching petty criminals, sleeping our days away…"
"We're heroes, Jason." Grayson said, his voice testy.
"Careful." Todd reminded me. "I'm Robin, remember? You gave it up when you ran away."
Grayson glowered at him but Todd simply laughed.
"You've been replaced, old bean." He said. "I'm the newer, younger model… more popular than you ever were. Don't you forget it."
…
A/N
Wow, it took me way too long to get this chapter out. As a result, I cut quite a lot of planned content. (I've been doing this for a while, so I suppose I should inform you all of changes I made during the production of this story.
-Too many characters
A lot of the early plans I had for the story, including Batman's slow manipulation of every member of the Justice League to serve his own agenda, had to be adjusted due to pacing issues.
In order to fix this problem, I cut down on lot of planned material. Batman was meant to turn Cyborg against the rest of the Titans by promising him a position in the Justice League, Robin and Todd were meant to have a much more fleshed out rivalry and background together, and characters from AOT like Annie were meant to be introduced much earlier and be much more involved with the plot.
-Cut fights
I actually had a lot of really cool ideas for fights against Gotham's super villains. Armin was going to fight Freeze, consider using the steam of the Colossal to kill him, but deciding against it in order to spare him. The fight itself was a really cool idea, but it was cut for time. Mad Hatter was going to have Historia as an 'Alice' and would have to be rescued, but in that case I couldn't find a way to reasonably work it into the story considering everything else that is going on.
-The conversation Robin had with Raven was originally supposed to be with Starfire
It's worth nothing that Robin was originally meant to have that conversation about Batman being PURE EVIL with Starfire and not Raven. It was supposed to be much more intimate and romantic, but it was cut when I realized that
I like Raven better.
It makes more sense for Raven to confront Robin about his father figure issues than for Starfire to do so.
I liked the idea of Raven being a genuine friend to Robin, with no real 'romantic strings' attached.
Also, I suppose I must address the elephant in the room…
-Why Batman is Evil.
Keep reading and find out.
