Okay, so, here's the plan: I changed my mind about the whole POV changing thing and decided to put the rest of the story in 3rd Person. I apologize for the changes but, oh well. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
-The Biggest Nerd
•~•~•~•~•~•
Valencia had seven screaming fits on the way to the Botanical Gardens. Seven. Along with five bouts of coughing.
That was more than what she had driving to meet the heroes, which was three of each.
The four villains flinched when the fits started, muscles taut in uneasiness.
The air in the car was tense.
When she was quiet, she would look at Jonathan. Well, he would make her look at him when the fits were over. More-or-less making sure nothing too bad had happened physically.
•~•~•~•~•~•
They exited the car quickly when they arrived at the gardens, as most would when someone is dying of spores in their lungs.
Valencia couldn't help but think why they were trying so hard to save her. She thought she was just a pawn in the chess match against Batman and his seemingly unending supply of Robins. The villains don't even take care of each other. They despise everyone else, having an 'it's me against the world' mentality. It's rare for an alliance to occur between the rouges and they don't last long. So why save her? Why is she being spared? In a world with no remorse, why does she get mercy?
Her eyes were weary from less than a collective hour of sleep from the four or five days this debacle occurred. They slipped closed as they entered the vine-covered room.
"I thought I told you plant-haters to stay away from my babies!" A woman shouted, the sound of loud creaking overhead made Valencia open her eyes. The woman stepped out from behind a massive tree as the barbed ends of more than eleven vines hung aloft, their poison glinting in the dusk coming in from the windows. Valencia yelped and clung onto Jonathan.
"We need..." Edward started, his face contorted in a grimace. "We need your help, Pamela."
"Oh?" Her tone turned flat. "You need my help? Well, isn't that a shocker."
Pamela's expression was extremely displeased, arms crossed over her chest.
Valencia's vision swam and shifted like the effects of a cheep horror game, except faster and absolutely terrifying. She was about to have another screaming fit.
Only when the shrieks finally came tumbling out of her mouth, did Pamela look at her. Alarmed she rushed over, her hands hovered over Valencia's body. She gave one steely look at Jonathan and then turned her gaze down to the woman in his arms, still screaming and hallucinating. She beckoned off to her side with her right hand and a sprout shot up from the earth. She pulled the flower from the sprout and shouted over Valencia's screams, "You need to hold her mouth open!"
"What?" Jonathan questioned.
"Keep her mouth open!" She repeated. "Do it Jonathan!"
He set her on the ground, propping her torso on his bent knee, hand behind her head, he took his free hand and squeezed her mouth to stay open. Pamela had rubbed the flower in her hands until it became a paste, she mixed it with a bit of substance that was sticky like honey, but black in colour and poured it down her throat.
Valencia coughed a few times, her breathing labored. Her throat felt coated in the ooze and she panicked, trying to scream but passing out right then and there, slumped against Jonathan.
"What did you do to this poor woman?!" Pamela shouted, hitting Jonathan upside the head.
"I-It's a long story, Ms. Isley." Jervis squeaked from behind Harvey.
"Tell me." She hissed and stood from her kneeling position.
Edward explained their situation rather quickly, but Pamela's lightening wit kept up with the jabber.
"Follow me," she said simply and lightly to Jonathan, who stood, taking Valencia up in his arms. The rest started to follow, but were halted by a snare of vines that ripped themselves from the earth and threatened them to come closer.
"I will start growing her a bed, which will take about a half hour, but set her on mine for the time being." Pamela said over her shoulder dismissively as they'd rounded the ginormous tree and entered an alcove of overhanging roots. Jonathan did as he was told, then turned to face Pamela.
"I know what you did." He stated harshly from behind his teeth.
"And what was that, Dr. Crane?" Pamela had busied herself at making certain plants grow around her just outside of the alcove.
"That mixture you put down her throat," He started. "it was nothing but some simple herbs ground together. I saw what you really did."
Poison Ivy turned to look at Scarecrow with flashing eyes.
"You scraped your nail by her jugular. You nail being covered in a natural paralytic. It entered her blood stream, causing her to pass out. But that paralytic is also a poison, so you killed her before you saved her!-"
"So you saw that? Huh. Yes, I did all that." Pamela passively muttered and turned her head to Jonathan. "But I only gave her enough of the Curare to cause her to lose consciousness. It is only toxic when administered in large doses, causing the victim to die by asphyxiation, the diaphragm paralyzed." She paused. "But I gave her the antidote just in case one measly drop was too much. The flower I rolled into a paste and mixed with the black sap was the antidote. The sap was mixed with a high dose of various calming herbs, slowing down the administration of the antidote and calming her panicked state so I could figure out if she was worth saving." She smiled a small smile. "And she is."
Jonathan groaned and covered his face as he collapsed on the bed by Valencia's feet. He rested his elbows on his knees and held his head.
"Here," Pamela held out to Jonathan a teacup on a saucer.
Jonathan looked up, seeing the teacup, and sat up straight slowly, taking the cup with hesitation and a raised eyebrow.
"It's just chamomile tea, Dr. Crane. It's not poisoned. I see how strung up you are." Pamela smiled and went back to her herb shelf, mixing various dried herbs in a stone bowl and crushing them with a long, smooth stone.
Jonathan hesitantly sipped the steaming infused water and felt calm wash over him. He sighed in content. "Thank you, Ms. Isley. I feel like I owe you something. Name your price."
"Please, call me Pamela, I still have a PhD though so don't forget it." She smirked, not looking up from her work. "I'll think of a price later. You may leave. Treating...oh, I'm sorry, you never told me her name."
"Valencia Noir." Jonathan smiled as he said her name, but hid it with a drink of tea.
Pamela wore a face of surprise, the name familiar. "Yes, thank you, Dr. Crane. As I was saying: treating Valencia will take a few days, maybe a week. Time will tell and I will send word to you."
Jonathan stood after taking one last sip of tea, placed the cup and saucer on the table Pamela was working on. "Valencia means...she's very..." He paused, thinking of the words. "Thank you, Pamela." He finished and exited the alcove to find his fellow villains kept back by the poisonous vines that threatened them before.
"Is she all right?" Edward asked when Jonathan was in immediate earshot.
"Yes," Jonathan resumed his usual stoic self. "She's being taken care of."
•~•~•~•~•~•~•
"Schön Rebe."
Pamela jumped out of her mental world when she heard an unknown voice enter her thoughts. She looked over at the woman on her bed.
Valencia was awake and looking directly at her.
"Hello, Ms. Noir. I am-"
"Schön Rebe." Valencia cut in. "Sat vas se first sought I had ven I saw you. Schön Rebe."
"Pardon me if I don't know what you're talking about." Pamela went to immediate work, fixing a herbal tea for the newly awakened.
"Schön Rebe means Beautiful Vine in my home language of Deutsch-ah German."
Pamela turned fully to Valencia, halting her tea making. She was silent.
"I do know who you are and I trust you know my predicament." Valencia continued.
"Thank you." Pamela cracked a smile, continuing her tea making. "A-And yes, I do know what happened to you." She cleared her throat to compose herself. "I'm here to help you."
"Danke, Schön Rebe." Valencia leaned back and closed her eyes.
*Revised 31 Jan, 2016*