The pound smelled much worse and felt much more sinister than the shelter had. There were no volunteers, only rude employees who despised us as much as the dogs they worked with. It was at the end of the damp, grey-walled building that we found Ace sitting in the corner of his kennel with the thick muzzle still strapped to his face. The dogs in all of the other cages barked and snarled at us. I ignored them as best I could, otherwise I would end up buying the whole place.
"Are you sure about this, Krystal? He's a lot bigger than I thought he'd be, and he does look pretty mean." Tim whispered when he caught sight of the bitter eyed dog.
I twisted around to face him. "You're either with me or against me on this, and I need you to be with me on this. Please."
His gaze softened. "You know I always have your back." He glanced back at the dog. "But, are you sure?"
"I was mean and aggressive. You handled it fine."
"Yeah, but you didn't have titanium fangs."
An employee approached us. She was a pugfaced girl with dark liner under her eyes and a bright purple streak in her hair. "You two lost?"
"No, we're taking this one."
She almost laughed and gave me a once over. "Are you trying to have your face bitten off or something?"
Ace had managed to stand and he snarled harder than before. In his dark eyes I saw bright red hate, aimed for her. She'd done something to him. Hatred like that doesn't come out of nowhere, it's developed and harvested, and when it blossoms, it's the ugliest and bitterest fruit of all to taste.
I opened up my purse and pulled out a couple hundred dollar bills that Alfred had helped me withdraw from the bank. "I can make it worth your while."
She stared between us and the dog. "He ain't for sale. He's on deathrow. They're doing him in tonight."
I pulled out a larger, tighter wad of money. "Really worth your while." I repeated.
Tim opened up his wallet and brought out his own money. He handed her $200 in cash. "And you can take this as a tip."
She snorted. "Alright." She grabbed the money. "You can have him, if you can get him, and I'm not going anywhere near him." She went to the desk to put the money away and came back with the key to open the cage.
She opened the door and cornered herself between the gate and the wall, separating herself from him. Ace stood and glared daggers at us. His ears were back and his tail was down; a defensive stance, I knew he wouldn't attack. I stepped into the cage, ignoring the instinctual fear that shuddered within me at the furious sound of his snarl, and the flash of sharp white teeth beneath the muzzle. I kneeled down to get on his level, very slowly and looked into his hard eyes.
Prior to this visit Tim helped me research into everything we could about rehabilitating an aggressive dog. We also found a reputable behaviorist within Gotham City who would help us. For now, I only got down on a knee in front of him, and looked at him with with a calm, no nonsense expression. We sat like that for about ten minutes until he finally stopped growling and blinked at me in confusion. He was used to people grabbing and dragging him everywhere, I wanted to get him out of that defensive mindset and into the pup that had been trained at the Belgium facility.
He eventually laid down, watching me with one eye, but he calmed enough for me to take the leash connected to his muzzle into my hand.
"Komen." It had also been Tim's idea to speak to him in Dutch, the language Ace was originally trained in. He had downloaded a copy of the trainer's handbook, which we crashed into our brains to become familiar with. The pointed ears perked at the sound, he looked at me with utter astonishment, and his hackles rose in mistrust.
"Komen." I repeated with more intensity but still in a very calm voice. At the same time I carefully got to my feet and began to move out of the cage. "Komen."
He stood but he stayed low to the floor with his tail between his legs, snarling as he passed by the girl. As soon as we were in the hall, he lunged forward into a near run. The force of him almost threw me off my feet as I scrambled after him, holding the leash for dear life.
"Pleasure doing business with you." I head Tim say, then he ran after us.
When we got outside, Ace looked both ways, as if contemplating where he should run to next.
"Get the door." I said to Tim.
At the sound of my voice, the dog remembered that I was behind him. He twisted and bit at my arm before I knew what was going on. If it weren't for the muzzle my arm would have been snapped off. The steel plated muzzle slammed into me, causing a jolt to push the air out of my stomach. I twisted the leash in my hand until the lead ran out and it put me right on the dogs back. He shook, violent and as strong as a wild stallion, nearly throwing me aside, but I would not let go.
"Hiel." I said. "Hiel."
I dropped my weight into my heels and squatted, forcing him to put his haunches on the ground and sit straight backed between my legs. For half a quarter of an hour, nobody moved. We had to wait until Ace had stopped growling and lowered the hackles on his back. My thighs were burning, but I didn't kick high and hard for nothing. I welcomed it as a good workout.
When the muscles on his shoulders relaxed, the back door of the car was opened to invite him in. Tim used the same motion that the trainers in Belgium used to tell a dog to jump onto something. "Ga verder."
Ace got onto the car without any protest. We closed the door softly behind him and watched him curl up on the seat. He turned to me with a bright smile. "We did it."
I threw my arms around his neck tighter than a turtleneck sweater could do. He was stunned for about a half a second, and then he embraced me with an equal amount of strength.
"You're a genius! Speaking to Him in Dutch was the perfect idea." I lowered myself and kept my hands pinned to the collar of his shirt. "You, Timothy Drake, are my hero. I'm so happy right now, I could kiss you!"
His hands trailed lower on my waist, stopping on my hips. "I wouldn't be opposed to that." He grinned.
I leaned in. "But my dad would." I stepped away. Regret poured out of my heart as I did so, but it blossomed into bliss when I saw Ace in the car. "Come on. I want Ace to see his new home and the sooner we get to the manor, the sooner we can get that nasty muzzle off of him."
We played classical music in the car and avoided speaking during the drive. I could feel Ace watching us with his critical dark eyes, waiting for us to become monsters and attack. My heart hurt for a moment when I thought of how he'd been hurt. What had happened to him after his class of graduates were attacked? Who was responsible for turning him into such a fearful and fearsome creature?
Our study of the facility had taught us that the puppies were trained in Dutch until they were six months old. By that age, they'd already been tagged and sold to their buyers, and their training would incorporate commands in the target language for the remaining six months in the facility. Then they would graduate and be shipped to their new assignment, where they would receive more specialized training for another year.
Whatever had happened to Ace gave him negative feelings against the English language. He hadn't heard any Dutch since his puppy days, the sound of it confused him and made him blindly obedient. I hoped that the behaviorist would be able to help turn him around, to make him act like a normal, healthy dog with no bitterness for English. But if not, I was okay taking up the task of learning to speak Dutch for the rest of his days.
We warned Alfred about speaking in English before we let Ace into the manor. Bruce was away with Lucius Foxx for a day trip to the company branch in Metropolis, so it gave us about a day to let Ace get a feel of the house.
"Thanks for supporting me on this." I said to Alfred when Ace had stalked out of the room.
He sighed and gave me a soft look. "I don't like going behind your father's back. But, sometimes, I must, in order to help him see what he can't."
"And what do you see here?"
"I see both you and him in the soul of that poor dog, and just like you, I couldn't leave him behind, just as I could never leave you nor Master Bruce."
I leaned on him and gave him a hug, the only grandfather I had ever known, and I wouldn't trade him for the world. "You know that I love you, right, Alfred?"
He patted my back. "Yes, Krystal. I know."
After letting Ace wander around unbothered we got worried he may be hungry. We called him to the kitchen and very carefully unclipped the muzzle. He jumped away from it as if it was an evil thing and hid under the table, threatening us with gleaming white teeth when we picked it up and threw it away. We didn't move or make a sound until after he stopped growling and crawled out from under the table.
Only then, when he had relaxed did Alfred set the plate of food down for him. We had purchased the cheap, basic kibble that we assumed he'd been eating for the past two years. Alfred mixed in some steamed vegetables and broth. He said that if the dog was going to live with us, he was going to learn to eat like us. He hoped to cut the kibble out entirely and have the cook prepare natural, wholesome meals for him.
After dinner Ace disappeared under a leather couch in my grandfather's study and fell asleep underneath it. Tim went into the city to patrol and I decided to pay a visit to the Oracle to see what she knew about the zoo kidnappings. She ran an extensive network throughout Gotham and I was certain she could give me something. Bruce was due to return home later that night. Alfred assured me he would take care of explaining everything to him and urged me to do what I needed for my investigation. I didn't want to leave Ace, but I had to do what I had to do. Tomorrow morning, the behaviorist would do a consultation with Ace and decide what her method would be to rehabilitate him. I was anxious to be present every step of the way.
I gave one last look at the dark mass under the sofa and then I disappeared behind the grandfather clock. I may have saved the dog today, but there was still a long journey ahead to make him be the family member I knew he could be.
And I still had a missing lion to track down.