TWO SOULS,
chapter twelve: a loss and a hero!
THERE WAS SOMETHING BEAUTY ON OLIVIA WAYNE'S FACE. At least that was what the Arkham Knight thought. So much delicacy, so much grace, all wasted on a caped suit - that was a bit disturbing. However, the enemy saw beauty among all that mess of blonde locks and the black mask. He didn't dare to remove it, didn't even allow his men to do so - despite their great and restless insistence. Olivia kept lying on the ground, being illuminated by the moonlight and the lights that kept Gotham illuminated. Her breathing was simple, calm, unwavering - as if she were in a deep sleep. As if she were really dead, and this was just a bag of meat without a soul.
Oh, but he knew what a soulless bag of meat was.
He knew what that space was like, that dark and desolate environment.
The Arkham Knight paced from one side to the other, a thousand and one thoughts hovering in his head, from anger to the inevitable rage. From time to time he would see if his prisoner changed position while she was unconscious, but was surprised to see that she hadn't even turned around. In a sudden moment she stopped to check if she was even breathing. He was terrified just thinking that he had killed his soulmate with his bare hands, that he had really let her go, and that she had left him alone. No, that she had abandoned him.
Feeling that pain in his gut had never affected him so much.
Olivia remained stiff, calm, breathing slowly and calmly, falling into an endless black hole. Just falling, falling and falling; waiting to crash against the hard and cold ground, which would spell out her death and defeat in the mortal world. But it never came, if not she continued falling, feeling the wind on her face, feeling the smell of death so close but so far at the same time. It was a very frightening, confusing and restless vicious circle - she expected to meet the end, but the end didn't meet her. That was deeply regrettable, for her at least. A flurry of words hovered in her head, words that came from her mouth, from the mouths of others, past vestiges that threatened to remain in that dark and desolate tunnel.
"Olivia."
She felt pain hearing that voice, a lot of pain.
Jason.
Jason.
When she turned around, she found his face, the face of Jason Peter Todd. Everything was quiet around her, everything was fine. No threat in sight, no danger to worry about. It was a safe place. Olivia felt the weight of her mask against her pores, but her green eyes clearly saw Jason in front of her, his appearance hadn't changed, he looked the same as last time - she saw him alive. She tried to touch him, but there was something holding her back, something that kept her frozen in place.
It was fear.
Olivia Wayne was scared.
One simple touch and her soulmate would vanish, one simple touch and the pain of loss would increase - leaving her insane for the rest of her life, perhaps. Olivia felt every nerve in her body freeze, being stopped by the terrible fear of never seeing Jason's face again. Why did she feel the sudden sadness to see him there, in one piece, with her? That answer didn't surprise Olivia at all: because Jason Todd had really died and she saw his death with her own eyes. This was not a dream; this was a punishment. A punishment for watching him die and doing nothing about it. A punishment for not loving him enough. A punishment for her past.
Olivia realized then that this was a condemnation.
Even the purest souls were sinners.
"Don't go," she said with a broken voice and observed that her hand had moved by itself, without her noticing, as something so natural, reaching out to him.
"I won't."
She, then, decided to approach him - decided to touch him, to see if her mind was as corrupted as her broken heart. Her fingers touched his cheek and she felt the most painful nostalgia in the world, the love that blossomed little by little and that was about to wither: she was not ready to say goodbye and forget about him. She didn't want to. She wouldn't, she wouldn't let him. Suddenly another hand came to rest on hers and it was a gentle touch, almost innocent and dangerous at the same time. Olivia felt her eyes fill with water, with salty, bloody tears that threatened to burn her alive. Jason held her hand, keeping his fingers cool in the warmth of the blonde's hand.
"I won't."
Olivia closed her eyes, letting a couple of tears fall, until she saw Jason's face bruised from the blows, tortured by the man in the purple suit who was behind him at that very moment. The girl let out a warning squeak and felt herself fall again, further and further away from Jason, falling into that darkness again, before opening her eyes.
Meeting the Arkham Knight's mask was not a good thing.
The only thing that occurred to her was to launch a kick at him, failing in the attempt and causing her to be caught in the Arkham Knight's hand - he soon used his strength to throw her away, like a rag doll, seeing that she still had a fight in her. Olivia rose heavily and launched a trio of batarangs at him, then ran towards him and counterattack. The enemy snarled as one of the batarangs slashed a bit off his shoulder and used Olivia's sudden movement against him, grabbing her wrist to hook it with his other wrist and turning to the side, thus destabilizing Olivia's balance completely. It didn't take long for him to handcuff her and throw a hook to lift her off the ground, rendering her immobile.
Olivia shifted, trying to try her luck in getting out of the cuffs. The fucking bastard adjusted them a lot and she complained loudly.
(Olivia: 1 - Arkham Knight: 2. Things couldn't go from bad to worse.)
"Stop whining, you make me nervous."
Olivia smiled, "Oh, I'm finally doing something that makes you nervous. One point for me then."
"You really think this is funny?"
"Funny?" She laughed as she watched as the Arkham Knight sat in an armchair, legs spread wide. "Tonight seems like one of those bad horror movies and I'd rather kick your ass quickly to end the night, thanks."
"You are still insolent to your enemies."
"The tight suit helps, you know."
"Oh, I don't doubt it," He answered before laughing. "Anyone else would think you're a hot vigilante, at least, before you break any bones. But that doesn't bother me, since you are here: immobilized and at my complete mercy."
Olivia's cheeks turned slightly red.
"What a great gentleman you are," the blonde scoffed.
The Arkham Knight crossed his arms. "I've ever been told that, I have a thing for strong and innocent women, attraction is inevitable. So, don't be surprised if I have a crush on you, princess."
And there, again, the enemy was flirting with the sinner. Playing with fire was never a good thing for either of them, but, for the Arkham Knight, it was a chess battle that was about to end in checkmate. Olivia tried again to break free from her platinum prison which caged her wrists, but it was completely useless - as well as being completely stupid. She bit her lip, while the Arkham Knight sighed.
"Stop trying, you'll just waste your time."
Olivia grunted, "Why don't you kill me and get the fuck out of this?"
"Nah, my mission here is not to kill you," He declared, leaning forward in his seat. "It's killing him, killing Batman."
"I know he tends to be a pain in the ass sometimes," the blonde girl added. "But that man went through a lot and saved me from my own black hole."
"Stop defending him!" The knight exclaimed, raising his static voice, placing the palms of his hands on his knees. "The only thing he causes is death and tragedy, dragging all the people who are by his side to certain death."
"You're wrong."
"He turned you into one of his puppets, one of his soldiers," he declared through clenched teeth, rising from his seat, walking slowly towards her. "He taught you strategies to distract me, to mock the enemy," their faces were inches apart. "But no matter how much time you waste doing it, he won't come for you. Batman is not a savior; he is an executioner."
Olivia shook her head and the Arkham Knight knew, somehow, it was getting to her - but she wouldn't be fooled by someone like him. She wouldn't allow him to enter her mind like that. The Scarecrow's voice echoed across the room and the Arkham Knight scowled.
"Wow, who do we have here?" He asked, looking at the figure of Olivia hanging, suddenly, a screen lit up with her face, before two others lit up, showing the figure of Barbara Gordon and Bruce Wayne in the Chinatown hideaway. "I think you don't have partners anymore, Batman."
Olivia's dark green orbs were fixed on the figure of the redhead, who was waking up, the Scarecrow continued, "We both know that fear is pure theater, so allow me this show, Batman."
Crane's toxin entered the chamber where Barbara was locked up and Olivia felt her heart leap out of her chest, she struggled, letting out a howl of pain in despair, in fear, in the miserable misfortune that was about to occur. She searched the Arkham Knight in the shadows, trying to find his presence - but she found herself alone in there. Her breathing had hitched, her tears threatened to leak from her eyes - she felt helpless.
"What...? What is this?" Asked the redhead.
"BARBARA!" Bruce exclaimed, touching the bulletproof glass.
Barbara Gordon's breathing was erratic, as if she was scared of something, or rather someone. Olivia struggled again, feeling like she was gasping for air, that the rope that held her wrists together was a pitchfork for her neck. She didn't want to know what was going to happen at that moment, she didn't want to think about it.
"Yes, you can see it now," Scarecrow declared to Barbara. "The horror behind the glass and the monster that will kill you..." Barbara looked at the Dark Knight in dread. "Unless you take the gun and deny him."
"Don't listen to him!" Batman insisted and Olivia gasped.
Barbara took the gun that was located on a small round table and fired three times in the direction of the big bat. The blond girl tensed, seeing that the glass didn't break. Barbara covered her face, imploring that the nightmare end and the blonde, from her place, sobbed.
"Barbara...wake up," she sobbed hoarsely, echoing through the lonely room and watching the redhead look at the gun. "Barbara, wake up!" She looked at the Scarecrow projection. "Please stop...! Don't do this...!"
Everything was repeating itself again, she was witnessing another death - just as she saw the death of Jason Todd, Olivia Wayne was watching the death of her best friend: Barbara Gordon. The red-haired girl placed the barrel of the gun against her temple, staring steadily at Batman, sobbing and shaking with fear.
"You won't catch me. I won't allow it."
With just those words, Barbara Gordon pulled the trigger.
And the gun fell from her hands, lifeless.
Olivia never believed she would scream so loudly, feeling that hiss in her ears as her body shook from her own sobs. The blonde let her tears fall freely down her cheeks, crying for the tragedy, crying for the loss and crying for her best friend. Anger and anguish boiled in her blood, leaving her no rest - she continued crying, feeling like someone stabbed her heart a thousand times.
"You will bring death to all who follow you," Scarecrow said.
Olivia screamed as if her sanity had run out by now, "UGH! I'LL KILL YOU ALL! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
She continued crying, howling into the night for the great anger she felt permeating her chest, spreading like fire - consuming her completely. Finally, she gave up: she stopped exerting force against the cage handcuffs, she stopped fighting and wept silently, hanging on that infernal trap, which burned her spirit and she waited.
Waited.
And waited.
She waited for the grief to end by taking her life.
The Arkham Knight watched from the shadows, feeling that same pain to see her so sad and miserable - for a moment, just for a moment, he wondered if that was how she was when they took her soulmate from her arms. The answer was too obvious, knowing the woman behind that mask. However, he could not comfort her - even if he wanted to - his mission was not over at all.
He still had to kill Batman and he would.
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Returning to the less tragic side, Atlas Eisley felt uneasy - as well as concerned about the condition of his partner Olivia. The blond-haired boy decided to find her location and go looking for her, as Batman was dealing with some problems partly due to Tim Drake and the jokers at the movie studios. Despite Bruce's firm order, quoting him, "Don't you dare come out of hiding, Atlas. I already lost Barbara; my daughter won't forgive me if I lose you."
That kind of thing.
Atlas simply nodded, his now boss's orders going in one ear and out the other.
The blond-haired boy looked for comfortable dark clothes, armed himself with simple weapons like a stun gun and a small spy kit to find his mate - with those simple things, he took to the streets of Gotham. With his motorcycle, he took shortcuts to avoid an inopportune encounter with the Batmobile or any unmanned tank of the Arkham Knight militia. Following the directions on his PDA, he found Olivia's position and stopped two blocks early to go across the rooftops.
He wondered mentally how Olivia managed to slide so easily through buildings.
He ended up on the roof of the building where Olivia was located and slipped past the guards, who remained "guarding" the perimeter. Atlas entered a dark corridor, which led to a half-open door, the blond-haired boy quickly approached and looked into the small space - Olivia Wayne's body dangled from her own hands. Eisley bit his lip, seeing that he should explain what was about to happen. A loud explosion echoed outside and Atlas realized that time was running out.
It didn't take long for him to come in and knock out the two militiamen who were guarding Olivia.
He cut the rope and locked the body of the blonde in his arms, looked for the key, which was in the pocket of one of the militiamen and proceeded to remove the handcuffs from the blonde. Olivia suddenly woke up and turned away from Atlas, who - clearly alarmed - approached her and took her hands to bring them to her face. Olivia's green orbs looked brighter, as she still possessed a bit of the Joker's blood. The blonde was breathing erratically, scared and in pain, wanting to cry an immense ocean of tears as she remembered why she was there.
Atlas Eisley saw her best friend devastated.
Broken, like a porcelain doll.
"Atlas..." Olivia sobbed and moved closer to him, hugging him before crying again.
(She wondered mentally if at the end of the night she could see with eyes so swollen from crying.)
Eisley hugged the girl in the suit tightly, wrapping his arms around her before pressing her tightly against his body and heard her cry. He simply listened to her and didn't speak. The same thing had happened months ago, when Jason died and seeing her like that...it was unforgivable. How could a person with a giant and pure soul go through such atrocities? Atlas found the answer in Olivia Wayne's sobs and the way she was shaking - so he just hugged her, trying to take her pain.
At what cost could you lose someone you loved?
Apparently at a very high cost.
Another explosion was heard outside and the sky lit up orange. Olivia looked up and moved a little away from Atlas, frowning at the sky so strangely colored.
"What is it?" She asked.
"You've been missing quite a bit since we last spoke."
Olivia glared at him. "Oh, sorry, I was flirting with the devil himself, you know?"
Atlas denied. "You haven't lost your sense of humor." He held out a hand as he stood up. "You gotta see this."
The Wayne girl accepted the hand and then stood up, Atlas led her down the hall to the window where she got in and there they went outside. Olivia looked around and knew that this was the real hell. She turned, looking at Atlas. "What the hell did I miss?"
"The Scarecrow ordered the Arkham Knight to blow up the Cloudburst."
Olivia stared straight ahead, finding millions and millions of gallons of Jonathan Crane's toxin gas. This was hell on earth.
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