Chapter 23

A Single Bullet

The morning following the disaster of a gala I woke to a pounding headache and a constant painful throb in my side. Last night may not have been a far cry from the typical happenings in Gotham, but it had left a bitter taste in my mouth. Little Kyle's sobs had hit me harder than I wanted to admit, the terror in his eyes as Two-Face held a gun to his head had unleashed hate for this city I called home - hate I hadn't ever experienced before. The moment seemed laughable, small, in comparison to all the other awful things that had happened. Yet, there was just something about that child's face that snapped something inside of me, really made me see just how disgusting and corrosive this city was.

"I don't know if I can do this," I said the words out loud, in a whisper, it was a confession that I hoped no one could hear, but something that I couldn't keep inside. Letting out a weary sigh I sat up, trying to ignore the pain that flared in my side at the movement. My eyes snagged on the bedside table, a glass of lukewarm water and a pair of innocuous pain pills, along with a note in Richard's neat handwriting.

'What I gave you last night will have worn off by now. After I stitched you back together, I kindly ask that you don't place yourself in the middle of any more fights.

P.s. We'll be in the library, doing some research.'

I snatched the pills from the table, then paused. The pain in my side was difficult to ignore but I couldn't bring myself to place them in my mouth. Almost involuntarily, I dropped the pain pills and the soft sound of them falling back onto the bedside table was loud in the quiet room. I grabbed the glass of water and chugged it down before making my way carefully over to the wardrobe that held my clothes and gently tugging off what I was currently wearing. The movement was a little difficult, each slight twist making me wince, so I opted to wear a pair of sweats and a loose t-shirt, unable to consider the notion of putting anything else more presentable on. My side hurt, but each stab of pain was like a reminder, a flare of clarity keeping me grounded in reality. Reminding me of just how awful Gotham was.

As I made my way to the library I tried to walk smoothly, not giving any outward notion that each step made my side feel like it was on fire. If I was going to be negligent, I had to convince everyone that I was a good girl, who took her pain pills, who didn't need supervision, and who deserved to be redeemed.

When I entered the large wooden doors that led to the impressive Wayne library I found a trio conversing in furious whispers, or what they seemed to think were whispers. As soon as my foot passed the threshold though, the whispers ceased. Jason and Richard snapped to attention, noticing my presence only seconds before Megan did. However, when my eyes met with Richard's and I felt my breathing become shallow in a way that was unfortunately not related to my injury. I came to my second damning conclusion of the morning. My dumbass had a crush on Richard.

Honestly, I really don't know how I didn't fully realize it sooner considering how whenever I was around him my face felt hot. I became self-conscious about everything that I did when he was in the same room with me. It's actually kind of embarrassing that his kind gestures and concerned looks were all it took for me to fall for him.

"How are you feeling?" It took a second for the words to register in my brain, I blinked a couple of times before turning my gaze to Megan, a worried frown on her face.

My shoulders lifted in a nonchalant shrug, "As good as I can, I suppose. Kind of off-putting to know it's just a bandage and some string keeping me from falling apart but, I think I'll live."

"Did you take those painkillers that I left you?" I bit my lip trying to avoid Richard's eyes as I nodded. I didn't miss the suspicious narrowing of his eyes, but he didn't say anything.

"You look terrible." Leave it to Jason to point out the obvious. I didn't exactly think I looked wonderful but the tone in his voice grated at my nerves.

"Jason!" Megan reprimanded, swatting him on the arm. "Bridge, you look great, especially considering what happened last night."

I gave Megan a small smile but responded to Jason. "I may look terrible today, but at least I have a reason to. I would hate to look like that every day." My eyes gave Jason a once over wrinkling my nose as I did so as if what I saw was the least impressive thing to cross my path.

The response was kind of weak, but nonetheless, Jason crossed his arms and sneered at me. "Alright! We get it, you despise one another. Can we get back to important things now, please?" Richard gave both Jason and I an exasperated look. Jason rolled his eyes but I could feel myself deflate a little as I slowly made my way over to the table they were at.

Megan had a laptop in front of her and I carefully sat in the seat next to her, leaving Jason and Richard to hover over our shoulders. I could feel the heat radiating off of Richard's body as he stood behind me. It took considerable effort not to relax against the back of the chair so that I could be closer to him. Instead of giving into that mortifying urge, I leaned forward in my seat, gripping the arms of the chair with such ferocity that I'm surprised it didn't cause the wood to creak. Leaning forward sent another wave of pain through my side and I did my best to hide my discomfort, knowing that not a single one of them would understand why I lied about taking the pills.

"So, what are we researching?" I forced my voice to stay steady, the combination of Richard's close presence and the pain in my side making my head spin a little, but at the same time, I retained that newfound clarity. I can never let myself forget the poison that this city injects into anyone who resides in it, I simply can't.

"Well, the puppet master yanking our strings is really the only person that can clear our names. We need to figure out who put these chips in our heads, and the only way to do that is to start crossing names off of our list of suspects." Megan carried an air of steely determination, a trait that I wasn't used to seeing in her lately, or really ever.

"Considering the funds and skill that would have been necessary to develop the technology and then place the chips inside your heads, whoever our suspect is has to be backed by a lot of money. Which means we only have to look at people who have sizable funds in their bank accounts." It sounded to me like Richard had repeated that statement before, information that I gathered from Jason muttering 'yeah, yeah' and Megan completely tuning him out as she clicked from article to article. The speed at which she was looking through the articles made my eyes hurt, so I looked away from the screen.

The on-edge feeling that I got from being close to Bruce's oldest made me wish for a moment that I was still with the Riddler. At least when it came to him, I knew exactly where the two of us stood, he was dangerous and I accepted that danger, welcomed it even. With Riddler I knew that he wanted me as much as I wanted him. Richard on the other hand left me feeling like everything was a mystery, our relationship a big question mark in my mind. As ironic as that was.

Richard seemed to trust me, maybe not fully, but certainly, more than Bruce or Jason did. He's provided me a guiding hand, comfort, encouraging smiles, and didn't treat me like a complete pariah. Yet at the same time, he held me at a distance, like he wants to help me but is afraid of what would happen if he got too close. Well, too close emotionally because the man was currently leaning over me to look at the computer screen. When I jumped slightly at the unexpected closeness, he looked over at me before placing a gentle hand on my shoulder giving it a light squeeze before turning his attention back to Megan.

"Tommy Elliot!" Megan was saying the name with carefully reigned enthusiasm, "He has money, leads a sketchy life, and while his penthouse remains carefully maintained there's been no news of his whereabouts." Megan turned toward me, "This guy could be our guy!"

Jason regarded the screen with a dose of skepticism that I wasn't going to broadcast that I agreed with. "Maybe."

"It's worth checking him out, and at the very least we can cross him and Elliot Estates off of the list." Richard's voice held a silent command that the rest of us obediently accepted. We're going to check him out, even if some of us were not exactly sure that it could be him.

Richard's hand remained on my shoulder, and my hyper-awareness of his touch made me want to scream. He likely had no idea how much he was affecting me, there was no way he could know that as he started to rub his thumb in reassuring circles on my shoulder blade, my body wanted to melt into his touch while at the same time yank my shoulder from his grip.

I managed to choke out a response, "When?" Finally, Richard removed his hand and crossed his arms against his chest. Off put to realize that I didn't actually want him to stop touching me.

"Tonight's as good a time as any," I watched as a look passed between the three of them, a silent communication that I was decidedly not a part of, I felt a surge of anger claw its way up my throat. Suddenly, I was reminded of the whispers and the wall that had been placed between me and everyone else the moment I was brought to Wayne manor. "I think all of us should go."

Jason let out a humorless laugh, "Is that really a good idea?" His blue eyes snapped to me for a second mistrust and disbelief filling his gaze before he looked to Richard, "I mean do you really-"

Holding up a hand, Richard cut Jason off. "This is a matter that concerns Megan and Bridgette equally, I don't see a reason why anyone should be excluded." He paused, and looked down at me, "As long as you promise not to get into any trouble."

I rolled my eyes but it wasn't me who responded, it was Megan. "No one should be getting into any trouble, Elliot's penthouse is practically abandoned. We might not even get any information from there."

"Then why are we going?" The words exited my mouth before I could think to filter them.

Megan gave me a smile, "So we can cover all of our bases, duh."

Once again, Richard's hand found a way to land on me. This time, to gently pat the top of my head. Like I was a dog. Unfortunately for me, I wanted to press my head into the touch more than I wanted to snap at him for the degrading gesture. "We'll leave as soon as the sun is fully down," There was no way that he wasn't touching me on purpose, but it seemed as if each time his hand landed on me it was entirely involuntary like he didn't really realize he was doing it. "In the meantime, make sure you've dressed appropriately and Jason and I will get everything we'll need."

With that, both males exited the library leaving Megan and I to stare at the computer. I reached up to pat my hair, "What now?"

Megan shut the laptop with a soft click, "We eat!"

That same night I found myself wandering the halls of the penthouse, alone. Not long after we had arrived at the Elliot penthouse I had decisively found myself separated from Megan, Jason, and Richard. How? I couldn't exactly explain. It was like one moment the four of us were walking down the hall together and the next, I realized that the only footfalls echoing off the walls were my own. At first, I had felt a near blinding rage because I knew there was no way that they had wandered off by accident. I had been intentionally abandoned. Then, I figured that this would be a chance for me to try and sneak up on them, listening in on the covert whispers they tried so hard to keep secret.

It hurt the fact that Megan was intentionally keeping something from me, especially after she had made me promise to be upfront with her, be upfront with each other. And here she was holding secrets with a billionaire and his adopted sons. I reached my hand up to the left side of my waist gently pressing my fingers down, pain. Bracing my right hand on the wall beside me I let the surge of pain pass, let it wash through me. Corruption. Filth. Gotham was infecting not just me, but Megan too. That had to be what was happening. The person I knew before all of this happened would never keep something from me, deliberately try to mislead me.

Click. I froze, muscles tensing as I felt the muzzle of a gun press against my temple for the second time in just as many days. They said the penthouse was abandoned. I believed them when they said there was no one here. Stupid. So stupid.

"Now why's a pretty thing like you lurking here, all alone?" A new wave of anger crashed through me, along with a healthy dose of fear. Some guy had a gun pressed to my head, and my companions were nowhere to be found. I might die tonight. If I don't say anything, that possibility becomes all the more likely.

"I must have gotten the wrong address. The guy I talked to said he wanted me to surprise him, that wouldn't happen to be you, would it?" I layered on a false sugary-sweet tone, doing my best to imitate the women you couldn't go far in Gotham without seeing prowling the streets. The very same women my dad always told me not to judge just as fiercely as he ignored the department's regular crackdowns on prostitution.

The gun lowered, no longer pressed against my temple. I turned to paste an inviting smile on my face, I only hoped that it was dark enough that he couldn't tell how false it was. His immediate attraction to me was clear as he licked his lips letting his eyes languidly wander my body. I fought the urge to gag.

This guy had to be an idiot. Granted my clothes were darker and tighter than I would have liked, there was a certain dress code that came with breaking and entering. However, the outfit was a far cry from one that I would be wearing if I was telling the truth.

"I'll be whoever you want me to be, as long as I can get a taste," He wasn't exactly unattractive, but this man was the kind that seemed to radiate a bad vibe that screamed to every woman to stay away. Despite the alarm bells going off in my head, the voice telling me to back away from him, I stepped closer.

My body was mere millimeters from being pressed against his, I laid a hand on his chest and looked up at him through my lashes. He was tall and well-built, to get away from him I had to be smart. I still have no real handle on my powers, and the fighting skills I do have are useless when you have a stab wound in your side. "For the right price, you can have anything you want, baby."

He grinned, slipping the gun into the waistband of his pants before placing his hands on my hips. Instinctively my hands went to grab his wrists with the intention to push him away, disgust curdling in the pit of my stomach. Then, I caught myself at the last second, instead letting my hands glide up the sleeves of his jacket, fighting the urge to puke as I wrapped my arms around his neck, effectively closing the slight distance that had been between us seconds ago. It was actually pathetic how easy this was, Thomas Elliot really needed to hire some new security guards.

"We can take this to the office," The man suggested, "I always wanted to dirty up that desk a little bit."

I would rather drink Scarecrow's fear toxin than do that but instead of revealing that thought I said, "Sure, let's go in there."

My moment presented itself mere seconds later, to my incredible relief, any longer with this creep and I may have actually lost the contents of my stomach. He turned around, hands falling from my sides, all eager and excited about taking my clothes off. He forgot that his gun had been haphazardly shoved into the back of his pants.

It was just all too easy to grab it, flick the safety off and press the barrel of the gun right between his shoulder blades. Having the gun in my hand felt like a blessing."You're really bad at your job, you know that?"

I chose to ignore the names he called me as I pushed him forward down the hallway, my brain working about a million miles a minute trying to decide what to do. I didn't actually want to shoot the guy, he's gross, but as far as I know, that's about it. As we crept down the hall I finally heard voices. I became simultaneously relieved and irritated. I couldn't make out the words since they were inside a room, but I knew those voices.

"What the hell, you're not alone? You brought your pimp here?" It seems this genius was still buying into my act. Idiot.

"For the love of God, shut up!" I raised my voice a little louder than necessary and a second later the voices stopped.

My eyes stayed trained on the door as it began to open. A move that I quickly realized was a mistake when horny man spun around and slammed his fist into my chin. Stars danced in front of my eyes clouding my vision as I felt my back collide with the wall. Luckily, I didn't accidentally press the trigger. Unluckily, I got to experience dual pain from the bruise I could feel rapidly forming on my chin and the throb in my side from the sudden harsh movement. When the stars started to clear I realized that the man had disappeared, I assume from running. At least he didn't decide to hit me again. My fingers automatically pressed the safety back onto the gun before it found its home tucked into the back of my pants. The movement was almost pure agony.

I only had one more second to catch my breath before I heard the angry, accusatory words. "What did you do?" My eyes lifted to see Jason standing in front of me, fists clenched, fury practically rolling off of him in waves.

Richard's thumb drive flashed a confident blue as he dragged files from the computer into its memory. Richard, Jason, and I were crowded in the small office, looking for different clues to uncover the mystery behind the chips in my and Bridgette's heads. While Richard was busy with the computer, Jason was thumbing through filing cabinets, and I was left to look around the room for anything that stood out.

"I don't think that we should have brought Bridgette with us," I said again, eyes roaming over the walls. Pictures of the Elliott family hung in frames, with our main suspect Thomas only a child in them. One picture frame on top of a filing cabinet also had a picture of the young Thomas with some other boy. There was something distinctly familiar about this mystery child, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"You could say that again," Jason muttered.

"This is her problem too. She deserves the chance to look for answers too," Richard said.

"Is she really getting that chance though when we make sure to leave her behind?" I asked when my eyes landed on a newspaper clipping.

A headline reading "Bruce Wayne Opens New Surgical Wing in Gotham General Hospital" peeked out from a mountain of papers. As I inspected it further, I could feel my heart sink to my stomach. "Um, guys, you may want to get a look at this..." I said.

They both walked over and I could feel their discomfort with my discovery. What I had found was papers upon papers that were focused on nothing but Bruce. The price of his electric bills, the restaurants that he went to in the last few months, his general medical information, all the different haircuts that he's had over the years, his bank's routing information, and a list of his likes and dislikes. It was a mountain of information, ranging from the mundane to the deeply intimate information pertaining to Bruce. Is there any way that someone could focus so much on him and not discover the truth about Batman? I thought with worry. Tucked away between some other miscellaneous papers was an article about Martha and Thomas Wayne's murder and an orphaned Bruce. I recognized the picture as the same boy with a child, Thomas Elliott. Why was Thomas so fixated on a childhood friend of his?

"See? This is the kind of stuff that I didn't want Bridgette with us to see," Richard said.

All of this stuff about Bruce was toeing the edge of being dangerously revealing, but I still wanted to argue with Richard. "If you were so worried about her seeing something like this, why did you bother to bring her in the first place? After everything that has happened to her last night, was it really worth the risk?" I hissed at him in anger. This simple reconnaissance mission of ours may actually be way more complicated than any of us had anticipated.

But before I could say anything, the unmistakable sounds of footsteps came from the hallway. All of our eyes locked onto each other as we thought the same thing: there wasn't supposed to be anyone here.

"What the hell, you're not alone? You brought your pimp here?" some male voice said through the door.

"For the love of God, shut up!" Bridgette's voice responded. The lights in the office started to flash before I stopped them.

Crap! Not thinking, I made a move to open the door and check that she was okay.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Richard opening a drawer and haphazardly sweeping all the papers about Bruce into it. I opened the door and was stunned to see a large man suddenly spin around and punch Bridgette in the chin. Fear instantly shot through my system when Jason shoved me out of the way and stepped into the hallway. I could barely catch the man running off and a stunned Bridgette tucking a gun into her pants. Wait, a gun?

Where did she get a gun from?

"What did you do?" Jason asked her, the anger tangible in his voice.

Bridgette blinked slowly at him, seeming to try to clear her head from the punch that just happened. Her eyes moved past him into the open doorway, where Richard and I stood shell-shocked in the office.

"I was doing my best with a crappy" although she didn't say ``crappy'' situation, thank you very much," she snapped. "There are guards here. I thought that you all said it should be empty. And why did you all leave me?"

I felt like I was going to be sick. If I had known that there was a possible risk of being here, I never would have left her alone. But I knew that those words wouldn't exactly be comforting after it seemed that I had just randomly abandoned her. "I'm so sorry, Bridgette," I wanted to say, but couldn't for some reason.

Grabbing onto both Jason and Bridgette, Richard pulled them into the room and then shut the door behind them. "We need to leave. Now. We didn't come prepared to deal with anyone else," he said then turned and looked at me. "Is there any way that you could use your powers to make the files download faster?" he jerked his thumb in the direction of the computer.

"I..." taking in a shaky breath, I reached out with my powers. While I could sense the energy coming from the computer, I couldn't figure out all of the twists and turns that led me through it. Without a doubt, I would be able to shut it down, but anything more complicated than that... Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried throwing everything I had behind getting into the computer and I could feel the blood start to drip down my nose.

"Don't push yourself, we should probably just be worried about getting out of here," Jason's voice was right in front of me and I could feel his hand on my arm. With a gasp, my eyes flew open to catch him staring at me with a frown.

This wasn't good. I looked over his shoulder and shook my head at Richard. "I'm sorry," I said and my voice cracked.

Now we could hear voices shouting - that man from earlier must have warned his buddies about us. Richard sighed sadly and looked at the flash drive. This was all for nothing. We put ourselves in danger and we'll have nothing to show for it.

"It's fine. We've found enough here to get Bruce involved," Jason said brusquely and walked over to yank the thumb drive out. Heading over to the window, he looked down. "Those guys sound like they're coming to this room. There's enough of a ledge for us to walk out and try to sneak around them."

Bridgette and I both looked to Richard, silently declaring him the leader of the group. His blue eyes went dark with thought as the sounds of footsteps came closer to us. "There's no other choice," he said and we all followed after Jason.

Jason yanked open the window and stepped out. He was right, there was a little ledge a foot or so beneath us. It was barely wide enough to hold his weight without causing him to slip and it stretched all across the side of the building. Pressing his palms flat against the wall, he slowly started to shimmy along the ledge.

One look at Bridgette and I could tell that she was freaking out. "We can do this," I reassured her and reached out to squeeze her hand. But the look that she gave me wasn't one of relief, but rather of hurt and wariness. She still didn't like that I had left her behind.

"Come on," Richard urged us, holding his hand out.

Without a word, Bridgette took it and climbed out the window. The chilly air blew her long hair about her face, and I could visibly see her swallow as she started to move. Thankfully, she didn't look down. I wiped the blood off my nose, then grabbed Richard's hand.

This is just like the balance beam, I thought nervously to myself as I stepped out the window and carefully placed my feet on the ledge one after another. I used to always place first on the balance beam.

Except this balance beam is dozens of stories up in the air. You'll be penalized with more than just docked points if you fall here, one of the voices said.

Flattening my palms against the wall, I started to shuffle my feet. I barely even breathed. The thrill of the drop was tantalizing, despite all my common sense. Up ahead, our wall intersected at a ninety-degree angle with another wall, as the building was separated into another wing. Jason carefully crossed the corner and moved to the next window. Testing with a few gentle tugs to see if it was locked, Jason then slid it open. Before stepping inside, he gestured for us to wait for his signal.

Richard climbed out on the ledge, gracefully closing the window behind him. "How you hanging in there, Bee?"

"Oh, I'm doing just fine," she called back, nervous laughter in her voice. I could feel giggles crawling up my own throat, but I swallowed them down.

Jason peeked his head back out the new window and beckoned us to come in. The line moved forward once again. Behind us, I could hear the door to the office slam open. "Where'd they go!?" a voice shouted.

"I don't freaking" except he didn't say freaking "know! They were here last when I saw them!"

"Search the room. Mr. Elliott is going to be peeved" except he didn't say peeved "that people have been sniffing around his office."

Bridgette hesitated a moment before making the cross to the other ledge, but after a deep breath, she lunged across. She all but flew into the window, with Richard and I following close behind.

"Oh my God," she gasped out, doubled over with her hands on her knees.

"Once we're out of this room, no more talking. We can't risk them finding where we went to," Richard warned.

We moved through what seemed to be a living room. I could make out the shapes of furniture underneath humongous pieces of cloth. It didn't seem like anyone had been in here a long time. Crouching down low, we followed behind Richard in a single file line. He opened the door carefully, peeked his head out to check the hallway, then silently slipped out of the room. As we followed behind him, I couldn't but help but feel the failure of the evening gnaw at me. Even if we can escape with our bodies intact, those guards are going to tell Thomas about the intruders. It's unlikely that any evidence will be left behind for Bruce to discover after tonight. The futility of it all was enough to make me want to scream, but of course, I didn't.

We snuck through the penthouse like thieves in the night, weaving in and out of rooms, behind and under furniture at the sound of any noise. Every single shadow looked like a guard crouching in the darkness before he would leap up and pounce on us. Even the sound of my racing heart in my ears seemed too loud.

After a while, it seemed like we couldn't hear the guards anymore. Richard led us into a bedroom. Jason closed the door behind us. "I think that we're good for now," he whispered and we all slowly started to stand up.

Both Bridgette and I were rubbing our backs. Unlike the vigilantes in the room, we weren't used to sneaking around. Now seemed as good a chance as any, so I walked over to her. "Hey, I'm sorry about earlier," I said quietly.

"It's fine," Bridgette said, but from the tight way she said her words, I could tell that it wasn't. She started to walk away from me when I grabbed her by the wrist.

"Where did you get the gun from?" I asked.

She looked at me like I just asked why she needed to breathe so often. "Does it really matter right now?"

"Yes, it does," I said. "What happened to our policy of honesty?"

"I don't know. What happened to it?"

This time I let her move away, and she went to join Richard by some French doors leading out to a balcony. Was it really only last night when I promised to be a mother to her? Someone who she could always turn to and trust to look after her? How have I already failed so miserably in just over twenty-four hours?

I found Jason looking at me with sympathy. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he decided against it.

"Hey guys, I think down there might be our escape," Richard said.

I joined him and looked down into an expansive courtyard filled with towering bushes and trees. A complicated fountain sat in the center, with little cherub angels bathing each other from seashells. Cobblestone walkways wove between the gardens, with benches sprinkled here and there. In the corner, there was the most impeccably kept community garden that I'd ever seen, with tiny picket fences separating each plot.

"I think that anyone is welcome to the courtyard here. Maybe if we cut through it, we'll be able to find some main elevator or staircase and leave." He looked at Jason, silently asking for his thoughts.

The younger man considered the courtyard for a second and then nodded, "It seems worth a shot to me."

"The only thing is that we'll be visible from multiple windows down there. So we'll have to be fast," Richard warned us.

We all came to a silent agreement and then started down the balcony. It was a bit of a jump, but nothing that would cause any broken bones. Jason and Richard made the drop like pros, Bridgette made it with a lot of reluctance, and I made it last. The impact of the drop shot up through my legs and I had to crouch to get my bearings for a second. Richard was already leading the group to twist between some hedges. I was following close behind when the sound of a window being slammed open echoed across the courtyard.

"There they are! In the courtyard!" a voice shouted. I turned to see a man angling his gun at me from outside the window. Before I could even think, he fired.

Somebody crashed into me, causing me to just narrowly avoid being hit. We had barely even landed a few feet away before I was being hauled back onto my feet and could see that my rescuer was Jason. His turquoise eyes were wild with fear. I'd never seen him act like that around guns before. He was shot multiple times last night and he never had anything but a look of determination.

"Run!" Richard shouted.

Pure chaos erupted as we all sprinted faster than we had ever run before. Gunshots exploded all around us and I could see different guards streaming in from the windows around us. There had to be at least ten? Twelve? Thankfully the tall bushes and trees around us helped to obscure their aims. Some windows turned on with lights as the other residents of the luxury apartments wondered what all the commotion was. I reached out with my powers and turned all the lights around us, including the ones along the walkways, off. It may have made running more difficult, but judging from the shouts of our assailants, it also helped us to hide from them.

"How does that door look?" Jason asked once we all squatted behind a bench together.

Richard looked to the door in question - just twenty yards away. There was a stretch of empty space in front of it, where we would get no coverage from the garden, but, "It seems good to me," Richard said.

If it was possible to run even faster than before, we did. We were in the homestretch. If we could just get inside. Bullets rained down all around us, some getting close enough to collide with where our feet had been just one second before. Richard had just reached the door when I could hear Jason screaming my name. I turned my head just in time to see a guard charging me.

I couldn't even move out of the way before I was thrown to the ground. Pain coursed through my body, and it was too delicious to resist the laughter this time. As he reared his hand back for a punch, I rolled out of his grasp. I stumbled to my feet and tried to take off. Richard had the door opened. I tried to run the last few feet to get inside, but the guard grabbed onto one of my legs. The whole world turned upside down as I was wrenched back onto the ground.

Again, I couldn't help but laugh at the pain, but deep inside I knew that this was really bad. This time he got a couple of hits in before Jason was able to get him off of me. I staggered to a stand and tried to run again, but the guard kept on pulling at me. My movements were desperate and clumsy and the delirium of the pain threw me off. Jason cursed as he punched the guy in the face.

The man's hand was on my arm and I could feel him tug me towards him when a shot rang out that was louder than all the others. I felt an excruciating pain more delicious and more horrible than anything else that I have ever felt before. The guard let go of me, tumbling to the ground from a gunshot through his leg...and I followed along from a shot clean through my stomach.

"Megan!" Jason screamed, but already his voice was starting to sound distant. I could barely hear him over my laughter.

I laughed so hard that it hurt, and that just made me laugh even more. My hands went to my stomach and instantly they were soaked in blood. My blood. I looked towards the door and could see Bridgette standing there with the gun in her hand and horror in her eyes. Wait.

Was she the one who shot me?

Jason scooped me up into his arms and we took off through the door. Bridgette stumbled in after us, and Richard slammed the door shut. A couple of more bullets shattered through the glass, but thankfully none of them hit us.

"A gunshot through the stomach is the most painful way to go," I remembered Cam saying once. I looked down and could see what looked like intestines peeking through the gaping hole. Wait. There's no way. I'm just imagining it. "It can rupture through most of your internal organs and you die as they all bleed out."

"There's an elevator right there," Cam- Richard said and we followed behind him.

"I'm so sorry, Megan," Bridgette begged. "I'm so, so sorry."

All the lights were flickering around us and this time I couldn't control them. I could feel every movement Jason made, as blood seemed to pour out more with every step. The agony.

I couldn't make myself stop laughing.

I never got to see Cam again. I never got to find out why this happened to me and Bridgette. We never got to prove our innocence.

We got into the elevator doors and Richard pushed the button to close it behind us. The sound of bullets tinkered across the metal, but we were already moving down. Jason propped me against a corner, and I tilted my head back against the wall.

Everything was so blurry... I could barely see Bridgette and Richard hovering close by, as pale as ghosts. It wasn't until I blinked some tears away that I realized I was crying.

"You're okay. You're okay," Jason said as he put pressure on the wound. Pure undiluted torment sprang from his touch, and a sound that was a combination between a shriek and a laugh came out of me. But the sounds were garbled and I realized that blood was coming out of my mouth. Soon my laughter started choking me and blood sprayed on Jason's face.

"No. No, no, no, no, no." Bridgette wailed and I recognized her tone. It was the same one of heartbreak that she had when we saw Emily's dead body in that alleyway all those years ago.

My hands started to feebly push Jason's away. It hurt too much for him to touch me, and I didn't want Bridgette to see me like this.

"Stop, stop. I need to apply the pressure," he kept on setting my hands away. "It's fine. You're going to be okay."

But he was lying.

Something final inside of me told me that I was dying. After so long of wishing that I wasn't alive, it was finally coming true.

But it wasn't supposed to happen like this. It wasn't supposed to happen with me laughing and crying at the same time. It wasn't supposed to happen with me barely able to breathe from all the blood pouring out of my throat. It wasn't supposed to happen with my best friend collapsing onto the floor in a mess of sobs.

"I'm so sorry, Megan. I didn't mean to hit you, I swear. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I just wanted to help, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," her words barely made any sense between her wailing.

I wanted to tell her that it was okay. That I knew that it was an accident. That maybe this is for the best. But they got lost somewhere between all of the laughs that were coming out of me.

If I died here, I was going to die the monster that Gotham thought I was. I never even got the chance to prove them wrong.

"Please, you've got to hold on. We're almost out of here. You've just got to hold on," Jason begged. Was he crying too?

Was everyone crying?

Oh my God, the pain. The laughs became weaker as I couldn't breathe. It was a combination of ecstasy and a living nightmare.

The tears came out beyond my control as I made one last weak attempt to get Jason to stop touching me as if that would make the pain stop together.

I'm dying, I thought to myself as I could feel all the energy leave me.

All of their faces blurred into each other, and there was blood everywhere, and the lights above were blinding as they washed out everything around us. I'm dying...and it was my best friend who killed me...

"I'm so so sorry...I'm so sorry," Bridgette wailed.

The last sound that I heard was the elevator door dinging as we made our floor. Then everything went away...

...all...

...at...

...once...

Emily

The woman watched as her partner broke down, as soon as the girls had been ambushed he had been on edge pacing back and forth across the room. Now, he was nearly hysterical. Megan's signal had gone offline only five minutes ago but the time stretched, and it felt like a lifetime since it had happened. While he freaked out she had to take it upon herself to remain put together. She had always been the planner, the mastermind and this situation didn't change that.

"Cam, get it together." she snapped, "If you just sit there, we can't do anything about it."

Cam looked up at her, eyes wild with grief. "Don't tell me to get it together, Emily! My little sister..." His hands fisted in his hair, "This is my fault. If I hadn't listened to you everything would have been fine!"

The slap that landed on Cam's cheek seemed to echo throughout the room. Sometimes, Emily wondered how useful Cam really was. So sentimental, so weak. She shoved him into the wall. "Get it together, Cam. Letting our emotions rule us isn't going to do anything. We don't really know what those chips are capable of. Don't you want to see if we can fix it?"

"Fix it? How?"

Grabbing the oldest Lane siblings' arm Emily began marching him out of the room, only pausing long enough to call a town car to pick them up. "We're going to the man who created the tech, I doubt he's happy about this development. Do you really think he would let this happen without trying to fix it?"

She could see the flicker of hope entering his eyes, it was enough to get him to start moving without Emily's assistance. Throughout the entire car ride, Emily refused to look over at him. She couldn't stomach the look on his face and the sniffles that she heard every few seconds made her hand twitch with the desire to slap him again.

Of course, she was upset but Cam was acting like this was the end. As if the technology that she had been blessed with wasn't amazing enough. If it had been able to give the girls powers, what else could it do? She didn't allow herself to actually believe that Megan was gone. She wouldn't voice it to anyone much less Cam but a part of her was actually excited. Excited to see what would happen next, because with such a powerful man as the one they were racing towards she didn't really believe that anything was impossible.

When they arrived at the building, there was already an assistant waiting for them. Nervous energy filled Emily, just as it did every time she got the chance to meet him. The assistant must have known the importance of the meeting because she didn't pause to introduce herself and the three of them were waved through without having to go through the usual security checks.

The ride in the elevator was even worse than the ride in the car. Each second seemed to tick by slower than the last, every moment was another moment that Megan's body got colder. Emily felt a chill slither through her body, her eyes started to get watery. She frowned. There was no way she was going to cry, no way she was going to let this get to her. Everything would work out.

Ding! The cheery tone announced their arrival on the top floor, and when they stepped out the unmistakable, breathtaking view of Metropolis at night expanded before them. The view was something she had told Megan once that was the reason she aspired to be a CEO one day. It was the truth. There was nothing like seeing a city expand before you as you stood on one of the highest points, looking down. Emily would never tire of the view from his office even as she yearned to see the skyline of Gotham instead of the one before her.

"Leave," the command came from the figure seated behind the large modern-style desk set up in the middle of the office. The order wasn't meant for Emily or Cam but for the assistant. She didn't flinch at the imposing sound of his voice simply pressed a button in the elevator and seconds later, she was gone.

Emily let out a steadying breath, being in his presence always made her nervous. Sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Being around this kind of man wasn't something you could just get used to. Each time was like the first, just as exciting, just as terrifying. "Something happened-"

A waved hand in the air stopped the words in Emily's throat. "I know what happened. Quite the disaster, don't you think?"

Emily spared a glance over at Cam - he was rooted in the spot, eyes distant. He would be no help to her now. "It's unfortunate, yes. There was nothing we could have done to prevent it." Emily did her best to keep her voice even, and professional. It wouldn't do to show how freaked out she was on the inside, he had to know that she could handle these things.

Neither Cam nor Emily made any move to get closer to him, both aware that they only did so if he invited them to step forward. The man let out a sigh, and Emily could see a smirk starting to form on his face. That had to be a good sign, right? "I think it presents us a wonderful opportunity to test my technology, actually. I already set things in motion to have the girl's body delivered to one of our labs."

Emily took a step forward, catching herself at the last second before she took another. "What about," she took a breath when her voice started to waver, "What about the other one?"

"It seems in the time it took you to get here, she's already made her way out of Gotham." The news was a surprise to Emily. She had thought Bridgette would have stayed by Megan's side, even in death. "No matter, we can monitor her from anywhere around the globe. We can always bring her back as we see fit."

He stood from his desk motioning for them to come closer. Emily didn't hesitate, her feet taking her to stand right by his side. Cam moved forward at a much slower pace, a wraith simply drifting. She barely acknowledged him, most of her attention going to the man by her side. "Do you think that she can be brought back?"

"It won't be easy. But nothing worth getting is easy." He peered out at the city, the air of a man who knew he owned it. This made Emily all the more assured that she had made the right decision aligning with him. "We bring her back, and we can really begin to see just how powerful my tech is. And if we're lucky, we'll soon get to see humanity push past its current limits."

Emily hung off of every word he said, filing them away so she could turn them over in her head long after this meeting. They stared out at the city, no longer were the seconds stretching, but slipping by too quickly for Emily to catch. If he thought everything would work out, then Emily believed him. She didn't know how long they stood there, time only measured with each breath she took.

The sound of the elevator dinging again made Emily turn. She had expected to see the assistant returning with more news, but instead it was-

Her heart leaped up to her throat.

Dressed in a lab coat and standing right in front of her was none other than Lacie Jennings.

Emily hadn't seen her in years, not ever since she faked her death. What in the world is she doing here?

Lacie didn't so much as glance at her when she said, "Mr. Luthor, we're prepping the body in lab 12. Would you like to go down and watch?"

She glanced at Lex, wanting to follow his cue. Cam wasn't as tactful, staring with horror at Lacie. But when a smile spread on Lex's face, Emily allowed herself to feel at ease. He trusted Lacie at this moment. And while Emily may never feel the same, she'll be able to play along for as long as she needs to.

Emily felt a thrill of excitement, so different from the dread she had felt when she witnessed the flatline of Megan's heartbeat earlier in the night. She glanced back and noticed that the sun was just beginning its trek upwards gradually lighting up the sky. "I would love to watch Ms. Jennings" Lex turned towards Emily, gesturing towards the door, "Lead the way."

A/N: Hey guys! This may not have been the update that you were expecting, but we hope that you still enjoy it. We're sorry that it's been years since we posted.

Long story short, we started writing this when we were in high school. But as the years went on, it was more difficult for us to continue with it. In part because life got in the way and in part because we've changed so much as people since we first started this. There were a lot of things that we wanted to do with this story, or things that we'd already done, that we couldn't help but to look back on and cringe. Eventually, we found that the original ending that we wanted to do no longer worked for us. Or at least, the way that we originally wanted it to happen.

So our solution to this is to start a sequel/soft reboot of the story. One that feels more true to the vision that we have today. If you still care about this story and want to see how it ends, we invite you to read it! It will look and feel different from this story, but the essence of it will remain the same. If you're interested, it's on our profile under the title Holding Back the Dark.

Thank you so much for sticking with us this long. We hope that you'll stay with us to the end.

Love,

Arkham Girls