Fatal Attraction

It was late into the evening as many cars were either on the streets or the highway/freeway having the occupants have their own plans in mind. Whether it's to go home for the evening or going out and have some fun in their own way on things. It was the general idea really on how things would go for most pedestrians. But asides from that, crime would occur quite often in the evening and anything could happen at a given notice.

Like with a car being stolen for instance…. Well…. The way how it's being stolen would raise a brow, especially with what is being done at the current moment.

"Is this nutjob serious?" Selina asked as she was riding 'bitch' (the term of shotgun on a motorcycle) behind her boyfriend in their respective costumed attires.

"Sadly so." He dryly replied as the two looked onward on the current crime being committed before he rode off to catch the criminal.

One might wonder what is so odd about the crime being committed that would warrant such a question. Well as stated before, a car is being stolen but not in a traditional sense. Sometimes it would deal with using a tool to unlock the car door or breaking the glass to get inside before driving off to do god knows what to it. But in this current case, it isn't being driven at all….

It's being lifted up into the air by a strong man named Lunkhead as he was running off with it through the streets of Gotham.

It didn't take long for the costumed couple to reach their target as Vanitas phased them and his motorcycle through the highway barrier to land onto the street below. From there, the masked Uzumaki sped towards Lunkhead on the empty street. It was quite odd on the vacancy of said street, but the hero wasn't going to complain at all if there would be some bad confrontations.

As soon as Vanitas sped in front of the large man, he cut him off by swerving in front of him.

"Hey big guy. Why don't you put down the expensive looking car and we'll talk things out?"

"Go away!" Lunkhead said as he held up the car over his head. "Leave Lunkhead and his toy ALONE!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that buddy." Vanitas said, only to get the strong man to toss the car at the costumed couple.

"Vanitas!"

"On it!" He said as he focused on his powers to phase the two of them through the thrown car. Once it went past them, which ended up rolling several times, the two had to quickly move out of the way from the strong man's incoming attack.

"RAAAH!" Lunkhead yelled out as he punched the ground before landing a hit onto Vanitas' motorcycle, sending it flying as it started to disperse into smoke.

"Now that wasn't very nice!" Catwoman said as she readied herself with her claws out.

"Now Catwoman, remember, don't hurt him too much." Vanitas spoke out as he formed a pair of escrima sticks.

"Oh please~ I'll only rough him up just a little."

Lunkhead lunged at the two with his fists in the air before bringing them down hard onto the ground, leaving decent sized cracks. At this moment, Selina came up close and kicked the man a few times, getting him a bit into the air, before swiping her claws at him. Under normal circumstances, one would bleed from being cut by her claws, but with how dense Lunkhead's skin is, there were only painful scratches. Once the scratching assault ended, she dropped onto the ground and upwardly kicked the man into the air before pulling out her whip and getting it wrapped around Lunkhead's waist to send him back down to the ground.

It was then that Vanitas came in and started to lay varying attacks onto the dense man. From smacking his sticks onto the man's back several times before going towards the man's head. The disguised publisher didn't want to put too much damage onto the man's already sensitive head, but it had to be done to hopefully take care of him quickly. With the larger man dazed and confused, Vanitas brought forth his grappling scarf to wrap around the man before swinging him towards a lamp post to finish knocking him out.

"Not that very exciting, but at least it was a little warm up." Selena said as she walked closer to the unconscious man. But she was halted in her walk when her boyfriend grasped her shoulder.

"Poll."

"What?"

Soon creaking sounds started to fill the air as Selina turned her head towards the lamp post as the poll part of it started to move downwards and crash the head onto the street. She soon realized that after the last attack, Lunkhead ended up damaging the lamp post around the base, causing the structure to dangerously bend due to it's weight. Selina was a bit glad for Naruto's intervention or else she would've been hit in the process.

"It's never over until it's over." He quipped as he formed a clone to help move the fallen lamp post to the side of the road so it wouldn't cause any further problems.

"I know that Naruto, but do you have to end up saying that almost every time we're out in costume together?"

"Sorry hun, but I'm just being a bit precarious with you on the field with me." He stated as he and his clone wrapped Lunkhead with several layers of his grappling scarf.

"Well let's get this guy to Blackgate and possibly be done for the night."

Her response was a shake to the head as Naruto's clone conjured up his motorcycle with a side car attachment before depositing the unconscious man inside of it. "Blackgate wouldn't do all that good with the man Selina. He was experimented over there and his mental condition would be better treated at Arkham."

"If you say so."

And with that said; the two hopped onto the motorcycle, with Catwoman resuming her previous position and hugging her lover's form, before driving off to Arkham Asylum.

Things have been pretty steady for the past month after the incidents of both eco-terrorists Pyg and Toad, along with Solomon Grundy respectively. Going to work, dating and patrolling were pretty simple with nothing big happening to cause too much of an alarm for the former shinobi. Though to be fair with the two mentioned incidents, Murphy could've possibly given Gotham a bit of slack with how crazy things have gone for the most part.

Speaking of said incidents….

-Flashback-

"What the hell was that?!" Selina yelled out as she pointed to the TV screen of the news coverage replaying the fight from earlier.

"Eh Selina…"

"I was literally gone for roughly five hours and in that time I end up hearing of you two duking it out against some new guy with most of the fight your ass was literally handed to you Naruto!"

"Selina…"

"I mean I was at Harley's place, spending time with Rachel and my two admirers when the news coverage came out on the whole fight." The environmentalist said as she was pacing around the loft, pulling parts of her hair in slight frustration. "Sure the girls were cheering you on and all Naruto, but Harl and I were completely worried sick when that big guy was having the upper hand."

"Selina…"

"And don't get me started when Red showed up. It was really hard for me to keep Harley to shut up and keep her quiet from not blowing her identity. Even when she started to go all 'cheerleader' for you two to win." The ravenette said as she seemed to completely ignore Naruto's and Pam's attempts in talking to her...

That was until they both yelled.

"SELINA!"

"WHAT?!"

*Sigh* "I was trying to tell you Selina that I'm sorry on what happened earlier." Naruto started out as he was right next to Pam at the loft's entrance. "I already apologized to Pam on what happened before she intervened that I should've been more careful and effective when dealing with Grundy."

"Grundy?"

"The guy we were fighting." Pam spoke out as she walked towards the kitchen to grab some food. She was a bit famished after fighting apparently. "Naruto told me on the way back that was what the Rot champion refered himself as in third person."

"...I'll ask about that later part later." Selina muttered to herself as she was a bit confused on the 'Rot' detail. "But you should've been more careful. Especially you Red."

"What?" The botanist questioned as she seemed out of the loop now. "Why me?"

"Because, that if my memory is right, that some people already know of your powers. Being able to control plants along with part of your appearance." Selina pointed out as she remembered details on her first encounter with the changed botanist at Arkham. "I mean there are those industrialists that could've possibly remembered who their kidnapper was; along with Batman, Robin and most of the GCPD."

This bit of info ended up sinking into the pit of Pam's stomach as she didn't realize her possible mistake. Sure she had donned a face mask and changed her appearance before confronting Grundy, but didn't realize on her identity could possibly be uncovered too soon. Could've added more to hide her identity. Especially since Batman and Robin already knew who she was from the get go. So it might be a matter of time for the GCPD and possibly the industrialists back then to rear their heads towards her direction.

Noticing her distress, Naruto came towards his redhead girlfriend's rescue. "Hey it's alright Pam. It was possibly a simple mistake and could've been easily exploited… I think."

"Thanks…"

"And Selina, you didn't have to be so hard on her ya know." He said as he barely realized his old verbal tick kicking in, but didn't care at the moment. "It was pretty sudden on what happened, so please give her a bit of slack."

The thief could only sigh a little in defeat from this and went over towards her friend to apologize to her on what she said.

-Flashback End-

….The group had to become a bit more cautious now when being both in and out of costumes as a result of their latest actions. From Catwoman helping out during the Pyg and Toad kidnappings to Ivy dealing with Solomon Grundy the day after that their identities were a bit more known now than they realized. Though to be fair, Selina's was exposed back in early January. But this didn't excuse the notion of her needing to be extra careful when dealing with certain people for now on.

Especially when Batman came around within a few days after the Grundy attack.

He came towards the loft in the evening, in his usual sneaking habit, in the attempt to confront Pamela and ask her on what she knew about Solomon Grundy. Though part of his approach did not go all that well as he almost scared the living hell out of Rachel. It was not a great moment when Naruto and Pam came barging into the open area of the loft to see the ashen girl cowering a bit in fear when she was getting a late night snack before going to bed. The publisher calmed his young ward down and got her back to bed while Pam talked things over to the Dark Knight. Giving the Bat as little information she could possibly give out that could satisfy his curiosity.

Though some good news came forward for the two environmentalists as they learned from Naruto, who personally heard it from Bruce, that the wetlands was given back to the city after an 'anonymous' donation. It did help calm down many nature enthusiasts in the surrounding areas after what happened of the destroyed oilrig, to the various other industrialist problems that occurred. Like the allegations against Max Shreck for instance. That in light of what's been going on, his company might get split up and bought out by varying parties to fully diminish his so called legacy for good.

It wasn't long after the 'pseudo' interview with Dr. Luisa Cruz that Pam started to work hard on a new project, to possibly help benefit both the Green and land herself a good position at the Botanical Gardens. Even though she didn't have much of a lab to help start things off, the changed botanist took Naruto's little idea and converted part of the Grand Greenhouse outside of Gotham into a lab of sorts. It has been abandoned for years and there are still a lot of plants for her to experiment with so why not waste the opportunity.

So for now, at least Pam has something to preoccupy herself for the time being, in terms of work.

Now things might be fine and dandy afterwards, from going out on patrols every so often to going out on dates with his girlfriends or spending time with Rachel. But there were a few things that seemed to bother Naruto sometime after his two latest fights. One dealt with him wanting to get stronger, thus he needed to train harder. The other though, it made him think of home...

-Flashback, Insert Kingdom Hearts 1.5: Treasured Memories Extended-

Naruto was lying on his couch, looking up towards the ceiling, lost in thought as he looked back at his confrontation against Mr. Toad.

"I know I've accepted that there was no way back 'home', to at least contact them, but why…" He muttered as Mr. Toad's visage was soon replaced by his old summon friend Gamakichi. "Why am I still thinking about them, even to this day?"

"Is something wrong Naruto?" Rachel called out, getting the publisher to look towards his ward who was coming back from the kitchen with a little snack. It was his day off today while his girlfriends were out doing their own thing and Naruto wanted to spend time with Rachel today. Though she was watching My Little Pony from the TV set while he sat there, eventually losing himself to his thoughts.

"Nothing's wrong Rachel. Nothing at all."

"Are you sure? Since I can somewhat tell you're lying from your tone of voice."

"And how would you know of that?"

"Because I've gotten used to hearing lies from where I've come from." Rachel said as she sat down on one of the couch cushions before munching on a piece of apple.

His eyes softened at hearing this as he felt bad for his young charge. Naruto doesn't know what happened in her past, but he knew that she experienced things similar to him when he was her age. It made an odd connection between the two of them as kindred spirits one way or another.

"You know Rachel;" he said to briefly gain her attention, "you haven't told us much about your home, from where you came from."

"...I don't wanna talk about 'home'."

Seeing her response, he got up from his laid position to sit a bit closer towards his charge, but not too much. "It's alright to not talk about your past often Rachel. Sometimes it's hard to reflect on the most of it if it held so many bad memories."

"I'm sensing a 'but' there."

*Chuckles* "But there are memories that you would want to remember."

The ashen child stopped eating her snack as she gained a bit of a downcasted look. "But…. But I don't know if I do have any that I'd want to remember."

"Then what about your mother Angela…. Or did she prefer Arella?" He said, getting his charge to perk up a little. "Wouldn't you want to remember a lot of the good times with your mother?"

"...Yes."

"Then there you go." The publisher simply said to her as he rubbed her head a little. "Just think back to many of the experiences you had with mother and you might do well. Even if times where you came from are pretty bleak."

She could only fuss a little as she swatted his hand away from her head, getting a chuckle from the older man. But he was probably right in what he said. Even though Rachel tried to think on her mother often when she lived in the underground, the ashen girl would only get more saddened than before. Especially when thinking on seeing her mother die in front of her.

"But what about you?" She suddenly asked, perking his curiosity.

"Excuse me?"

Rachel readjusted herself onto her seat after placing her plate onto the coffee table in front of her. "Well… You were talking about homes and certain memories at best. I…. I admit that I somewhat miss my home, with a large part focused on my mom…. But do you miss your home? Well your old home at least? I mean…. It's just that you told me before that you left your old one years ago."

"...Yeah…. I guess I did." Naruto said as he briefly remembered of telling Rachel a little on his past one time, but it was just stuff on when he was in this world.

"Though you didn't answer my question Naruto. Do you miss your old home?"

*Sigh* "Yeah I do miss it Rachel." He admittedly said after quite some time. "It's just been a while since I thought about home."

"And why is that? And why think about it now?"

"Well for starters, I don't personally think of my old home all that much and only talked about it in a lengthy amount with Pam, Harley and Selina before I met up with you. If I do talk about it, it sometimes makes me think on how things possibly are back over there. I… I didn't leave that place on the best of terms, mind you, and I wonder what happened over there once I left."

Leaving during a middle of a fight due to the fake Madara somehow sending him to this reality would made the former shinobi guess on the ending results of the war without him being there. How many people survived or died without him being there? Did the war end shortly after he left or did it continue? Was it a few days or possibly years till the war came to an end? So many questions plagued his mind during his time while traveling through Eurasia and it left him with such a damn headache.

"But can't you just go back home and see how things are since you left?" His young charge innocently asked.

"If that was so ever simple kiddo." Naruto stated as he leaned back to look back towards the ceiling. "If I did, then I don't know if I would've left that place again. Even if I went there now."

"What do you mean?"

"There are too many memories that I cherish that would've made things difficult for me to fully move on if I went back. Thinking that things would've been slightly different from the last moments I had of that place, but in reality they would be drastically different than from what I would've guessed. I mean it's been at least a decade since I went back and getting there would be impossible to begin with. I don't know who is currently alive and who passed on into the next life…. Then again, being cut off in any form of communication over there wouldn't help me in the slightest."

"I see…." Rachel muttered as she understood what he said. It felt pretty similar on her predicament. She left at a very 'awkward' time and doesn't know if there were any people over there still alive after what she did. But apart of her told her that there was nothing left to go back to at all. "But what about the second question?"

"Which was what exactly? Just need a little reminder."

"Why would you think about it now?" She asked before quickly adding in one little detail. "Asides from bringing up my home for instance."

*Chuckles* "Yeah you beat me to the punch on that bit." He said as he was going to say that little line of speaking to her. "Well I ended up thinking about it because of me going up against Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad."

"And how did facing those two bring up memories of your old home?"

"You can blame the anthropomorphic toad on that." He said before looking at his right hand, the hand he would use to finish up his summoning technique. "The eco-terrorist made me think of a good set of friends due to what he looked like."

"You mean… You were friends with toads?" She questioned with more curiosity plaguing her mind. More questions rise up from so little answers.

"Pretty much…. Obviously you know I have powers, but I didn't always have these. In fact I had something else really."

"What was it?"

"I had access to chakra, but I lost it when I left my old home."

'He had access to chakra?' Rachel thought as it made her interested in her guardian on that aspect. Especially with her having knowledge on the subject to some degree.

"Even had a technique to summon toads."

"And what would that be performed exactly?" She asked since in terms of summoning, there are various ways to do any form of summoning. Some require cutting yourself for offering a bit of blood, using powers to call upon a certain being with/without an object tied to said being, along with various other methods. So the ashen child was wondering on Naruto's method in summoning.

*Chuckles* "Well I would've signed a contract for starters. From there I would cut my finger, sometimes by a blade or biting it, to draw blood and would perform the following handsigns." He then showed her said handsigns in the following order: Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. "Then I would channel power into the signed hand I used in my contract, which was my right hand." He said as his hand briefly glowed without him noticing, but Rachel did. "And I would slam it down to any surface, like so, to summon a toad."

*Slam*

Once he slammed his right hand onto the loft's floor, he didn't expect anything to come out from this, since he didn't have access to chakra anymore. He had tried this several times in the past once he came to this world in hopes of getting in contact with the Toads, but nothing happened at all. The former shinobi just gave up back then due to him slowly coming to the fact that there was possibly no way back over there.

But what he didn't expect though, from his showing to Rachel on the summoning technique, was an odd plumb of smoke with encircling black and white thorny patterns to appear. The loft's occupants coughed a little due to how close they were to the smoke before trying to wave off the vapors away. When the smoke fully disbursed, a figure was currently present, much to the two's surprise.

It had a thin, sinuous body that one thought was capable of dumbfounding feats of flexibility. It has a large, cylindrical head with a flat top that is emblazoned with the symbol that was on most of Naruto's weapons. Its body seems to be covered in a light grey jumpsuit, and in placement of its 'mouth' was actually a zipper. Inside of the opening reveal its actual, grey, sharp-toothed mouth underneath. It appeared to be fairly muscular, though its arms and legs are very thin. The sides of its body are lined by a black line, which pulses weakly with light. Its feet and hands are pointed and lack digits, and its hands each sport two black bands around them. Asides from its primary appearance, it looked about a head taller than Rachel to finish off it's look.

Naruto could only hold his position in shock and surprise on what he was seeing. This was not what he had expected at all. Though only one thing could come from his mind, before it got filtered through his mouth.

"EEEEEEHHHHHHH?!"

-Flashback End-

...And in an unexpected end result, he could be able to do summonings again, though in an eventual different manner of performing it.

It was really surprising for Naruto that he was able to summon anything at all, though the stuff with his weapons and any sort of items didn't really count. Many thoughts quickly filled his mind at once on what just occurred and he didn't know how this could've happened at all. Even Rachel was surprised to see this happen while she definitely felt something stir inside of her for some reason. Something that seemed light and dark coming off of the new arrival, with it leaning more towards the dark.

Some of the publisher's answers were soon answered as the being named Dusk, as what it referred it's specific kind as, spoke towards him like he was a king of sorts by calling him 'his liege' several times. Though it was hard to really hear for anyone else as Naruto was the only person that could hear what Dusk was saying. But asides from that, he got more questions than answers in the long run, but he'll figure them out at a later time.

The Dusk mentioned that it was a Nobody, with the Dusk pointing out what the symbol on it's head was, a class of beings that were a bit hard to follow on most details. Something along the lines of strong people losing themselves to darkness and their husks of bodies remained to gain sentience. It was a bit creepy in Naruto's taste that he kept thinking about ghosts possessing the dead or something in that field.

After that little encounter, Naruto decided to get back into training with the new pieces of information given to him by the Dusk. From testing out further on his current skills and then some before logging them into his book, which one of the Dusk called it a Lexicon. He didn't know the name of it before, but at least he got a proper name for it now.

One section in the book even had more information about the Nobody's that he didn't know so far from him able to summon beings called Creepers and Gamblers with their capabilities. Like the Dusks are better used for reconnaissance and Creepers could shapeshift into weapons if needed. There were other entries, but they appeared to be blanked or smudged out to make him realize that it would take a while till he could possibly summon any other Nobody's. But for now he's fine with what he has so far and he doesn't want to rush his progress.

Though Naruto realized that if he was ten or so years younger, he would've admitted that he would've done the opposite in what he was doing now: rushing in without seeing things in a better perspective.

"...So how about after we drop off Lunkhead here, we can stop on by that nice Asian place by the Towers?!" Selina yelled out in a suggestion for the first time on the ride towards the Asylum.

"The take out that has the spicy calamari you enjoy or the somewhat dine in that you practically gorge yourself with their special sushi?!" Naruto asked as he kept his eyes on the road.

"Either sounds good to me!"

"Then we should probably get some take out since Rachel will need some dinner as well!"

"Great! And we could maybe ask if we can get Harley anything as well since I believe her shift is supposed to end soon!"

-Arkham Asylum-

"...And was there anything else you would like to mention Magpie?" Harley said as she was finishing off her final session for the evening before she can go home.

"Of course." The bird themed inmate said with a small smile as she looked towards the one way mirror. "Is Vanitas here?"

"No… Why you ask?"

The answer seemed to deflate the patient as she fidgeted a little in her seat, getting the changed blonde to mentally sigh on what is going on.

For a while now, even before becoming a full fledged doctor here at Arkham a few weeks ago, Harley has mentioned Vanitas less and less to the point of no longer bringing him up in her sessions with Margaret Sorrow. She realized that Margaret, Cassie, or Magpie (as she really prefers to be called) became really obsessed with her secret boyfriend's alter ego. Even one time of hearing reports from some of the staff, along with mentions from Pammy, that Magpie was going through a bloody masterbational phase. It had disturbed Harley very much and hoped she could get her patient to no longer be interested in Vanitas….

For both of their safeties.

"He hasn't come and seen me for months now….I really miss him." The inmate said with longing in her voice.

"You know," Dr. Quinzel said after a brief moment of thoughts, "after all of our sessions together, you've never told me why you have such interests in him. Sure there's been slight moments here and there of talking about him. But never on why on your interests. Why is that?"

"Because he understands me like no one else does!" Magpie harshly said as she dug her slightly extended claws into the palms of her skin, puncturing it to draw out a bit of blood. "Even more so on how I know of him!"

"How exactly?" Harley asked as she was writing things down on her notepad.

"He's kind, patient and wants the chance to get to know me." The bird woman said as her eyes glazed over slightly in a dream like state. "Vanitas makes me feel special and appreciated. Oh how I long to be in his arms again after these past months."

"When he brought you here at Arkham apparently." The blonde doctor said in remembrance on how Magpie got admitted here. Vanitas riding in through the front door with her literally strapped onto his body.

"Oh yes~" Magpie replied with glee as the glazed look was soon replaced with a slight crazed one. "Even though I was unconscious, I could feel so much of his delectable form."

Looking at the clock, Harley saw that their session was over and signaled the guards from the other side of the one way mirror to come on in. "Well it seems that we're done for the day Magpie. So I hope that you have a pleasant evening."

"Of course Dr. Quinzel."

Once the guards got into the room, they hesitantly stayed away from the patient by a foot or two so they wouldn't get assaulted like in previous times. Though one of them slowly came up to the patient and reapplied her restraints so she wouldn't move all that much until she got to her cell. Of course one of the guards did a little mistake when getting Magpie out of the session room.

"Okay Tweety Bird, time to get you to your cell." The guard said before he got headbutted by the crazed woman. "Gah! Fucking hell!"

"The name's Magpie!" The inmate said with a growl in her voice. "Not Margaret! Not Tweety Bird! It's Magpie! Call me anything else and I'll scratch your eyes out!"

"Yes we get it." The other guard said as he hauled the woman through the hallways with Dr. Quinzel not far behind them since her office is along the way. "Also Mark you should've remembered not doing that man."

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever." The first guard said as he rubbed the sore spot on his face.

It was along the way when the one group ran into another, lead by Dr. Bartholomew, as he was speaking towards Vanitas and Catwoman. It was an odd sight to see for the moment and the staff members escorting Magpie were confused on why they were here. But they soon saw that the helmeted hero was escorting a larger man with a nasty bump on his head.

"...Still it's sad to hear of this Vanitas." Dr. Bartholomew said as he walked with the two heroes, with the new inmate on toe. "I heard that this fellow's rehabilitation from Blackgate went so well, only for him to now wind up here."

"All that you have to do doctor is to keep feeding him candy and he'll be very docile."

"I understand."

"VANITAS!" Magpie cried out as she moved out of the guard's restraints and tried to run towards the helmeted hero. "VANITAS!"

"Hey get back here!" The guards said as they went after here.

*Sigh* "Excuse me for a moment Doctor." Vanitas stated as he walked in front of the group and stood his ground to prepare himself for any assault from the bird themed woman. Though there wasn't any at all as the guards grabbed her and held her back from doing anything stupid on her part.

*Growl* "Get off of me!"

"Only when you settle down Magpie." One of the guards said as they hauled her up to her feet. It was then when Vanitas walked up to the restrained woman as he spoke towards her.

"Hello Magpie. How are you? Sorry that I haven't seen you in a while."'

"I was worried something happened to you." She said with a smile plastered on her face. "Though you have been very busy. I've kept a lot of newspaper articles about you."

"So I've heard." He said as he remembered some little chats from Harley on some dates with her.

"I even missed our talks. Is there anything I should know?" She asked as she leaned forward a little to try and get closer towards the man of her interests with a mad look in her eyes. "Don't worry, you can tell me anything."

"I've been fine. Nothing much really on my end."

It was then that Harley came up to end things here on the little conversation. "As much as I would like for you two to chat, I'd like to get Magpie back to her cell now."

"Of course Dr. Quinzel." Vanitas said with a nod of his head. "Also congratulations on finishing up your internship and becoming an official doctor."

"Why thank you." The changed blonde said with a small smile with little happiness showing through her eyes. The only ones to notice this was Vanitas, Catwoman and surprisingly Magpie. With the later, this irked the patient while leaving her quite confused.

"We should probably get going Vanitas." Catwoman said as she walked towards her disguised boyfriend.

Now noticing the other woman, while fueled from her previous emotions, Magpie narrowed her eyes at the cat themed woman. "Who's this? Who are you?"

Selina could only raise a brow, hidden behind her goggles, before she replied towards the inmate. "Don't you know? I'm Catwoman."

"Well... it's been good to see you Magpie." Vanitas said as turned around and walked away with Catwoman and Dr. Quinzel soon following him since the later had her office in that direction.

"B-But when will you visit again?" The inmate questioned as she was being hauled away with Lunkhead soon following. "Vanitas! When?!" She cried out before she directed her eyes towards the retreating form of Catwoman. "Whoever you are! You don't know him like I do! You'll never know him like I do!"

Once the three were a good distance away from the inmates, Vanitas set up a silencing field around them so they could privately chat as best as possible. Though with the security cameras in most of the hallways, it could be a tad hard for any lip movements to be picked up. It's just a little precaution just in case really.

"So what was that all about?" Selina asked as she was walking beside her two friends.

"Puddin has been seeing Magpie for a while shortly after I got her as my patient." Harley replied towards her dark haired friend. "Though he hasn't been showing up here and chatting with her for a few months now."

"You've been doing that?"

"I have Selina, but I'd rather talk more about it once we're home." The disguised Uzumaki stated before he decided to change topics. "So Harley, you want to come on over for some Asian take out?"

"I'd love to." The blonde doctor said with a perky tone of voice from behind the two. She would've been more enthusiastic on her response, but she didn't want to expose herself with some of the cameras recording every little thing. "I'll meet you guys at your place Naru-poo after I finish things up here."

"Then we'll see you then." Naruto briefly said before the blonde doctor parted ways from them.

As the inmates were sitting at the branching point of the gender wings, Magpie was thinking many thoughts on what just happened earlier.

'Why?... Why are you with her? Why did you bring her with you?! She doesn't deserve to be by your side!' Magpie thought with her eyes burning with fury as she mentally murdered Catwoman over and over again. 'But what about Dr. Quinzel?... She had that look in her eyes… No. No. She must've liked the compliment from him. Or was it something else...'

Her eyes soon darted around as she tried to figure out a way to get out of Arkham. She wanted to be with her beloved masked hero. To stand by his side and be with him forever. To prove herself that she's better than that skank of a whore…. Wait…

*Gasp* 'Of course… That's why you came! You need my help!' She then pulled out a newspaper clipping of the best photo of Vanitas there was in her collection. It was tucked away between her breasts so that he'll be closer to her heart…. Physically speaking. Once it was out, she traced her finger over the hero's image with love and affection. 'You couldn't tell me earlier because she was watching your every move. Cleaver, cleaver you. And fortunately for you, this pretty little bird is clever as well.'

"Hey Mr. Guard." Lunkhead spoke out, getting the only guard nearby to turn his attention towards the large, mentally challenged man. "Don't you have any candy for Lunkhead?"

*Sigh* "Not on me. Sorry, but just sit nice and tight and I'll be right back with some candy for you." The guard said before he walked off in a quickened pace so he can get this over with.

It was then that Magpie quickly formulated a plan to get out. Though she quickly tucked away the photo and turned her attention towards the man right beside her. And with a sickening smile, she nudged Lunkhead's side to start off this little ruse.

*Psst* "Lunkhead."

"Uh… Hello lady person." He said before he gained a bit of a look of recognition in mixture of confusion. "Don't Lunkhead know you?"

"Why yes. We were old friends back at Blackgate and bad people were holding us hostage."

"What was your name again?"

*Sigh* 'Time to suck up my pride a little.' "It's me… Ma-Margaret Sorrow." Magpie said with disdain in her voice.

"Oh yeah… Lunkhead remember you."

"Good good…. So possibly be a pal and break me free from these restraints. I mean, you're so strong and with your help we can get out of here together. And all you have to do is just take care of the guard."

"B-But Lunkhead is in here because Lunkhead was bad." The mentally impaired man spoke out as he rubbed the back of his head. "And escaping would be wrong."

"Oh and that's too bad. Especially since I have so much candy stored at my nest that I wouldn't know who to share it with." She spoke getting the larger man's eyes to widen and lick his lips in slight hunger.

"Candy?"

"Oodles of it big guy. To fill you up to your heart's content."

It was then that the one guard returned with a chocolate bar on hand and waved it in front of Lunkhead. "Well here you go Lunkhead. Like I promised. So enjoy it."

There was no response from the mentally impaired man as his mind soon fought on either wanting the singular piece of sweets or the large amounts of candy his old cellmate had stored up. With his mind made up, Lunkhead quickly got up from his seat and knocked the guard out with a headbutt. It was a bit painful on how it worked, with the majority of the blow was on the large bulb on his forehead, but he shook it off moments later.

"That's it! That's it!" Magpie yelled out in a whisper like tone before presenting her restraints towards him. "Now me!"

He complied once he used his strength to break the chains off of him. It took a bit of effort on her chains since he didn't want to hurt his old friend on accident, but they were completely off in no time. Once they were off, Magpie got up from her seat and rubbed her wrists and neck before twisting her ankles around a little.

"Okay lady, you're free. Me did my part. Now where is Lunkhead's candy?" He asked with barely restrained glee.

"Oh, it's outside actually." She sweetly lied before pointing towards a random wall. "Be a dear and break us out of here."

"Eh… Okay."

Soon Lunkhead reared his fist back before bringing it forward to destroy the wall in front of him. When this happened, alarms went off as several guards started making their way towards the two inmates. While Lunkhead continued his assault on the many walls in the way towards his prize, Magpie was taking care of the other guards by knocking them out in precisive hits. Whether they be punches, kicks or leaping towards them to throw them towards others.

By the time the two made it outside, Magpie was greeted with the spot lights encircling around the asylum with the alarms blaring off.

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

"Okay lady, we outside now. So where's Lunkhead's candy?" He questioned with bloody knuckles due to the various walls he punched down.

"Oops. Sorry big fella. I'm all out of sugar." Magpie said with a shrug before pulling back a fist. "How about a few lumps instead?!"

*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*

Several hits were met towards the mentally impaired man as he was sent back and got himself knocked out once his bulbous head slammed against the broken wall of the asylum.

*Chuckles* "Now with that out of the way…" She soon ran off before jumping over the nearby fense to make it towards her goal. "It's time to find you my sweet Vanitas."

-On the Streets-

"I remember hearing about Magpie from Harley when the two of us went out for a 'girls lunch' one day!" Selina spoke out over the sounds of the motorcycle engine running. "Originally named Margaret Sorrow, but suffered from a split personality disorder via experiments and eventually lost her 'lighter' half prior to capture!"

"Pretty much!"

"But you've been visiting her after she was brought in?! Why?!"

"Impatient aren't we?!"

"Obviously with the questions nagging through my brain on the ride back home!" She said before squeezing his front a little too much for comfort on the driver. "Now spill!"

*Sigh* "Know your enemy Selina, since one day it might save your life in the end!"

*KABOOM*

"The hell?!" The lovers yelled out as they heard the explosion nearby, causing Naruto to pull to the side of the road in a sudden halt.

"That sounded nearby."

"No kidding."

"Should probably check it out before we go home Selena."

*Sigh* "Might as well."

With that, Vanitas revved up his engines and sped off towards the recent explosion. It didn't take long to get there as they soon recognized the location being a jewelry store they sometimes pass by on some of their walks together. Once getting there, they expected to see some robbers pilfering the place of it's merchandise….

"Took you two long enough."

….Only to find Magpie there on top of the store sign.

"Look who flew the coop." Muttered the environmentalist as she got off of the motorcycle.

Vanitas could only narrow his eyes at the bird themed woman before speaking out to her. "How the hell did you get out of Arkham and over here so fast?"

"I have my ways. Oh and sorry about the mess Vanitas." The bird themed woman said from her perched spot before one of her hands went to her mouth in a covering motion. "Also want to let you know… Message received... And don't worry, she won't feel a thing once I'm done with her. Well~ Unless you want her to."

"Okay... I literally have no idea what you're talking about."

"Me either, but we should take care of her quickly." Selina said as she and her lover were walking towards the escaped inmate.

Magpie soon stood up from her spot on the sign and whipped out her elongated claws before speaking out directly at Catwoman. "Prepared to get pruned kitty cat!"

She leapt from her position and headed straight towards Catwoman with the intent to kill. Vanitas threw his arms out to get his grappling scarf to latch onto the crazed woman, but Magpie anticipated this by slicing the scarf with her claws. He ran back to stop her, but she kicked Vanitas's helmet before encircling her legs around his neck to put a lot of weight into her next course of actions. She used a lot of her strength with her fast movements to throw Vanitas to the side, resulting of him impacting against the brick beam for the jewelry store.

With him out of her way for now, Magpie placed all of her attention towards the skank of a woman.

Catwoman acted first by running towards Magpie with a cocked fist before shooting it towards the white haired woman. It was blocked, along with several kicks and other punches being thrown making Selina a bit frustrated. It was even a little harder on the ravenette end as she had to try and block the various strikes coming from the crazed woman with how strong each blow was. Catwoman tried to get a read on Magpie's fighting style, but it was all over the place making her pretty unpredictable. Before long, the inmate went down and sent an upward kick to send Selena flying back several feet and landing onto the paved road.

Magpie was about to run towards her obstacle when her 'love' ran in front of her and blocked her path. "Magpie enough!"

"But I just broke out of prison for you." Magpie stated with narrowed eyes as she stalked towards the helmeted hero. "So a little appreciation would be nice!"

"I never asked you to harm Catwoman. And there was no way in Hell I told you to break out of prison Margaret."

"NO!" She yelled out in disgust with rage filling her eyes. "DON'T CALL ME THAT! I HATE THAT NAME!" She calmed down a little as she wanted to figure out a few things. "But if you didn't want my help then why did you come and see me tonight after all these months with her of all people?"

"I was just dropping off an unwell man to Arkham. Nothing else."

"I don't believe you. Not one bit." She soon placed her hands onto his chest to get a good feel out of his muscle suit. "I know you Vanitas. We were made for each other." She then threw her hand out towards Selina with an accusing finger. "And she was in the way!"'

"Okay look." Catwoman started off as she got up from the ground. "I don't know what is going on between the two of you, but-"

"There is nothing going on." Vanitas interrupted his lover in a forceful fashion with a stern gaze behind his helmet.

Hearing this, Magpie became even more angry and grabbed each side of Vanitas' helmet to brought his head towards her knee, to knock him off balance before throwing him to the side. With him out of the way once again, she ran towards Catwoman with her claws out to hopefully rip her throat out. Selina had to duck down from the crazed woman's attempt on her life before she kicked Magpie in the back. The escaped inmate recovered by landing on her hands before doing somersaults to land onto a nearby parked car.

Selina then brandished her whip and moved it to get the far end to latch onto her opponent's wrist. Said opponent used a lot of her strength to pull the whip to bring Catwoman closer to her in a jerking fashion before kicking her away. The ravenette recovered before heading straight towards Magpie once more, but was only met with a spinning kick when Magpie leapt off of the car's hood. After that attack, the bird themed woman ran towards a nearby alleyway, getting Selina to run after her before jumping on top of a large stack of crates.

Magpie used her strength to pick up a crate before tossing it towards Catwoman, who dodged to the side and jumped to get to the inmate's position. Magpie wouldn't let that happen as she jumped to meet Selina midair before punching her away. The landing for the two of them was rough at best, but the environmentalist recovered faster before grabbing Magpie's ankle and threw her towards the stacked crates.

*Panting* "Are you finished now?"

*Growl* "No. In fact you're just really ruffling my feathers!"

"Then I should just pluck those feathers before- Hey!"

"Enough." Vanitas spoke out as he came in between the two women.

"Who's side are you on here?!"

"Mine I hope."

"Shut up you bitch!"

"I'm on the side of sanity and you two are out of control. So this needs to end now."

The two woman could only glare at each other as Vanitas kept each other at arm's length. Selina was getting frustrated on the current encounter while Magpie seemed to quickly calm down with a smile on her face. It didn't seem right to the environmentalist as the inmate wrapped her hands around the hero's wrist.

"You're absolutely right, my sweet Vanitas." She pushed his hand away from her and stepped back a little for some breathing room. "It's been awhile since I've been out of my cage. And this little birdy wants to spread her wings and FLY!"

Magpie then jumped and delivered a spin kick at Catwoman and Vanitas' heads to knock them away. The crazed woman soon used her acrobatic skills to jump off of the nearby crates to then ricocheted off of the alley wall before shooting out and landing onto the nearest parked vehicle. From there Magpie used her momentum to launch off of the vehicle to come across a motorcycle on the street and dug her claws into the tank. With the sparks giving off of the ruined tank, this resulted in a massive explosion of destroying the motorcycle in a fiery blaze.

*KABOOM*

It was rather intense on said explosion as it knocked the costumed couple, who just got up and went after Magpie, back some feet. Vanitas was holding onto Catwoman for her safety before he slowly got up with her in his arms. Once things settled, the two were looking around for any sign of Magpie, but it appeared that she got away with the explosion covering her escape.

-Morning, Naruto's and Pam's Loft-

"...Ever since her initial escape from Arkham Asylum last night, the lunatic known as Magpie has torn all over Gotham. Robbing jewelry stores, department stores, and electronic stores. The only clues the GCPD has to go on are nests of objects in what appears to be shaped as an oddly thin, spiked cross with two bulbous circles on the bottom. From what has been shown so far, from captured video and photos, that this is the symbol of Vanitas. Thus the GCPD speculate that Magpie is working with or for the vigilante Vanitas." Summer Gleeson spoke out in the newsroom before Naruto clicked the remote to turn off the TV.

"Looks like someone has a fan." Selina spoke out from the kitchen counter with a sour look on her face as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Not funny Selina."

"Are you two going to pick up your stupid fight again from last night?" Asked the changed psychologist as she walked out from the bathroom, clearly showing she used the bathroom to get ready for work for the day. "It was really annoying to keep listening to it for about an hour."

When Harley got back to Naruto's and Pam's place last night, she was just expecting a good amount of take out food waiting for her. She would've been back sooner if it wasn't for the little breakout last night, causing her to stay a bit later at work than she hoped. But once she opened the door, with Rachel answering, Harley was greeted with the site of Naruto and Selina arguing with each other.

It was odd to see, especially with things appearing to be muted due to Naruto's silencing field. Harley quickly guessed that it was put up so that it wouldn't disturb Pam and Rachel from their coming meals. Another question seemed to pop up in Harley's head on who ordered take out and when it'll show up. It was quickly answered on Pam ordering while one of Naruto's Dusks flew in through the patio window with a few bags worth of take out.

It was odd for the three lovers in Naruto's life to find out about their boyfriend's new, yet old skill, of summoning familiars. It was going to be odd for them to get used to. Then again there is a plant controlling woman, a borderline crazy psychologist and an ashen colored child in the room with the only man in the loft having a really messed up history masquerading as a vigilante….

So the crazy wouldn't be too much to deal with for them.

Though while Harley, Pam and Rachel were eating, the changed blonde asked what was going on. Pam filled in a bit of the information that long story short; due to Naruto visiting Magpie in Arkham, the inmate became really obsessed with Vanitas. She broke out earlier and confronted the costumed couple which ended with Magpie escaping after kicking their asses.

After that little explanation, Selina went up to the collective food and took what she wanted before leaving the loft to possibly eat by herself. No 'hi' or 'thank yous' at all as she was clearly pissed off on what happened earlier. Though who could probably blame her, but the ravenette didn't have to be rude about it.

"It's really hard to tell what kind of pattern Magpie has going on here. Doesn't even stay around long enough to track down." Naruto muttered as he rubbed his eyes in frustration. After the fight last night, Naruto grabbed one of the 'to-go' containers and left to try and find Magpie with no luck at all. "Vanitas shouldn't have gotten close to her in the first place."

"No kidding." Harley spoke out before taking a bite out of some toast. "I knew the stupid problem at Arkham pertaining to you and Batman coming in and out to check on inmates was a bad breach of protocol. Should've stopped you sooner than later."

"And why didn't you?" Selina asked from her spot in the kitchen while Rachel was eating her own breakfast.

This gained a nervous look from Harley as she soon pressed her index fingers together and looked away without making good contact with the other people in the loft.

"Harley…"

"Okay fine!" The pale woman said in slight frustration. Possible short fuse on not wanting to be egged on. "I just wanted to get information out of Magpie and the only way to do that was letting Naru-poo visiting her okay!"

It was after saying that, she gained raised looks from the rest of the adults in the loft. With them realizing what the blonde doctor just said. And it was at this moment that Harley knew…

She fucked up.

"I'm sorry but did I hear that right?" Pam asked as she looked at her former doctor with a questioning look. "You had purposefully allowed this to happen and did nothing to stop it."

"I… I… Uh."

"So we got to thank you for causing Magpie to go all looney towards Naruto here. Is that right?" Selina spoke out next making Harley feeling the pressure building up on her.

"WAAAH DON'T HATE ME-HE-HE-HE!" Harley cried out with comical tears as she couldn't take further pressure from getting the blame for all of this. So she ended up huddled into the nearest corner with a dark cloud hovering over her head. "Not my fault for trying to effectively doing my job. T_T"

"...Okay… So asides from Harley's bad mistake;" cue Harley being impaled by a giant arrow, to which only Rachel seemed to notice, "where does that leave us?"

Putting his attention towards Selina now, he answered her question. *Sigh* "As much as I don't want to bring up bad memories for her, Magpie needs to be put back into her cage."

The ravenette nodded at this as she was wanted the same thing out of this. "Good to know."

"Which means that you're sitting this one out."

"...Excuse me?!" Selina frustratedly asked. "There is no way I'm staying out of this fight Naruto. I'm the one she threatened"

"In which makes you a target Selina. And a liability Vanitas can't afford right now. So today, Vanitas hunts alone."

"And now you're putting yourself in another persona, is that it?" She responded back with a narrowed glance. "To blame said persona on your actions and responsibilities?"

Realizing he might've said something he shouldn't have, Naruto tried to say something to her. "Selina, I-"

"Well fine! Hope you have fun with that asshole!" Selina yelled out as she left the loft before slamming the door when she left.

The others could only stay in their positions with varying emotions: from bits of shock, sadness and worry.

"She shouldn't have said that Naruto." Harley stated as she got up from her position on the floor to hopefully comfort her puddin. It was pretty hurtful to hear this happen and that their relationship might've ended in a bad way with things eventually turning sour on their relationship.

"No Harley... I deserved it." He responded as he formed his outfit around him before walking to the patio door.

"Where are you going?"

Without turning his head, he answered Pam's question. "I'm going to look for Magpie while giving Selina some space."

And with that, he fazed his way through the door and summoned a Kazekage spear before taking off into the air to do some patrolling.

"Are things going to be alright?" Rachel asked with worry in her voice. It was hard for her to keep in the feeling now with it practically showing towards the two adults. She enjoyed her guardian's company with her surrogate aunt, but the ashen child got pretty sad on how this turned out.

Seeing this happen, the remaining adults went towards the young child's sides and gave her a reassuring hug in their own respective ways.

"We can only hope Rachel." Pamela stated as she too was feeling the same emotions as the young child. "We can only hope."

-Evening, Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital-

"It's been awhile since I've been here." Batman muttered as he drove up to the abandoned hospital.

For the past month, things have been pretty busy for the billionaire playboy. In his professional work life, Bruce has been needed to be at the office quite often for the latest projects his company hopes to distribute in the coming months. He even has been checking up on the R&D division for any standard products that has been improved. Overall, having to personally check each department in the surrounding area had eaten up much of his time.

A bit outside of that part of his work life, Bruce had donated a good sum of money towards the wetlands so it'll be preserved better than it was before. It helped him out on his conscious with what happened on the Pyg and Toad incidents, but only to some degree. Bruce did find out who in his company was the cause of his name being in the investors of the wetlands oilrig and had the man thoroughly investigate. Though this time it was a little difficult than when Ivy was kidnapping industrialists and Batman got the proof he needed right away on his one former, greedy director.

Back at home, Bruce and Dick have been careful on how they approached things throughout the manor. With Alfred being mostly out of commission due to his leg injury last month, he couldn't be on his feet for the majority of the time. Sure he does have his crutches, or his cane if he wasn't up for the crutches, but the two younger men didn't want Alfred to stress himself out on the homely tasks.

Coming back to the 'careful approach' part, Alfred was being attended to by his girlfriend Maggie every other day. Not that he blames the British woman, but there were certain times she seemed to come around the worst moments when Batman and Robin would have to go out on patrols, but would be delayed due to Maggie's arrival. They had come up with several excuses on why the two heroes had to leave the premises, but they were starting to run out of ideas and they didn't want to recycle certain ones way too often.

Speaking of hero life; things had been alright for the most part, in terms of crime. Sure some thugs would need to get ruffled up every so often, with what they try to do, but nothing both he and Robin couldn't handle. Just a normal routine really from stopping criminals from robbing stores and banks to stopping certain criminal shipments.

But one little thing that preoccupied the Caped Crusader for most of the month was going over the fight against Solomon Grundy. Batman needed further answers on what was going on after he tested through the zombie's attire and remains. So he went to see Pamela late one evening, a few days after the initial fight, and was going to do his usual routine of possible intimidation. Though the approach didn't go all that well due to Naruto's ward, Rachel, getting one hell of a fright.

Suffice to say, Batman will be more careful when dealing with children again after so long. Asides from that, the Dark Knight only got a small amount of information out of her on why she involved herself with the fight. Like Naruto convincing her to possibly help take care of the pale zombie because he had faith in her to possibly do the right thing. Batman would've asked for more, due to a gut feeling that Pam wasn't telling everything to him, but he didn't want to cause any more problems on the couple and their young ward.

With Bruce's social life, it was somewhat dwindling in the past weeks. With his work life, hero life and moments at home; he hardly interacted with Bethanie Ravencroft at all. In what free moments he had, Bruce was thinking things over on his somewhat relationship with the blonde doctor.

She means well, don't get him wrong, but Bethanie was truly starting to get on his nerves with the constant insistence on visiting the Argus Club. If she had only backed up on the approaches, then he might've considered to just go only once. But like any normal person, he has limits and she just pushed him past his patience with her.

So despite Alfred's small chats on Bethanie possibly being a good significant other, Bruce decided to end his small relationship with the good doctor sometime soon. Something small, yet stern on how he would break up with her. He had different ways to do so with his experience as a playboy to cover up his times as Batman, just to throw people off from possibly getting suspicious of his other activities.

But enough Batty's personal reflection on the past weeks. Let's focus on the now people…. Or more importantly the past twenty-four hours.

He had gotten back home from the office late into the evening and was planning on possibly going to bed early for once. But Bruce got notice not long after of a breakout at Arkham, getting the billionaire to quickly change and rush over there to help assess on the situation. It was midway through the ride when he got another notice from the police radio that the breakout was taken care of and only one inmate had escaped, Magpie.

So with that, the Dark Knight went searching throughout the city for her and in that time he kept missing Magpie whenever she makes a robbery. It was truly frustrating on what location she would strike next since it's all completely at random, making her very unpredictable. But whenever she flees the scene, she would always leave a mark that pertains to Vanitas. Most people would think that she's associated with him in some way of thinking, but the Bat knew better.

In wanting to know the criminal better, he sneakily went made his way into Dr. Quinzel's office at Arkham once again for Magpie's updated files. He did this before when Two Face was running amok and only focused on the split personalities. But this time, he needed information on Magpie's obsessions.

It took a bit of time for the Dark Knight to realize that, like all magpies, they eventually return to their nests and the only one he could truly think of was the abandoned Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital. He hasn't been there since her initial capture for the first time and whatever happened to Margaret Sorrow/Magpie was not his fault at all, but she doesn't know the consequences to hide who she was.

Once he got to the building, he quietly walked through the building while trying not to make any sounds to alert the escaped inmate. Batman had to use his 'detective vision' to help him navigate a little due to him not wanting to use his flashlight to give away his position. Going through corridor, through corridor, Batman didn't find any trace of her. But he had to keep searching.

He eventually made his way through one door, that on the other side showed the upper level of the room where he had last fought Magpie. Batman's eyes scanned the area from most angles towards the bottom of his position. It was there that the Bat his target… was right above him.

"Hello Magpie." He simply said before he looked towards the broken ceiling to see the bird themed woman sitting on one of the railings.

"Well hello Batman." She said in a sweetly bland tone. "I was expecting Vanitas to be here, but you'll have to do for now."

"Why are you trying to get Vanitas' attention Magpie?" He didn't get a reply right away as she started to walk on the railings with no problems at all. It was like she was seemingly ignoring him on the question, thus he asked again. "Why are you trying to get his attention?"

"My nest is so lonely without him and I just want to share it with him." She responded back with a giddy tone.

"Yeah… I already have a home to live at…" A voice called out, getting the two to look upwards to see Vanitas standing on his lance high in the sky. "But thanks for the offer." The helmeted Uzumaki then dispelled his lance before landing on the floor with a soft 'thud'.

Upon his arrival, Magpie was very happy to see her beloved there and jumped off of the railing before landing some distance away from him. As she walked towards Vanitas in a sultry manner, she spoke. "I knew you'd come."

"Well it took a while for me to realize you'd end up back here again." Vanitas said as he kept his eyes on the crazed inmate.

"All is forgiven my sweet." Magpie then looked at her beloved's form and truly can't wait to feel his form with her hands. "So… Did you like my 'gifts' that I've left for you all over the city?"

*Sigh* "Magpie, this needs to stop."

She seemed to ignore this as she walked around the helmeted hero while completely ignoring the Bat, who was a few feet away from them.

*Chuckles* "You know, I was rather surprised when you first visited me… In that asylum."

"I only wanted to help you. It wasn't right if you ended up back at Blackgate, ending up at a place that brought a lot of bad memories. It isn't where you belong."

She then snapped her neck towards his hidden face with a surprised look on her face. *Gasp* "You… You mean I belong with you?"

He only shook his head back at her in response. "You belong in a place that can help you understand what happened to you. Reason why I brought you to Arkham in the first place."

'Hmm… Despite his immaturity at times, he is pretty good on his reasons when he needs to be serious.' Batman thought as he watched the scene in front of him. Though he isn't going to let his guard down just in case Magpie was going to do something at a moment's notice.

Seemingly not satisfied with the answer she was looking for, Magpie walked away from Vanitas with a narrowed glance right back at him. "What is it that scares you Vanitas? Even I can ask you the same question Batman." She said as she now directed her attention towards the two heroes before walking back towards Vanitas. "Are you scared to embrace the dark, and only the dark, that you might begin to like it? That you might become free?"

'She is clearly losing it.' Was the same thought the two heroes unknowingly shared.

"Is that what you want to understand beloved?" She questioned as she put more focus back on the helmeted hero. "What it felt like when they buried Margaret Sorrow?... The very moment I stepped onto one side of myself. *Chuckles* Well let me tell you… It's one hell of a rush and I recommend you try it sometime." Magpie then briefly glanced over towards the Bat and spoke out to him. "Even you Batman."

The quiet setting soon got interrupted from an engine coming near the building. The others turned their attention towards the possible location where it was coming from. While the two men were silently questioning it, Magpie voiced it.

"Who is that?!" Magpie questioned in a raised voice before a form of realization hit her. "She's here, isn't she?"

"Who are you talking about?" Batman asked as he didn't know who the crazed woman was referring to.

"Catwoman!" She said with a growl in her voice.

'Why is Selina involved with this?' The Bat thought as he turned his gaze towards the helmeted hero. 'Is she with him?'

"Why did you bring her here?!"

"I had nothing to do with this Magpie." Vanitas replied back to her.

"You act like you care about me…." She muttered under her breath before lashing out at her beloved. "LIAR!"

Both Vanitas and Magpie fell back to the floor below, with Batman soon following. Once the helmeted hero harshly landed on the medical table, Magpie jumped off of him and kicked the incoming Bat in the air before using him as a springboard. With the speed she got, she landed onto the ground and used her elongated nails to slow down her momentum. Coming to a halt, she saw the two heroes on the ground before walking to Batman, who was the closest of the two men.

"Everyone! *Bam* Lies! *Bam* To me!" Magpie yelled out as she kicked Batman's prone form a few times. On the last one, she did it extra hard to send the Bat flying into Vanitas, who was barely getting up from the floor. Not wanting to see if the two would get back up, the crazed woman ran off.

As this was going on, Selina was running through the hallways to find the woman who had kicked her ass last night. She asked Harley earlier once the later came over to play with the ashen ward and wanted to find Magpie on her own. Her blonde friend complied in giving her what she knows about her patient on a decent amount of information. Though Harley has expressed her concerns about what happened earlier, but Selina ignored them without seeing Rachel being nearby with a saddened look on her face. After getting what she needed, Selina immediately used her car to get to the abandoned hospital where Vanitas and Batman last confronted Magpie.

Once getting there, she was surprised to see the batmobile already there and guessed that some action was already happening. So Selina ran inside, with her whip in hand, to confront the white wig wearing bitch. Of course she didn't expect to confront her so quickly as the two almost ran into each other in one of the corridors.

"Well hello there. Ready for round two?" Catwoman rhetorically asked in a taunting fashion.

*Growl* "He doesn't need you."

"I'd rather let him tell me that himself."

The two soon engaged with the bird leaping towards the cat with the former's claws ready to dig right into the later's skin. Catwoman ran towards her opponent and slid underneath and used her whip to ensnare Magpie's legs in a brief moment. She yanked the bird down hard and was going to stomp on the crazed woman's body, but Magpie quickly cut through the whip and upwardly kicked the incoming Catwoman into a nearby medical table.

Magpie wanted things done very close and personal, so she grabbed her opponent and threw her to the nearby support beam hard, leaving several cracks on the old foundation. Selina had to quickly recover and brought her arms up as the bird came in close to claw out the raveonettes eyes out. The thief was so glad her suit had a good amount of armor sewn in or else her body would've been given deep scratches.

On one of the coming strikes, Selina quickly grabbed Magpie's wrists before kicking her stomach, which sent the later back a few feet. Not wanting to get her opponent to recover, Selina jumped and used her claws to slice part of hanging lights to send it ramming into Magpie, shocking her with what juice it still had inside of it. From there, Catwoman leapt towards the inmate and kicked her several times before sending her into one of the many vacant rooms in the hospital.

Selina walked into the room and up to Magpie's prone form, ready to finish taking care of her. Proving that she could be able to possibly handle things more on her own before Naruto came into her life. Proving to him that he needs her more than he realized among other things.

But when the ravenette was about to land the finishing blow, Magpie quickly sprang up and slashed her elongated claws at the exposed neck area of Selina's suit.

"GAH!" Catwoman yelled out in pain as she held onto the side of her neck. She felt the slightly bleeding wound and it wasn't deep as she would've thought. But it was there that things started to get a little hazy and feeling weaker by the second. "W-What did you d-do… bitch?"

"Curare." Magpie simply said with a pleasant smile as she clearly won this fight. "You clearly shouldn't have gone in my way. Now be a good little kitty and take a nice, deep nap."

And like that, Catwoman went out like a light.

It was some time later when the two heroes groggily woke up and got up from the floor. Both were holding their heads in pain from Batman being obvious while Vanitas had banged his head hard enough against the wall to render him unconscious. Once the two got up, they sprang into action and searched the entire hospital for any sign of Magpie.

Though once the two entered one particular corridor, they soon saw the signs of a recent fight that took place here while the two were unconscious. Both looked through the cooridor to see where the fight ended to see a desk light shining upon a little note, with Vanitas' name and a black lipstick mark on it. Vanitas quickly grabbed the note and opened it up, with Batman looking from the side, to read it's contents.

Please, don't be mad my sweet Vanitas. I'm doing all of this for you.

She is a thorn in the way of our happiness together. So once I'm done with the stray cat, our nest will truly be comfortable to rest and relax in. Though if you want, I recommend you saying your peace since she'll die all alone very soon. After all; by the time you read this note, she'll lose all her precious air within less than an hour.

With love,

Magpie

Once the message had been read, Vanitas was quickly grabbed and slammed against the nearest wall of the room.

"Why did you let Selina get involved in this Vanitas?!"

"Is slamming me against a wall a good option Batman?" Vanitas grunted out as he felt the Bat tightly grip his shoulders.

"I won't ask again. Why did you let her get involved?!"

Despite Bruce not being able to be in a relationship with Selina, due to her only considering him as a friend, he still cared for her and wanted to look out for her. Bruce saw the good in her after she got out of prison, with the help of Naruto and a few others, and wants to be sure it's kept that way. But having her be put in danger in such a way would make him very angry for this to happen.

"I tried telling her not to, but she wouldn't listen." Vanitas answered as he phased out of Batman's grasps. "I didn't want her to come since I saw Catwoman wasn't in her right mind at the time. I wanted to protect her from Magpie, but apparently she headed straight towards the danger regardless of my warnings."

Batman narrowed his eyes at the little information before pressing onwards. "And why did you let her even join up with you in the first place?"

"She followed me out of curiosity really." Vanitas lied so that the Bat wouldn't know of Selina's relationship with him and the real reasons behind it. "Wanted to thank me for those times I helped her in the past. One thing led to another that she wanted to help stop crime. Simple as that."

Once again, Batman narrowed his eyes at the helmeted hero as he could tell there was more than that.

"Look Bats. Are we going to play twenty questions here and waste our time or are we going to go out there and find Selina?"

*Sigh* "Your right." Batman simply said before he went towards the fallen note on the floor and picked it up. "I remember Magpie saying earlier about her other personality. What her choice of words were."

"On how Bethanie Ravencroft and Joe Braxton buried Margaret Sorrow. Yes I remember that." Vanitas said as he adopted a thinking pose before continuing with his thought process. "For exchange of whipping her mind, the two doctors had gotten her an early release from Blackgate. The end results eventually birthed Magpie."

"Right." Batman said as he was thinking the same thing. "Though they needed to kill off her old identity to properly give Margaret Sorrow a new one. And to possibly legitimize it…."

"Shit… Magpie must've buried Selina in Margaret Sorrow's empty gravesite." Vanitas finished off in realization as the two heroes soon ran out of the room with their destination in mind.

-Gotham Cemetery-

*Groan* "Oh god my head." Selina groggily said as she was slowly waking up from the poison Magpie drugged her with. "Thought poisons don't work on me after Red's serum. *Groan* Must've been a stronger dosage if the bitch wanted to possibly kill me… Wherever this is."

On instinct, Selina tried to get up from her sleep only to hit her head against something. With her eyes starting to fully focus, the ravenette realized that she was buried alive in a wooden coffin. It helped from the light coming from the electrical clock right behind her, which showed that she only has less than twenty-three minutes left on her possible oxygen supply.

"O-Okay Selina… Stay calm… D-Don't fully panic." Selina muttered as she tried to control her breaths before slamming her fist into the coffin to try and get herself out. It was really hard to do so as her eyes started to water a little from both the pain her hands were emitting along with her heart beating at an erratic pace. Fear starting to overwhelm her before crying out at the top of her lungs. "IF THERE'S ANYONE OUT THERE! I'M ALIVE IN HERE! PLEASE HELP ME!"

Selina kept punching and kicking the coffin with a lot of her strength, but whatever the wooden coffin was made out of was probably from thick material. Her hands were starting to bleed from the cuts and tears on her knuckles of trying to punch her way through. There wouldn't have been any at all due to Magpie taking her gloves while the ravenette was unconscious. She could've possibly gotten out quicker with her suit's claws, but she was out of ideas.

As she took her small breaks so she can conserve her oxygen, Selina thought back on her argument with Naruto earlier. And he was right, absolutely right. She should've stayed away as she was a liability of trying to get herself involved. Not being clear in the head and just focused on getting back against Magpie got her into this mess…

And now she was paying for it.

'I'm so sorry Naruto.' She thought before getting back into trying to get out of the wooden coffin. 'But we're going to need to talk things through once this is over.'

Back on the surface, Batman and Vanitas was searching all over the graveyard for any sign of Margaret Sorrow's grave. To help out on the search, Vanitas had summoned a small amount of Dusks once they reached the area and he ordered them to spread out for the tombstone. Batman was genuinely surprised in seeing this, but kept it away from showing. He knew that he doesn't know all of Vanitas' powers, which greatly concerned him on how strong this man really was.

The two, plus the Dusks, searched high and low for the gravesite for a while due to how large the Gotham cemetery was and it could possibly take forever. And they didn't have forever with how much time is possibly left in Selina's air supply. The two heroes would've kept searching, but…

"We've found it sire!" A Dusk yelled out inside of Naruto's mind, making him turn his head towards the source. "It's over here!"

"Great work." Vanitas said as he turned towards Batman and nudged his arm. "They've found it Bats! This way!"

"How would you know?" The Bat questioned as he ran alongside Vanitas.

"Because I'm special." The masked Uzumaki retorted as the two came closer towards their destination. It was better seeing where it was with the Dusks hovering over it. When their master was coming close, the Dusks dispelled themselves since their task was complete. "Seriously… They couldn't have stayed and helped."

"Less complaining and more helping me out here." Batman demanded as he grabbed a nearby shovel and dug into the freshly made dirt. Vanitas followed suit as both men kept on digging through the earth to reach Selina.

The two shoveled as fast as possible in hopes of making it in time. Their shovels soon struck against something hard with a small *klang* before they tossed away their tools and went onto their hands and knees to wipe away the dirt. Of course Vanitas soon got impatient and phased his hands inside in hopes of reaching her… Only to find…

*Growl* "She's not here." Vanitas said before pulling off the lid for extra proof behind his claim. Showing the emptiness inside of it.

"Then where is she!"

"Looking for someone?" A feminine voice called out, making the two heroes look out of the empty coffin to see Magpie perched on top of a tombstone.

"Where is she Magpie?!"

Ignoring her beloved's question, she decided to speak out with a little frown on her face. "You know… This time I had really hoped you wouldn't have come Vanitas. Even you, the so called great detective, have been lead to an empty grave. I would've expected more out of the two of you, but then again you both have been lead towards my trap."

"Enough fooling around Magpie!" Batman spoke out as he and Vanitas got out of the recently dug out hole. "Where is Catwoman?!"

"Hmm… Can't be sure." She replied as she playfully looked around with a questioned look on her face. "I buried here somewhere. After all, I have trouble with my memory. Remember."

Vanitas soon had enough out of her and grabbed her shoulders and brought the crazed woman close to his face. "Tell us where she is Magpie! Now!"

"NEVER!" She soon shoved Vanitas back before kicking him and Batman in the chests to send them back further away from her before flipping in the air for good measure. Once landing on another tombstone, she spoke again with a sneer in her voice. "I gave you every chance Vanitas. Did all of the heavy lifting, but you still come after her. So why? WHY?! WHY IS SHE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME?! I AM THE ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS YOU!"

"That's the thing Magpie, you didn't." The disguised publisher stated as he walked towards the crazed woman. "If you did then you'd know I'd never allow someone close to me to be harmed. And I thought that if came by to see you, to talk with you back at Arkham, that it'll help you regain the humanity you lost. Even if it's a little bit… But apparently I was wrong."

'Hmm… Same kind of answer I would've given.' Batman thought as he was on the same page with the other hero. He too wouldn't allow anyone close to him to be harmed in any shape or form. When Alfred was taken last month, Batman wanted to bring all kinds of hell towards the eco-terrorists of harming his old father figure. Even with the detail of wanting to chat with an inmate, Batman would try to keep tabs with his old friend Harvey before his escape to see if he can save him.

*Growl* "You're a coward! You know that!" Magpie yelled out before she pointed a finger at him in an accusing fashion. "You are like me. Reason why you came and visited me at Arkham, to see your future." She then got down onto the ground and walked towards her beloved. "Well hold onto your precious humanity since we both know it'll be a matter of time before it slips through your grasp forever."

Magpie then brandished her elongated claws at the two heroes as her eyes gained a look of outrageous fury. "SHINY! SHINY!"

The bird themed woman then rushed at the two as they tried to stay away from her swipes. They were too fast for their liking and it was truly hard to get a read out of her unpredictable movements. Though while Vanitas was able to get away from them, Batman was unlucky as one of the swipes scraped across his arm. The Bat grunted in pain as everything seemed to go all blurry again as he realized he got poisoned by curare again.

"Enjoy the sting of my talons Batman!" Magpie said before kicking the hero into the freshly dug hole in the ground. She soon moved out of the way from some coming strikes from the helmeted hero as he came in with his escrima sticks. "Is that any way to treat your sweet bird Vanitas?"

"Considering on how bad you are, yes… yes I would."

Their assaults kept on coming as Vanitas tried to land good blows on her, but her unpredictability is truly starting to frustrate him. An opening was made and Magpie took it by going in close and grabbing the sides of his helmet before slamming them down onto her knee. This resulted with a disoriented vibration going on the inside of Vanitas' helmet before the crazed inmate grabbed his shoulders and tossed him to the side with a powerful strike towards his midsection.

Magpie then sauntered her way towards Vanitas' fallen form with a sneer plastered on her face. "You've made your choice Vanitas and you lost." She said before laying down several blows onto his helmeted head, resulting in more vibrations to disorient him. "I'll miss you very much my sweet, but not fore- YOU!"

Vanitas wondered what was going on, even with the effects going on the inside of his helmet, as he tried to put his full attention in the direction Magpie was now facing. When things seemed to settle, the hidden hazel eyes landed upon Selina's form. She was currently covered head to toe in signs of dirt with some sticking onto her bare skin due to sweat. His eyes seemed to land onto the ravenette hands, which were bloody on the knuckles for the most part.

"You should've buried me deeper." Selina panted out while holding onto the tombstone for support.

*Growl* "I'll be sure to remember that next time."

"Maybe you should find a grave you like." Catwoman said as the two soon encircled each other. "Let me know so I can bury you in it."

"RAAAH!" Magpie yelled out as she dashed towards the costumed ravenette with rage in her eyes.

Selina ducked out of the way as Magpie swiped her claws at the nearby tombstone. As a result, it left deep marks onto the stone work showing that the crazed woman was putting more strength into her blows now. Catwoman had to be more precautious now as she kept dodging Magpie's strikes.

As this was going on, Vanitas groggily got up and headed over towards Batman's position to see if he was alright. If he wasn't, he'll need to be there just in case Magpie wanted to get rid of Batman from interfering later on. Once he got to the freshly dug hole, he saw the Dark Knight slowly pull out a needle out of his arm.

"What the hell was that?" The masked Uzumaki question as Batman slowly got up from the wooden coffin.

"I was prepared for her poisoned claws this time." Batman said as he held up a little injection device in his hand. "Physostigmine does the trick real well against curare."

Vanitas could only nod at this before his attention went back towards the fight at hand.

Catwoman flipped in the air so she wouldn't get hit by Magpie's claws, from not getting skewered and not wanting to get poisoned again. Once landing behind her, Selina kicked Magpie's back before doing a sweeping kick on her opponent's legs. The crazed woman didn't like that and quickly turned around to send several strong kicks towards the Cat. One kick succeeded, sending Selina into a tombstone before Magpie leapt towards Catwoman's fallen form with a downward kick. The Cat barely moved out of the way as the inmate's latest attack broke the tombstone into pieces.

'Damn… glad I moved out of the way from that.' Selina thought as she eyed the broken piece of cemetery property. 'I need to really distract her so I can win this.' "Why are you so damn persistent in wanting me out of the way? Is it because I'm too good of a competition for Vanitas' attention?"

"You're just a pale imitation of me skank and you know it."

"Heh… You're just jealous that he rejected you." Selina responded back as she dodged Magpie's strikes. "Probably after your horrible fashion sense. I mean… really, neck feathers with a bustier? Kind of trashy if you ask me... Right Vanitas?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Said hero replied as he and Batman walked towards the women's location. "I really don't want to hurt you."

Magpie could only back away for a few moments before narrowing her eyes at her beloved. "TOO LATE!" She lashed out before Vanitas grabbed ahold of her arms and tossed her aside, making her roll a few feet in the process.

She quickly got back up and lashed out before Vanitas made himself intangible to get the crazed woman to go right through him. This left her momentarily confused before she was grabbed yet again and thrown towards Batman. The Bat then assaulted her with an array of punches and kicks before sending her flying towards Catwoman.

In the process; Selina got a good idea where to send the annoying bird, so once said bird got close, she turned and kicked Magpie hard enough to send her flying into Margaret Sorrow's tombstone, cracking the base in the process. Magpie fell down and was going to get back up before the large piece of stone fell on top of her, rendering her unconscious and finally defeated. When the three came up towards the hole, they felt relieved in what they were seeing as their problems for the evening were finally over.

*Sigh* "Time to put the looney bird back into her padded cage." Catwoman said as she turned her attention towards the two masked men, who nodded in agreement.

-Later, Naruto's and Pam's Loft-

Things seemed a bit quiet, asides from the dinner being cooked in the kitchen, as the loft's occupants had their minds elsewhere for the most part. Harley and Pam were helping prepare dinner while Rachel was standing beside her surrogate aunt. The ashen child tugged at Selina's sleeve to get her slight attention as the raveonettes attention was mostly focused towards Naruto.

"Is he going to be alright?" The young ward innocently asked.

"I don't know the answer to that Rachael." Selina responded as she saw her lover standing outside; leaning against the patio railing and staring into the distance, lost in thought.

After the two got back to the loft, in their own accords, Naruto and Selina apologized to each other on how they acted earlier. Telling the other on why they acted that way. Even though things were mended, there were still tears that'll take time to mend. Naruto wanted to be alone for a while, to try and think things through after the apology on what happened.

"There is a possible price to pay for staying in the darkness for too long. Margaret Sorrow paid it in full and became Magpie in the end." Harley said as she walked towards the two dark haired females. "I believe Naruto is coming to realize the same way. With how he was raised. On how much he tried to cling onto the light while the darkness tried to drown him every step of the way, from his birth to when he came to this world. It's buried deep inside of him after all this time I think, but it might come back up at an unfortunate time."

"And what if it does happen." Rachel asked, getting their attention a bit more than from before. "What if Naruto does fall into the darkness."

"Then we'll be there for him. To lead him back to the light." Selina said with a small smile on her face to get Rachel to get a sense of ease from the conversation. "After all, he did it for us, so we should return the favor and do the same for him."

'I hope your right Selina.' The ashen child thought in a mixture of worry and hope as her hands seemed to faintly glow black with a white outline. 'Because I don't want to be stuck in it when the time comes.'

-Unknown Location-

*Groan* "Where the hell am I?" Magpie groggily asked herself as her vision seemed to focus. She appeared to be in a darkened room with a large spotlight coming from up above. "What is this place?"

"A little hideaway of mine if you will." A sophisticated voice said as he mostly stepped into the light, but not enough to reveal the top half of his form. This hid all forms of identifying who the man was, in terms of physical description, asides from the pair of circular bifocals that seemed to gleam from the light.

"Who are you and where have you brought me?!" Magpie demanded as ran towards the shadowed man, only to be yanked back to see her feet were restrained by chains. She then realized she was held down in place.

"Like I said before, this place is a hideaway of mine. But as for who I am, well let's just say that I'm a friend."

"Some friend you are then." The crazed woman scoffed as she narrowed her eyes at the man. "So why did you bring me here friend?"

"Just a little chat if you would. If not then I would just skip to the point of this little arrangement."

"The later would be nice." Magpie stated with her arms crossed as she wanted to be free from her current restraints.

"Very well then." The sophisticated man said as he paced around the spotlight so that no more of his form would be revealed to her. "I'd like to make a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?"

"You cooperate with a few things here and there with the people I currently represent. Depends on what they are on the tasks being given really. But in return-"

"What do I get in return for helping you out?"

'Such rudeness.' The man thought with a shake of his head before remembering the information he read on her. "In return, I will help you out Ms. Magpie. I will help you in what you want most in life." He said as he saw her slowly taking the verbal bait. "I can help you restore your memories… and get you the man you desire all so very much."

"...You'd… You'd do that for me?" Magpie asked as she hoped the man wasn't lying. Sure she can try to nab Vanitas and do whatever she can to make him love her, but the other offer…. The other offer to gain back her memories is what she truly wanted most of all.

"Why of course Ms. Magpie." The man said as he mostly hid his lie quite well enough for her to not notice. "Though you must understand that it'll take time on the memory offer."

"O-Of course."

"Good… Oh and Magpie." The man briefly said before he snapped his fingers, resulting in a loud sound coming from the recent action. "A little present to sweeten the deal."

Soon the sounds of a cranky wheelchair seemed to roll into the spotlight to show a female riding it. The occupant in the chair seemed to be slightly restrained on her wrists and ankles with a bag placed over her head to hide away her features from the crazed woman. With how unresponsive the occupant was, she was either knocked out or tried to access the situation currently happening now in shock.

Magpie soon looked upward towards the man pushing the wheelchair and only got a decent look out of him. From his dark clothing to hide most of his build, but the bird woman guessed that he was a tall, slender man underneath said clothes. When reaching his face, it was mostly covered with a black mask to hide his features. But all that she could see was the slight indication of an aviary theme of the small beak on the nose with some feathers here and there for decoration. Though the last piece of the mask that seemed to stand out were the red lenses that were covering the man's eyes.

The masked man then bowed towards the bifocal man in the shadows before he walked back with hardly a sound in his step.

"Who is that?" Magpie asked as she got out of her slight stupor.

"Someone you'd very much like to meet and have your way with after so very long." The man said before he pulled off the bag to reveal… Bethanie Ravencroft with a piece of cloth in her mouth.

*Growl* "Why is she here?!"

"Like I said, to sweeten the deal my dear." The sophisticated man said before he pulled out a vial and uncorked it before wafting it underneath the blonde woman's nose. She started to stir and slowly awoke before questionably looked around on where she's at.

Bethanie was having a meeting with her superior on how progress was going on her current assignments. She seemed to have done a good job, but he didn't seem to think so as he quickly signaled one of his men to knock her out. Bethanie tried to get out, but it was too late for her on whatever he has planned for her.

"You see Ms. Magpie, Bethanie here hasn't been doing her job properly and I'm afraid that the people I represent no longer have any use for her. Failing time and time again on just one task and it seemed to grow my employers much impatience. So… They decided to wash their hands of dear Ravencroft here and move onto other things."

The crazed woman could only tilt her head in confusion as the blonde doctor tried to get out of her restraints, but with no avail.

"Oh… and don't worry about leaving any messes." The man said as his circular bifocals seemed to menacingly gleam. "I'll be sure to have the Talons clean things up accordingly and make it look like an accident, a mugging gone wrong or some other crime committed upon her."

This resulted in Bethanie screaming out through her gag as Magpie slowly gaining a smile on her face. She wanted revenge against the blonde doctor for so long and her last attempt failed. Now she'll properly get what's coming for her.

"So… Are we in an agreement?"

"Why yes." Magpie said as her nails started to grow out and gleam from the light eminating from above. "Yes we do have an agreement. As long as you help me out with my problems."

"Good to know." The man said as he turned around and the sounds of him walking away were heard in the darkness. "Now have fun Ms. Magpie, we'll get in touch very soon."

"But wait!"

"Hmm?" The man asked as he stopped his movements.

"How will I get back into Arkham?" The crazed woman asked. "If I'm to help you out, how will you get me in and out of that place."

"Oh that's easy." He said as he continued his walk. "But leave that to me on those details. And as for getting you back into your place in Arkham. You'll be transported back once you're done with the soon to be dead doctor."

And with that, Magpie soon brought her attention back to the blonde as the sounds of the man's footsteps faded away into the darkness. The crazed woman inched closer and closer to her victim in front of her as Bethanie screamed out through her gag. From there, the only sounds that emanated in the darkened space the sounds of flesh being pounded and sliced before things soon came to sudden silence.

-End Chapter-