BELOW IS SEVERELY UNEDITED. LIKE, BADLY. I JUST WANTED TO PUBLISH IT BEFORE BED.

DEDICATED TO THE BEAUTIFUL LiveHalfAlive for her wicked drawing of Sugar Skull! Check it out on her profile!! And her books!!!

~

I am desperately grasping onto the adrenaline coursing through my veins, stopped short by the first barrier in my goal to destroy Sukiyo and rescue Jason.

A goddamn wall.

The basement of the library is no basement at all; but rather, an actual base. It's old, one that Hiroshi sometimes used when he was in Lightway. It was abandoned until Sukiyo got here.

A staircase leads from the library floor down into the first level of the base. It hasn't been used, judged by the lack of light, the dust, the cobwebs and the occasional blood splatter on the walls.

The Bats and myself lead the way, with my father and his mobsters at the back. Everyone with a mask seems to be in the same situation; night vision.

Through it I can see we pass doorless rooms, empty of any furniture. It looks well abandoned, but it's not. Batman is beside me when we get to the end of the hallway, facing a blank, grey-painted wall.

"Behind here," he says lowly. I understand; this floor is a farce. Made to look abandoned so that enemies retreat.

Silently, he reaches for something on his belt. Nightwing and Red Robin begin shuffling backwards, so I go with it, until we're at least 10 metres behind Bruce.

He sprays what I easily guess is explosive putty across the wall. Okay, blowing it up is obviously the way he thinks to go. Batman retreats before clicking a button on the device in his hand. I'd guess it's because of the rush of the mask, that I am unaffected by the small explosion that rocks the room.

As Bruce moves forward to check the wall, something moves out of the corner of my eye, in the adjacent room. I glance in to see the figure of Sukiyo's little witch, leaning against the far wall.

When I blink, she's gone.

As I am behind the vigilantes, I signal to my dad that I am going into the room. He nods.

Quietly, I enter the room with both guns at the ready. The walls are blank and the floor titles are dirty, but the room is overall empty.

Except, for her. She's standing in the corner watching me. The girl who caught my sister and tortued me with the Joker's memories.

You must come alone, Venus Meadow. 

Her voice in my head feels like a cold hand running through my hair. It's a chill that doesn't leave, even as I approach her slowly. 

Like magic, she phases into the wall. My steps quicken towards her.

The wall she phased into looks different to its surroundings. I reach out, only for my hand to go straight through it.

A hologram. 

I glance over my shoulder to where a second explosion is ringing. That's the force entry for visitors, this is the secret entrance for residents.

Sukiyo wants to fight one on one? She's got it.

I step through the hologram to be faced with a brightly lit, wooden staircase. I am reminded of the Japanese style of the base, unlike the zombie-apocalypse-hospital feel on the first floor.

The steps creak as I descend them, seeing a dimly lit room at the end of my path. This is it. She'll be there and I will finally have my chance to get rid of her. 

When the full room comes into view at the last step, it looks like a Japanese tea room, complete with tatami mats and paper walls. This is definitely the proper base.

"Won't you come in, Satou Dokuro-sama?"

The respectful tone in Sukiyo's voice, calling me by my vigilante name with the honorific that considers me superior, is clearly fake. She's mocking me. 

Does she think she'll win?

I hold my guns tightly, ready to fire off as many shots need to first, subdue the kid and second, blow this bitches head off.

There is no cold sweat, shaking hands or second thoughts. Not with this uniform on. Not with the desires of pain that comes with how every piece of armour fits against my form.

Not with the pure sadist I turn into.

I pivot and step into the room, facing her.

Instead of drawing her katana or having thirty men surrounding her to fight, she remains on her knees by the tea table, in the correct Japanese fashion.

Her style of dress is almost...

"I have come up with my own persona; Geisha. What do you think, Dokuro-sama?" She asks softly, pouring tea in two small cups.

"You want me to drink tea with you before I put three in your chest?" I ask her sternly, not moving from my stance at the bottom of the stairs, just in the doorway.

She smiles, "Yes."

The room isn't impressive or anything. It's small, square, the paper doors show no sign of guards and it really just looks like a tea room.

But I know better.

Using my power, I focus on her downcast eyes, focused on the blue-patterned teapot. She is oddly calm, but I sense satisfaction and excitement in her composure.

"Where is my sister? And my boyfriend?" I ask uselessly. I need to know. I need to know if they're okay. I'll be able to tell from her answer to my question.

When she looks up, her smile is no longer hidden.

"Do you remember his funeral?"

I bring them up, she brings a funeral up. A negative sign. I can't think that way though.

"Of course," I answer, the image of my fiancé's ashes in a vase standing among the flickering candles appearing before my eyes.

"I don't," she says, finally looking up at me, "I wasn't invited. They deemed me unimportant." The way she says it is without sadness or anger. She is...simply informing me.

What's going on? 

"It was a closed service. Not everyone was there," I say, doing my best to not relax. Stay on guard. Stay on guard. 

"What colour was the vase?" She asks, softer. Sadly.

"Maroon, his favourite," I answer.

Immediately the soft gaze flips to one of rage and fire. Her head snaps back up to me again with a deep, dark glare.

"I know it's his favourite," she snaps, fingers twitching like she is going to reach for the white and pink katana beside her.

"How, Sukiyo? How could you, who slept with him one time, possibly know what his favourite colour is?" I snap, finally done with her complete blindness and obsession, "How could you know his favourite flavour of coffee or his favourite movie or his final words, huh? By the way, it's hazelnut, the Matrix and-" 

I cut myself off, remembering the look he gave me from the hospital bed. That bed, the last place my betrothed drew breath.

The urgency she looks up at me with is so intense I nearly faulter, but my grip on my guns is just as tight when she starts getting to her feet.

"What were they?" She asks, looking desperate, reaching for the katana without looking. Her wide eyes don't leave mine as she starts to stand up. I finally step fully into the room, raising one gun to point at her.

If I tell her, she'll got nuts.

"You don't want to know, Sukiyo," I warn, watching as she draws her blade. her crazy eyes are so wide they might pop out, movements rigid and focus all on my. She looks dishevelled.

"Tell me his last words!" She shouts, finally drawing the sword. I should shoot her now, but there's every chance that Batman will need to draw information from her first. Especially if we can't find Cae and Jason.

Growling, I raise the other gun. 

"Let me make something very clear to you bitch. He never loved you. He barely cared for you. You were nothing to him. You meant less than the damn bodyguards he brought to Gotham with him, understand?"

My words seem to hold silence in their wake, like an eerie quiet settling in the small space, before she lets out an ear-piercing scream and moves towards me, leaping over the table.

I've already fired before ducking out of the way. I know I hit her. This may be easier than I thought. If her rage takes control of her like that so easily.

Light on my feet, I bounce around the table to where she was, eyes never leaving her bent form. Her hand is pressed against her abdomen where I aimed for.

The lower stomach. Enough to slow her down.

Without straightening up or saying anything to me, she scream towards the wall.

"Tori!" She shouts. I vaguely remember that it means bird, before I raise my guns to aim at the sliding paper door. My sister, sweating and dirty but seemingly unhurt is shoved in with four large, Japanese men and the small witch girl behind her.

All four men hold up guns, aiming at me. The girl places a hand on Caelan's shoulder, causing her to flinch.

"Tell me his last words," Sukiyo gasps out, "Or watch your sister die."

Idiot. She's utterly obsessed and her obsession has rendered her nuts. 

"Fine. He said I love and believe in you, Venus Meadow. It was the first time he'd called me that instead of Skyler. Ya' happy?" I snap, no problem telling her. Honestly I was only trying to suppress her insanity.

My words leave the room quiet again, and I don't drop my guns from pointing at the four men. My sister is right there in front of me and I'm going to save her. 

Just as I go to speak again, the com in my ear crackles.

"Okay, I let you handle this on your own. We've found Red Hood. He's okay. Respond." 

If I could reply to Bruce, I would. But that could prove fatal for Cae and I. At least they found Jason and at least he's okay. That, at least, provides the slightest of comfort.

But something isn't right. Sukiyo can't just have this witch girl and four men with her. There must be-

"Avoid the main hallway! There are men waiting to ambush!" 

Upstairs the sound of bullets and screams alike are present. I take that immediate distraction as my opportunity.

My first two shots hit the closest guards in the shoulder. With my gun design and Red Warrior training I drop the aim and hit their thighs as well, on their way down.

When the other two guards react I am already dodge rolling to the left, elbows tucked in and fingers still on the trigger. Bullets fly over me. My shoulders take my weight across the ground before I'm popping up to my knees just in time to block Sukiyo's attack.

Her blade hits the barrel of my left gun as I raise my right to hit one guard in the shoulder. The other fires at the same time, nicking me somewhere I don't even notice.

My sister seems to have gained some sort of confidence. She strikes Tori across the face, the younger girl barely having time to react, before gripping her face tightly.

Caelan's eyes go white before Tori starts to scream. Her power works in special ways when pressure, hope and adrenaline are added.

I do a turn, involving ducking under my left arm which is still pressing against Sukiyo's blade. Using my right arm I swipe her legs from beneath her and use that swing to fire into the fourth bodyguard when my arm comes around.

As Sukiyo's falling and the bullet is travelling I can sense people behind me but have minimal time to react. My only option is to barrel forward of the tea table and into my sister, knocking her down just as a spray of bullets flies over head from the stairwell I came down.

Tori looks like she's having a seizure from whatever Caelan did. We're in another room similar to the last one, with marble floors instead of tatami mats.

Caelan already know what to do as she slides away from me, dead-set on obtaining one of the guards guns. Several more of the Yakuza Sukiyo managed to rally are in. Laying on my back I raise my gun to fire twice before rolling.

However, before I can even get to that, there are more bullets being shot at them. 

I don't know what I am expecting; Jason? My father's men?

It's certainly not what I see when I look up, reaching for Caelan to drag her with my as I roll out of the doorway, making room for our assistants to kill every last one of them.

The shots leave a ringing in my ears, but I press my sister to the ground with one hand and look up to analyse the situation from the corner we're in.

Yakuza...fighting Yakuza?

There are familiar looking men firing at Sukiyo's men. This barely processes before I am being shoved forward by the impact of a blade, stabbing into my top right shoulder.

I shorten the loud scream I let out, my shooting behind me, straight through the paper wall I had been stabbed through. Instead of dodge rolling I get to my feet and spin around, punching through the paper and grabbing her by the hair.

A bitchy move, but it works to pull her straight through the paper and into the marble-floored room.

There, out battle ensues.

She comes at me. I know she hasn't got as much skill as she'd like. She's barely trained. The blade comes towards my face and I knock her arm to the side, ducking out of the way and raising my gun. 

A stupid move. Her other hand comes for it, pushing my attack out of the way. I see her knee come up, so I throw myself backwards, trying to avoid being struck in the torso at all costs. That could ruin my chances.

Her sword comes down where my head is and I jar to the side, raising my leg and booting her in her bullet wounds, making her howl and stumble backward.

Planting my hands above my head, I flip myself up onto my left foot, moving into a spin to back-kick her. She barely catches the kick but that was my plan. I have arms to.

Using pure flexibility I swivel the other way with my guns up and fire again with both, one hitting her thigh, the other getting her hip.

And I know this is it.

She collapses with another high-pitched, cry of pain. It's only then I realising the surrounding gunfire has stopped. Eleven dead men are limp on the floor, at least twenty standing there watching me.

I recognize them now...they're Hiroshi's men. 

Sukiyo is bleeding on the ground, as one goes to help my sister up and another approaches me slowly. He a large man with ageing features.

"Okizura-san," I bow, realising I've been shot in the leg.

"Salvore-san," the old man bows back, the rest of his mini-army bowing with him. I never got used to that, being engaged to their bosses son.

"How did you know?" I ask.

"We apologise for not informing you. We tried. She came to Kyoto to rally us. We rejected her. We all knew Hiroshi loved you and that you were not the cause of his death," he explains, accent heavy.

Below us, Sukiyo gives a pathetic cough.

"Liar," she wheezes out, barely comprehensible. "She...her. Took him away...from our son."

The heat of battle seems to completely drain from me, replaced my a cooling chill.

"Son?" I whisper. Okizura looks at me.

"Yes. A bastard child. Would you like us to dest-"

"No," I say immediately, in time with Sukiyo. "Not a child, no," I tell him. He only nods.

A man and a women come over to Sukiyo and grab her, pulling her up. She is pale and dying, that much is obvious.

Okizura hands me her sword.

"She is yours to eliminate, Salvore-san. In his name," he tells me.

Avoiding showing the shaking in my hands, I take the white and pink weapon from him. My eyes never leave hers though; they continue to glare up at me.

"Go then, Venus Meadow. Take my life, for I have already won."

She has...what? 

"I'm sorry," I hear Caelan whisper from across the room. She's looking at me desperately. "It's my fault."

What did she do? What did Sukiyo make her do?

I look back down at my enemy. My enemy, who has caused terror and pain in my life. My enemy, who took my sister and my love away from me. My enemy, who will remain that until her death.

With a steady breath, I take the sword in both hands, raising the blade so that it hovers above her head.

"I shall tell him of his son whose parents you took away from him," she says, blood running down her chin. Her gaze drops to my torso.

"You do that," I tell her. This is to protect them. This is to protect the people I love.

Just as I raise the blade above my head, ready to bring it down and split her in two with her own weapon, a flash of red, green and yellow appears in the paper holes.

"Justice..."

I remember.

"...not vengeance."

Damian stands at the entrance to the room, looking at me with pure determination.

 "That's not who you are anymore," he says, making me think back to our conversation on the ferris wheel. The weapon in my hands suddenly feels much heavier.

I will not orphan a child. Growing up without a mother is unexplainable.

Fine. 

"I will not take your life, you will not have the satisfaction."

Okizura says something in Japanese that prompts the two restrainers to release Sukiyo, who falls to the side in a heap.

"I thank you for your assistance. He...would be proud," I say, looking up at the large man. He gives me a firm not.

"If you ever need anything, Salvore-san. You need only ask," he replies, stepping backward. I smile.

"You should leave. When Batman gets down here..." I glance at Robin, who is standing with Caelan, talking to her.

"Of course."

I don't watch them leave, my focus on Sukiyo. She can be saved, kept alive.

Just as I reach for her, Batman and the others pour out into the room. Immediately he looks angry and disgusted at the surrounding death, as do they all.

All...except...

"Where is Jason?"