"I'll tell you what you're going to do," Harley replied. "You're going to put me down and give Bruce back to me."

"You're in no position to make demands," Ivy stated. An amused smile played across her dark lips.

"Do you like my new perfume?" Harley asked. "It's called Essence of Herbicide."

"Weed killer," Ivy breathed in horror, taking an involuntary step backwards.

The vines holding Harley's wrists started turning brown and shriveling away. They soon lacked the strength to hold her aloft, and Harley dropped back to the floor, brushing off the withered husks the vines had become.

"I'm only going to say this once, Red," Harley told Ivy while lifting her baseball bat. "Give me back my man."

"Look at you," Ivy said in admiration. "Standing up for yourself. You can have him back. I only wanted the money, and I got that."

Ivy walked over to Bruce and spoke in his ear. "Kill her."

"Red!" Harley shouted.

"He's no match for you, but he'll keep you busy while I make my escape," Ivy told her. "Have fun."

Ivy threw a seed toward the window and it stuck to the frame before immediately growing at an astonishing rate. The seed became a cluster of vines, breaking open the window beneath where they were attached and providing Ivy an exit. Ivy took hold of a vine, and it lowered her out the window, continually growing until she was gently deposited at street level.

Harley was unable to give more than a partial notice to Poison Ivy's departure since Bruce was headed toward her.

"Sorry about this," Harley said before swinging her bat.

Bruce caught the weapon and an expert twist ripped it from her grip.

Harley swallowed hard. "Help."

She ran for the door. Batman had beaten her in a fight countless times, but he'd always held back from killing. Under the influence of Ivy's parasites, there was no telling what he might do.

Once in the hallway, Harley snatched the bullet-ridden pictures from the wall in passing, throwing them toward Bruce like ninja stars. His training let him dodge or deflect all of them, but it kept him from closing the distance between them.

Harley dived into the elevator and smashed the button for the lobby. The doors closed with terrifying slowness as Bruce raced down the hall toward her, but they shut an instant before he reached the elevator.

Harley breathed a sigh of relief. She'd have to wait long enough for the parasites' effect on Bruce to wear off before she could come back for him.

When the doors opened again, Bruce stood in front of her with an override remote control in his hand. Harley realized the elevator hadn't moved off the executive level and it wasn't likely to do so as long as he held the remote.

Crouching down, Harley kicked off the elevator wall and dived past Bruce's legs, rolling back to her feet and running for the office again. She occasionally jumped and kicked off the walls to flip from one side of the hallway to the other in an attempt to keep Bruce from catching her before she reached the office.

Once inside the executive workspace, she vaulted over the desk and put it between herself and Bruce. He tried to come around on the left side of the desk, so she moved to the right. When he changed directions, so did she. Harley knew what would happen next and was waiting for it. Bruce jumped up to stand atop the desk and reach her no matter which side she tried to hide behind, but Harley kicked the edge of the desk before he landed, causing it to shift under him. Bruce lost his balance and fell to the carpet while Harley raced for the door.

Stopping near the sizable bookcases near the door, she started pulling books off the shelves and tossing them at Bruce. In her mind, Harley wondered which would run out first, the parasites controlling Bruce or her supply of books. The question was answered when she reached for the next book and discovered there wasn't one.

Harley turned to look at Bruce in time for him to lunge toward her and latch his hands around her throat. She twisted sideways, bringing her arms up on the outside of Bruce's. Harley slammed her elbows down on the top of Bruce's arms hard enough to break his hold and escape his iron grip. A knee to the stomach, drove Bruce back far enough for her to put a foot on the bookcase and jump over Bruce and land behind him.

Bypassing the desk like an Olympic hurdle, Harley went head first out the window. She grabbed hold of the vine Ivy had used and slid down several floors from the executive level before she stopped. Taking a smiley face sticker from her pocket, she slapped it on the window and shielded her face with her arms an instant before the glass exploded in a hail of shards. Her leathers blocked the majority of the fragments, but the sharp pain in her left leg told her at least one had gotten through.

The herbicide perfume was working on the vine she held, threatening to dump her to the sidewalk below, but she swung into the opened window just as the vine finished turning brown and broke off in her hands. She plopped down onto the gray carpet of a cubical filled office floor, but she knew it wouldn't be long before Bruce came running.

Ignoring the blood covering the leather of her left leg, Harley got up and hobbled toward the stairs as quickly as she could. The trail she was leaving behind on the carpet would be easy to follow, so she knew her head start wouldn't last long.

Harley made it down three flights before encountering a serious problem. Construction was being done on one of the floors, and the stairwell had been improperly stacked full of supplies and equipment, blocking the way down. If she'd had full use of her leg, she might've been able to bypass it but not in her current condition. She tried the door handle, but it was locked.

Harley was about to head back upstairs when a batarang slammed into the wall beside her and imbedded. She looked back up to find Bruce holding another of the blade edged weapons. She thought it figured he'd have some of his gear stashed here.

Nowhere to run, Harley knew she was about to die. She'd always thought she'd die at the hands of someone she loved, but she'd firmly believed it would've been the Joker, not Bruce. She closed her eyes and waited for death.

After a moment, Harley opened her eyes, wondering why she was still alive and able to wonder why she was still alive. She shifted her attention up to Bruce and found him collapsed on his hands and knees while coughing violently. If she didn't know better, she would've thought he was going to cough hard enough to turn himself inside out.

Limping up the stairs, she carefully approached Bruce. His coughing was subsiding, and he shifted around to sit on one of the steps. He looked miserable to her, but his watering eyes had returned to their standard shade of lovely blue.

"You okay?" Harley asked. She stayed out of reach in case the parasites hadn't fully left his system.

"Harley?" Bruce asked in confusion. "What's going on? Where am I?"

"Well, to begin with," Harley started, "Ivy brainwashed you, stole all your money, and tried to have you kill me, which you almost did several times. As to where you are, you're in a stairwell of Wayne Enterprises. All clear?"

"What?" Bruce questioned in bewilderment. "I tried to kill you?"

"Only tried," Harley emphasized. "I'm still here and so are you."

Bruce looked her over, centering upon the bleeding wound on her leg.

"I'll heal," Harley promised.

Bruce's eyes met Harley's, and she clearly heard his rage when he spoke.

"Where's Ivy?"