Shitz-Suji: bit OCD about having this hang over me. I want to finish this story.

(East Gotham, August 15, 2012. 7:52 p.m)

"Look, kid, I don't know what kind of bargain you and Shiv struck up, but if you stick with us, you'll see her soon enough." Green Arrow sheathed his bow and held up his hands to signal a truce. "She has a lot of explaining to do after this though."

Robin resisted the urge to scoff and add his two cents to the mix. He put down the disarmed explosive and picked up the empty cannister. "So we have about 39 explosives to disarm and less than two hours to do it. I suggest we split up."

"What?" Green Arrow frowned. "Are you serious?"

"We're running out of time. If every team split up into pairs, we can cover two bombs a piece and end it before Joker's counter runs out." Robin stood up and dusted off his gloves. "It's the only way."

"Well, what do you think, Batman? Is it doable," Arrow asked, pressing his hand to his radio earpiece. "What about the evacuations. Not everyone is safe yet."

"SWAT and Homeland Defense personnel have been notified of the situation. All available Leaguers check their assigned coordinates and head over to disarm immediately.," Batman's voice echoed through their comms, the static distorting his voice. "Be on the lookout for Joker and Poison Ivy."

"Roger, Bats." Without wasting a moment, Green Arrow gestured for everyone to move back into the elevator shaft. "We don't have time to waste. Come on!"

(Location Unknown, August 15, 2012. 8:23 p.m)

"Four hundred fifty-four . . ."

"Four hundred forty-seven . . ."

It would seem the Joker Venom finally made it to her lungs. Every breath Siobhan took was marked with a faint wheezing sound, a morbid foreshadowing of what was to come.

She shivered as a cold breeze blew past her, digging her nails into the clammy flesh of her palms as she forced herself to continue on. The cityscape flew past her in a dim blur of hazy lights and muffled sirens.

In contrast, the night sky was bright and jubilant with twinkling stars and even in her state, Siobhan could pick out the Alsnal star of the Sagittarius constellation from the rest of the body. There was the Kaus series, the trio of stars that made up the bow of Sagittarius, and the Ascella star-

She blacked out for just a moment, her vision fading in and out, and the next thing she knew, she was falling, her altitude too low to prevent her from crashing through the trees and debris of wherever she was.

Though her body was recoiling from the shock of impact, Siobhan felt a strange of sense of calm take over her as she looked up beyond the canopy of trees. Her heart slowed against her will, and her vision blurred again as warm tears suddenly rolled down her cheeks.

"I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes."

(New Haven, August 15, 2012. 8:46 p.m)

Robin glanced over at his assigned partner, Oswald, an ill-concealed grimace set on his face as he snapped the last wire on the lid of the cannister. About 6 feet away was a murky puddle of Joker Venom that had burned through the creaky floor of the decrepit apartment building they were in.

Actually, Robin had requested to go with Oswald, leaving Green Arrow and Miss Martian to follow the other pair of coordinates assigned to their team. Seeing as there was no time to be arguing about preferences, they let him be and left for their destination.

Though Miss Martian left him with a stern warning about his recklessness before she was out of telepathic range.

"If you have something to say, then say it," Oswald said quietly. "You look as if you are ready to burst a blood vessel."

And without a moment's hesitation, Robin rose up and grabbed the other boy by the collar of his shirt. His first urge was to throttle him, release all his pent up anger and anxieties against Siobhan on him.

"How long have you two been in contact?"

"Since June," Oswald replied, his face cold and unreadable. "After she caught me in Happy Harbor."

That was less than three months ago, at M'gann and Connor's graduation. Irritated, Robin gritted his teeth, forcing his next words out with great effort. "Keep. Going."

"My handler was in contact with the Joker and Poison Ivy. They asked me to deliver her a message. I put out feelers to ferret out her location and found her lingering in Rhode Island , so I went there. But she ambushed me."

"What did she do?"

"Beat the crap out of me." Oswald shrugged. "Honestly, I was barely alive when she was through with me."

Robin loosened his grip a bit, his anger lessened by that tidbit of knowledge as surprise and confusion took over.

"I came back a week later days later and begged her to listen. My handler was tipped off about the whereabouts of Dr. Laurent's cryo chamber. If she and her men had found it, then the consequences would be dire for the both of us."

"And judging by the recovered bodies found at the Lafayette Cemetery, you two failed," Robin said.

Too emotional and too unnerved to focus, he missed the split second it took for Oswald to shake off his grip and pin him down to the floor.

"We did fail," he said, his voice monotonous. "But not because any of us were too weak to handle a couple of goons. We failed because she had to prioritize you all above the objective."

"Get. Off. Me."

Oswald glanced down at him, an obvious look of disgust and disappointment plastered across his face. "I can understand the others, but I can't believe she thought you were worth protecting.

Robin grimaced. "What's your point then?"

"Don't you dare think for one second that Siobhan and I willingly agreed to help each other because we are good people." Oswald got off him and stood up. "Think, Robin. Joker hacked your Rhode Island headquarters with a brute force jamming algorithm that shut down all of your comms the moment his monologue aired on your screen. Don't you think it's a little bit suspicious that your systems were able to reboot so quickly afterwards?"

"Our database and security network-" Robin began.

"Would've been able to override the system corruption by resetting back to a high-security, low resolution screening program. Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da." Oswald rolled his eyes. "The sheer size of your database would've taken almost 25 minutes to reset and reinstate basic communication functions. And yet, you were able to call for help in less than two minutes after. Why is that?"

(New Haven, August 15, 2012. 8:57 p.m)

An programmable gate array would've overloaded the system fast enough, but that was only possible if . . .

He hacked the Cave security database. Everything from the hangar doors to the Zeta-tubes were under his control for who knows how long. That meant Team, and possibly even League, information was completely open for him to read.

"Do you get it now? Or do I have to prove to you what I am capable of like I did with her," Oswald asked. "How much information on you do I have to dig up before you understand?"

"So you threatened to expose us if she didn't play along."

"Exactly. And she threatened to out my activities to my handler if I ever stepped out of line. It was a mutual standoff."

"But there is no register of the identities of League or Team members recorded in the system," Robin countered.

"She obviously didn't know that, did she? And I was still in contact with the Joker and his Arkham posse. She didn't want to take that risk, you see."

"So you tricked her." The words almost came out like a prayer of relief for Robin. His anger and feelings of betrayal calmed, replaced by the cold realization of what Siobhan had been put through for the League, the Team, and him.

"She was too kind," Oswald admitted. "Too easy to trust the people who accepted and called her family. And look where that got her."

"So why are you protecting her?"

"Because I am not the sort of person who would abandon my teammate when they need my help the most."

(Harrisburg, August 15, 2012. 8:43 p.m)

Every cell in her body screamed for her to run away, towards safety, but Poison Ivy approached the depression in the ground, ignoring the thin film of ice that snaked up her legs as she got closer.

She had a gut feeling that it was the girl, but desperately wanted her hunch to be wrong. The clenching feeling in her chest told her so.

"Harley, how could you? She's just a kid!"

"We just wanted to have a little fun! Make a statement! Besides, it's not like she can die that easily anyways~"

"We're taking her with us. I'm going to h-"

"Negative, sweetheart. We need to leave. Batsy and his croonies will be coming soon enough. They can deal with the kid."

Ivy dropped to her knees at the sight of the broken figure in the ground, her stomach lurching from all the blood and-

"Oh my darling, I am so sorry." A bitter sob ripped through her as she caressed the girl's cold hand, melting off the layer of ice that covered it.

(Arkham Asylum, 2006)

"Where's the kid? The warden's coming soon and if we don't have her back in her cell, we're gonna eat it this time!"

Poison Ivy regarded the girl sitting across from her with great contempt, a taint in the small garden of paradise she manage to carve out in the hellhole that was Arkham. It took less than two minutes to call the guards and have the girl removed from her cell.

But she returned later that night, cut marks around her wrists and ankles. Her face was battered and she was bleeding from her nose.

Ivy bristled, the greenery at her side snaking through the air menacingly as she approached the girl. "How did you get in here!

No answer. She was met with just a blank stare.

"Fuck. Do I have to call the guard again?" Ivy grabbed the child by the hair and proceeded to drag her to the door, but before she could knock for help, she felt a cold wetness in her hand, and then nothing.

"Please don't," a weepy voice said in the corner. "I just wanted to look at the flowers."

Undeterred, Ivy rapped her knuckles against the steel door, yelling for someone to come get the girl in her cell. She watched silently as the orderlies removed her, kicking and screaming, from the room and thought nothing more of it.

One week later, the kid returned, looking more beat up than any other Arkham inmate Ivy had seen. And again, Ivy had her forcibly removed from the cell, not batting an eye as the orderlies knocked her out and carried her off. She stopped coming after that.

(Arkham Asylum, 2006)

It was one of those moments when Joker had got too handsy with Harley and Ivy had to step in because no one would. Some small incident in the cafeteria set him off in a frenzy and the next thing they knew, he was beating Harley with his food tray, screaming and shouting slurs at her.

The security did nothing since they knew better than to get involved with the Joker's domestic affairs, and watched helplessly as the tray came down on her face, her head, her chest. Ivy heard the disturbance from outside and rushed to Harley's side, picking up her friend's battered body while staving off the Joker's temper tantrum.

How easy it would've been to just run him through with a tree root. But it was not worth the punishment, or worse, a transfer to Belle Reve, where she would find herself at the bottom of the meta-human food chain.

The food tray came too close to her head, landing on her shoulder with a solid crack. Ivy stumbled and instinctively dropped Harley, her arm recoiling from blow. Joker only cackled as he brought the tray down a second time on her skull, stunning her.

She braced herself for the next hit, not expecting to hear a surprised yelp as the tray clattered on the ground, slightly bent from the abusive onslaught it was used for.

The guards behind her rushed forward not to apprehend her or Harley, but the little kid sitting off to the side. Blank green eyes stared past Ivy as one of the guards fixed a collar to her neck and dragged off to be dealt with, no doubt, via electroshock therapy.

It took Joker almost two days to thaw out, and Ivy supposed he learned his lesson for now when he publicly apologized to Harley after returning from the medical bay. But that didn't stop her from giving him a good punch to the face when she saw him again.

As for the kid, when Ivy saw her lurking around Arkham the next time, she dropped a sprig of bluebells in the kid's hands and walk away, pretending as if she wasn't smiling when she heard a whisper of a giddy 'thank you' echo through the hallway.

(Philadelphia, August 15, 2012. 9:13 p.m)

The incoherent murmuring and strings of 'No way' reverberated across Robin's commlink as he updated everyone on the situation with Siobhan. The Joker's interference, the underground lab, the reason why she went rogue, everything.

"If what you say is true, then we must find her immediately," Aqualad said. "She is in dire need of assistance. Those of us finished with the priority mission will converge on her last known location. Status report."

"I've got my two," Superboy confirmed.

"Same," Kid reported

"Give me thirty minutes, Rocket out."

"I have one more to go, Miss Martian out."

"Send me the coordinates," Artemis demanded.

Robin sighed, reporting in as well, his gaze lingering on the second empty Joker Venom cannister in front of him.

"Superboy, Kid Flash, Artemis, Robin, take the Bioship and head to Metropolis. Follow any available weather satellites and check for any anomalies in current patterns. Rocket, Miss Martian, and I will join you as soon as we are finished here."

"Roger that. Robin out"

"So what's the deal," Oswald asked. "Are we splitting up?"

"Not yet. Come on. We're heading to Metropolis."

(Harrisburg, August 15, 2012. 9:48 p.m )

Honestly, it was a miracle how Siobhan wasn't dead yet. After hours of sustained trauma to her internal systems and a 30,000 feet drop from the sky, it was a little annoying how often she found herself waking up to her surroundings.

This time, it seemed she was in . . . a cave, soaking in a soothing green liquid. Some of her cuts and bruises had been healed, but her insides still hurt like hell.

"Take it easy. You're not even halfway close to recovering," a familiar voice chidded.

"Ivy!" Siobhan took up a defensive stance and pointed the palm of her hand in her direction. "Stay back!"

"Relax, I won't hurt you. Just . . . How are you feeling," the redhead asked, her voice in a low whisper. She walked into the light, her hair disheveled and eyes swollen red.

"Like I had been put through electroshock twenty times over. But you don't look too well either," Siobhan replied snidely. "Why are you helping me?"

"We're family."

"You left me with them. You let them torture me for hours." Siobhan bristled at the memory of having a dirty cloth stuffed in her mouth as Harley and Joker applied electric shocks to her body, over and over again. "You left me for dead!"

"What was I supposed do then?!"

"If you had knew I was going to resist your plans to this extent, why didn't you kill me? Put me out my misery and carry on?"

Ivy looked as if Siobhan had physically struck her, her mouth curled into a grimace of fear and revulsion. "You know I can't do that. You won't die that easily."

"If you still think that I will join you, then you best get ready for a fight," Siobhan snapped. She fired one warning shot to Ivy's side and recentered her arm. "Otherwise, move."

(Connecticut, August 15, 2012. 9:43 p.m)

"So you're like Siobhan's brother or something," Artemis asked, confused. "But I thought you were in with the Joker though."

"My handler was in cahoots with the Joker. I was just her errand boy," Oswald said bitterly. "My only objective was to find my father and rescue him from Siobhan."

"Who you found out was cloned from the cells of your dead younger sister. Does Siobhan know?"

"I never told her. She doesn't need to know that yet."

Robin glanced around the ship cabin, looking at the solemn faces of his teammates as they tried to work out what was going on. In any sense, it looked like Siobhan bit off more than she could chew when she struck out on her own to fulfill her secret agendas and missions.

"What about the bodies of Dr. Vincent and Dr. Wilson," Kid asked. "Who killed them?"

"Dr. Wilson killed my father. He died the moment she tried to thaw him. I don't who killed Dr. Wilson or who took their bodies to the Lafayette Cemetery. I had already gone rogue by then." Oswald spun around in his seat, exasperated by the barrage of questions.

"I owe Siobhan a debt of gratitude for helping see the truth about my family. For a long time, I believed she was responsible for what I became, but it was my own naivete and cowardice that let Dr. Wilson take advantage of me. And . . . my father was not the man I thought he was. He was insane and sadistic, obsessed with his own delusions of grandeur, and if Siobhan hadn't taken him out . . ." Oswald trailed off, a troubled look on his face as he struggled to find the right words to say. " . . . I don't know."

(Harrisburg, August 15, 2012. 9:59 p.m)

"I don't want to fight you, but I can't make you stay either." Poison Ivy's face softened, sighing as she tossed over a small vial of black liquid. "Go."

"What is this?" Siobhan examined the vial, shaking it to test the fluidity of the contents.

"A Joker Toxin antidote. I always carry one on me just in case. This concoction accounts for the Strycine and cobra venom variant. Take it."

"And why are you letting me go with this?"

"Because," Ivy began, a sad smile spreading across her lips, "it would seem you've outgrown my nest, little one. We both have different people we want to protect."

"So the next time we meet, I take it that things would go differently," Siobhan stated, clenching the little vial in her hand. "In that case . . ."

In three strides, she crossed the cavern floor and wrapped Poison Ivy in a fierce hug. The gesture was bittersweet and lasted for no longer than 10 seconds, but the two said all they needed to say.

"Thank you . . . for everything . . ."

(Harrisburg, August, 15, 2012. 10:26 p.m)

The purging of the Joker Venom from her body was excruciatingly painful, so much so that Siobhan wished she could rip her innards from her body and be done with it. The concoction was fast acting and the effects could felt in less than two minutes after consumption, but the physical toll was too much for her to handle after 16 hours of prolonged abuse.

Her whole body was shaking and there was a violent sensation of emptiness in her stomach after vomiting out whatever was left in there and more. But she was more or less in control of her higher functions, able to think and act clearly without the influence of the Joker Venom impeding her focus.

The League and the Team should be closing in on the Joker at this point in time, assuming that they have already dealt with all the explosives hidden across various states and major cities. Even then, half of them would be preoccupied with collaborating with the local authorities on the evacuation efforts. The other half would be busy trying to piece together clues to figure out where the Joker holed himself up in.

Luckily for her, Siobhan already knew where his base of operation was. And how to get there in 10 minutes.

(Maryland, August 15, 2012. 10:40 p.m)

"Red Tornado to Bioship. The Zeta system picked up a flagged entry at Harrisburg to the Mount Justice, designation Shiv, B-10. A second entry was made from Mount Justice to Central Gotham."

"Acknowledged, sending coordinates to Miss Martian, Aqualad, and Rocket," Superboy reported, hanging up the commlink.

"Let's go. We don't have any time to waste," Robin took the seat at the helm, turning the ship around. A million question raced through his mind, and he hoped they would be answered soon.

(Gotham City, August 15, 2013. 10:47 p.m)

The Ace Chemical Plant was 30 minutes across the city, at the borderline between East and South Gotham. It wasn't as heavily guarded as it would usually be since most of Joker's forces had been deployed as guards for the bombs. If he was looking for a fortified hideout, then there was a good chance that Siobhan would turn up empty in her search there.

But at the same time, it would be the first logical choice to look at, given that he had such a nostalgic attachment to the place. How many months did she spend searching for him when he was right under her nose, hidden away in plain sight.

Though what did she intend to do once she caught the Joker? Siobhan never really thought that part over. She could hypothetically stuff him in one of the still functional cryo pods under Dr. Laurent's lab, letting him stay there for a few decades or cripple him for life to ensure he would not be able to wreak havoc on Gotham anymore. Or perhaps she could kill him.

It would be an act of mercy on her part. A release from the one-dimensional existence that he lived in at the moment.

The same could be said of her.

Ivy's concoction might've stopped the poisoning, but the damage was already done. Even if Siobhan were to survive this battle, there was no simple way to recover from what the toxins did to her organs. The only reason why she was not dead yet was because she was desperate, recklessly pushing her regenerative abilities to their limits.

"Alright, let's do this," Siobhan told herself, a forced smile set on her face as the stinging cold sensation of her powers coursed through her. A glittering barrier of ice formed out of thin air, chilling the space around her as the flecks of ice fanned out in search of a target.

(Gotham City, August 15, 2012. 11:38 p,)

Central Gotham was so huge that it would be impossible to Siobhan in time. Granted, there were only a few locations in Gotham that she would bother herself with and Robin already ruled out two options: Gotham Academy and the cryo storage facility.

"I think I might have an idea where she is," Oswald offered. "If she's not in Gotham for any of the labs, then she's probably here for Poison Ivy and the Joker. And if so, I think might know where she is."

"How do you know they are here in Gotham," Robin asked, shutting his holocomputer off in frustration. "The League's been checking all over the East Coast and they've turned up empty."

"Two months before I left Dr. Wilson, her lab discreetly shipped a containment unit of Hydrogen Cyanide to a processing facility a little ways from here. I informed Siobhan of this and I believe she may have had recently investigated the place before she was abducted."

"It's worth a shot," Artemis pulled up a satellite image on dashboard. "I mean we can either check the place that looks like the set of the 'Ice Age' movies or the Gotham Zoo. I mean they just got that Hyena enclosure and you know the Joker's all up for extra laughs."

"Haha, very funny," Kid said blandly, turning to look at the screen. "Can we get back- Oh."

"Yeah. Let's go."

(Ace Chemical Plant, August 15, 2012. 11: 45 p.m)

The thermal map of the processing plant was essentially one giant black hole with recorded temperature readings of near absolute zero. No one was going to turn away from investigating just because of a little cold, but everybody huddled a little closer to Oswald and the insane amount of heat he was generating as a reaction to the extreme cold.

"Picking up multiple readings converging in the shipping deck. Come on, this way." Robin let the map guide him through the processing plant, the rest of his team trailing him as he weaved through the path mapped out by his computer.

Artemis pulled ahead him once they were right outside where the map told them to go, nocking multiple arrows to her bow as she ran inside. Robin and Kid rounded the corner and joined her a few seconds later, running straight into Wolf and Rocket.

"Hey, watch it-"

"Sorry!" Robin looked around, confused but glad to see the rest of his team. It would seem as though they made a quick stop back at the Cave to pick up Sphere and Wolf to help track down Siobhan, who was standing about 30 feet away with the Joker beside her, frozen from the mouth down.

She regarded them warily, clutching her left shoulder with one hand that was covered in blood. A discarded switchblade and semi-automatic rifle rested next to the Joker's feet, a scattering of bullet casings and fresh blood peppering the floor.

"I got the Joker," she joked, a weak smile flickering on her face. " . . . Hooray, right?"

Aqualad sheathed his waterbearers and took a step towards her, his concern unmistakable in the dim light of the room. "You need help. We can get you to a hospital. Robin, radio the League and call for-"

"No hospital. I'm fine. Just . . . give me a moment . . . to explain-"

"You don't need to. Oswald already debriefed us," Robin explained. "He's-"

"Oswald? Why were you-"

The look of intense surprise and fear on her face told him enough as Robin shouted for the team to get down as a fireball imploded around them. He heard the sound of ice shattering and the Joker's weak cackle as the flames subsided, revealing Oswald as he stepped out from the shadows.

"You!"

Robin and others were blown back as a spinning storm of ice and sleet surrounded Siobhan. She charged at him, all previous injuries ignored as she brought down the first rain of her attacks on him.

Oswald sent her flying with a well aimed blast of fire and laughed, a hollow sounding noise echoing in through the room. "Why are you so hard to kill?"

"Because I'm not a half-bake like you!"

An omni-directional rain of jagged icicles came down on him, stopping a mere few inches from his body. Siobhan picked herself up, only to double over and spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Shiv!"

"What's wrong?!"

Oswald held up a small fireball in his hand, a malicious grin etched on his face. "The Joker Venom did quite a number on you. But I wonder how much more you can take."

Kid bristled at each step he took towards them. "Oswald, what are you doing? Weren't you and Siobhan-"

"I lied. Or at least I half-lied," the pyrokinetic tossed the ball of fire around his hands, amused by the flickering light. "Taking advantage of your suspicion towards her was the least of what I did."

"I . . . just really didn't want to drag you . . . all into my problems. I wasn't sure of what . . . was going on myself," Siobhan said, her breathing heavy and labored. "But I would never betray any of you. I swear."

"That's all I needed to know!"

Superboy flew at Oswald, who dodged his blow at the last second. He took a full hit from the fireball as it imploded against him, but rebounded and landed a kick on Oswald, sending him crashing into an empty vat.

"Shiv! Hold on. I got you." Rocket slung her over her shoulder and brought her over to Miss Martian, who examined her injuries.

"She's really hurt-"

"No, I am not."

Robin grabbed her by the shoulders to prevent her from moving. "Shiv, we need to get you to the hos-"

"No hospital!" She shrugged him off and backed away. "Not until this is taken care of."

"But it is. He's not going to get back up," Kid gestured at the limp form still embedded in the warped depression made in the vat. "Not anytime soon, I think."

"You can explain later. When you're ready to," Robin assured.

Artemis went over and slung her over her shoulder, with Kid taking the other side. They hurried back to the Bioship and made it to the hospital in record time, updating the League on their status and giving them the coordinates to the Joker's location.

Once the doctors had an idea of Siobhan's condition, they ushered the Team out into a waiting room and began to prep for surgery.

(Gotham City, December 22, 2012. 9:41 a.m)

Four months had passed since then. Siobhan was moved into a secured ward after she was placed in a medically induced coma. The doctors said she was in critical condition when they brought her in, and the Joker Venom, with the addition of physical trauma to her brain and other organs, had done heavy damage to her body and psyche.

Whenever the Team had time, weekends or down time in between training, they would visit her, leaving small souvenirs from missions that they snuck past the nurses or vases of flowers they bought from the gift shop to lessen the depressing presence of the machines that were keeping her alive.

In that time, Dr. Laurent's lab had been searched thoroughly. Every case file related to Project Shiver brought to Batman for examination, to which Robin assisted with. Oswald had been interrogated by Captain Atom and was currently awaiting transfer from Arkham Asylum to Belle Reve.

He confessed to his part in the Joker's plot, superseding Dr. Aris Wilson's authority and cooperating with the escaped Arkham fugitives in order to murder Siobhan. A medical examination of his condition revealed that he was severely mentally impaired from years of hallucinogenic and psychedelic drug use, no doubt spurred on by Aris to keep him under control as she worked.

From the get go, it would seem that Siobhan had struck out on her own many times during solo missions in Gotham, protecting the doctor's cryo pod from Aris and Oswald while searching for Joker, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy, who was the only one that the the League was not able to apprehend. Her first meeting alone with Oswald and Aris prompted her to look up the research Dr. Laurent had been conducting, which was when she probably realized that Aris and the Joker were in contact.

The potent strain of Joker Venom on her was a cocktail of the original formula and the mutated strychine, altered by the artificially weaponized meta-gene Aris used to genetically alter Oswald. The effect of toxin on ordinary humans was still unknown, but judging by the aggressive affect it had on Siobhan, it was safe to assume that a normal victim would die from more than just an overdose of laughing gas.

In his confession, Oswald went on record to state that he gave the League the information on the decoy bomb because he thought that the Joker's plan of committing a massacre was 'too excessive' and reiterated that he only wanted Siobhan dead.

"Everything my father worked for, all the sacrifices he made of my family. Wasted! The least she could do is die!"

There was still the issue of Siobhan's standing on the Team now that most of her secrets had been aired, but Batman decided to set that issue aside for when she woke up. For now, he had to deal with a previously unforeseen complication.

(Wayne Manor, December 22, 2012. 10:01 a.m)

"Dr. Laurent and Dr. Laurent, please come in. Master Bruce is expecting you." Alfred greeted, stepping aside to let a smartly dressed elderly couple in. He led them to the parlor room and took their coats, promising to return in a short while with tea and refreshments.

"Phillip, Olivier, it's a good to see you again," Bruce shook their hands, gesturing for them to sit. "I've brought an associate."

They barely sat down on the plush lounge chairs when Superman walked into the room, his cape flowing behind him as he went to greet the couple.

"S-Superman? But w-why-"

"There's no easy way to say this, but your son and grandson have been implicated for obstruction to civil safety and intent to commit terrorist attacks," Superman began. "The incident with the Joker four months ago brought to light the secret research Dr. Vincent Laurent had been conducting prior to his death."

"We know that," Olivier stared gravely up at Superman, looking slightly irritated. "That's what the Feds have been telling us since we got wind of what happened to Vincent. What about Oswald?"

"Oswald will be serving time in Belle Reve penitentiary for his part in the Bialyan Nuclear crisis in April as well as the Joker incident. Meanwhile, he will be going through intense rehabilitation to recover from the mental trauma he suffered at Aris' hands."

"I requested to see the arrest reports for whatever stint he had in Bialya. You can't implicate him on that when there is no proof of him even setting foot in Bialya," Olivier crossed her arms and sat back in her chair. "For all we know, it could've been Aris who was responsible for that."

"He confessed he went of his own volition. If your lawyers need the arrest reports and tapes, I can arrange for you to get them," Bruce assured. "But about your other request . . ."

"Sophia. What about her," Phillip asked, speaking up for the first time. In his hand was a faded wallet photo of two young children, smiling happily at the camera. "What does the League intend to do with her?"

Superman looked at Bruce and then at the Laurents. "That's why we called you here today."

Shitz-Suji: Yeah, I'm gonna update probably one or two more chapters once my winter break starts and finish this. Everything will unfold soon. Will also be going through from the beginning to fix any errors ._. I heard there was a Season 3 coming and that they were gonna do something with Kid Flash/Wally West.

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