Tainted Rewards

by Erin Griffin

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Rating: R

Pairing: Don't wanna tell., but it is my first time writing this pairing, so it might sorta suck. *shrug*

Summary: Some rewards aren't worth the path to get them.

Disclaimer: After what I did to them, I don't think I want to own them.

Author's Note: Erin's Linkin Park and Evanescence CDs should be thrown up in the air and shot at. Dallas and Angel are gonna kill me.

She was a good villain. She prepared for everything: taking over New Gotham, going to jail, going to Arkham, hell, she was even prepared what style she was going to wear her short blonde hair in two weeks in the future. She had a safety net, and if that safety net had a hole in it, she had another one 6 feet below it. "I know your little team will try to stop me. In fact, I'm counting on it." She whispered, circling around me, touching my skin here and there. I wanted to tell her that she could count on me kicking her ass, but I stood still. "They'll send me to Arkham, a place they know is worse than jail for people like me. The unique, the crazy." She looked me in the eyes as she strutted towards me a little more, hovering in my personal space. "But you are going to help me break out. You're going to be the one who draws blood and when all is said and done, you will remember everything." She ran her fingers through my hair, and I cuddled into her. I wanted her touch, her love, even though I knew it was cold and false.

After a minute or two, her and traveled to the back of my neck and roughly brought her lips to mine. My heart raced, and I returned the kiss with a passion I never knew I could possess. Though I knew it was wrong, I still did it. Parts of me wanted to blame her hypnotic hold on me, but I know now that it was my own body, my own actions... my own teeth biting her lip. They were sweet honey laced with poison, her lips were, and though I knew it was deadly, I wanted more... I still want more. She broke away from me, and if I was in control of my own body, I would have recaptured her lips, but she had made a gesture that enough was enough, and I stood still, watching her. She giggled, and I felt my insides churn with... what? Hatred? Disgust? Lust? Desire? "Did you like that, Pet?" To my horror, I nodded.

"Yes." It was the truth, but I would have never admitted that had I been under my own control.

"Then you'll do it? Will you claim your reward?"

"My... my reward?" She kissed me again, a peck that time.

"You want more, don't you? More of this?"

"Yes."

"Then you'll do it." It was a statement then.

"Yes, I'll do it." I told her. 'NO!!! I will not do it!'

As if to read my mind, she said, "Of course you will. You will always do what you can to get more. It's like a drug."

And now it's because of this 'drug', this constant need of her that I stand alone now. I look down at the ledge and stare into the nothingness that was once my city. I still hear the sirens, the street noises I am so used to, yet it means nothing now. I hear her cackle of laughter as it blows with the wind around me, through me. It freezes me more than a thousand winds ever could. I look at my hands; they are covered in blood. Their blood. My family's blood, hardened against my skin from where the wind dried it. Now it marks my shame, makes it real. It marks who I am, a murderer, a monster just like her. 'You are who you are, and there's no turning back.' My guardian once said. There is no turning back for me. My mind, though I fight to keep it from doing so, thinks back to the night, and moment that I lost my soul.

It was a trap, and I set it. For them. For the ones I supposedly loved. Six men surrounded me in a robbery scene at some jewelry store. I called for the Kid and I said that even she might not cut it, that I needed my guardian's help as well, but no, I hadn't needed them at all. These men wouldn't have harmed me at all. No, they worked for me. My family came running (or not) to my rescue, as I knew they would. As she knew they would. Immediately upon their arrival, the men surrounded them, and I slowly circled the men, looking at the two women I used to fight crime with. My eyes were feral, and they burned within these women, but I didn't care. I only need one woman. I thought then. I couldn't seem to do much more than just circle them, looking from sparkling blue eyes to a harsher green.

"She's under her control again." the redhead said to the teen, looking almost disappointed. Inside, I felt ashamed, but I couldn't stop circling them, my prey.

"Again?" She asked, sounding clearly amused. "Oh no, Baby Bat, she was always in my control. Since you put me in Arkham, she's had this growing need inside her to go see me, to set me free. And she has. As I knew she would. She's such a good servant, she is." She looked at me, and smiled her wicked smile. "Say the word, Kitten. Say the word, and everything you want will be yours. Don't let THEM keep you from your reward."

"My... reward." I said, looking fiercely at the women who dared come between me and what's mine. A young voice begged for me to not do this as the harsh green eyes only stared at me, trying to get within me. I wouldn't let them get to me. I wouldn't let them take what belongs to me alone. I looked down. "What are you fools waiting for?" I barked. "Fire!" Before that second syllable could leave my lips, I felt clarity in my head, and her hold on me was gone. I didn't do anything as I watched my mentor slump over in her chair, then slowly slide out of it. I saw light eyes ask me why, judging me, accusing me before they saw no longer. I watched as the smaller body fell as well into the pool of blood. I didn't even hear the gunshots. I heard a loud cackle, then I saw her again. She looked in my eyes and seemed convinced that I was still under her control. "I didn't think you had the tits to do it, Kitten, but you did. I underestimated you. I think you should be twice rewarded." She said. She looked around at the men and sighed. "Though I think that was a weak display of bloodshed. Something should have... I dunno... squirted." She chuckled at the thought alone. "Oh well." She grabbed the gun of the man who killed the sunny spirit of my life, and aimed it at the men. One by one they fell, joining them. Eyes blank, blood everywhere. "Ah, that's better. Come, Love. The bodies are beginning to stink. You don't want to kiss me while I am holding my nose, do you?" I shook my head. I don't want to say it, but I said it anyway in a low tone.

"No, I want to kiss you while you're holding me."

"Yes, yes. Of course." She said almost dismissively. She grabbed my hand and we walked at a quick pace out of the store and suddenly I was pushed against the wall in the alleyway to the side of the building. "I know you like it rough." She said, her lips so close to mine. "Are you ready to be rewarded?"

"Yes." I looked down and see into cutting green eyes. My heart pounded as I stepped into her. I made the bold move towards her lips, and I know she was laughing inside. Her tongue flickered across my bottom lip, and my mouth opened to her. My right hand roamed to the back of her neck to pull her closer, deepening the kiss. Then it traveled to her hair. My left hand gently touched her cheek as I broke away long enough to kiss her surprisingly soft collarbone. I moved my nose next to her ear. "This is my reward." With those parting words, a crunch was heard, and she falls to the ground, lifeless.

Barbara always said that we don't kill because it is not part of the legacy of heroes, but Barbara is dead. She was all seeing and all knowing, but she never saw this coming. There is no honor within me now. I have become tainted. More than that, and it is all because of me, and no one else. I gave in to the enemy's kiss. I look up at the sky, wondering why the sun is beginning to rise when I had hoped for rain. At least then I would have some company. No, it seems the sun is washing away the night before, but I can't let it. I step up to the ledge and look down once more. I look about New Gotham. It is no longer my city. I have only proved to my self that I am weak. I am nothing but a coward, the small braided teen beneath all the leather. I couldn't fight my biggest enemy, myself. I couldn't save them. I let them both die way before their time. What hero does that? My father surely wouldn't. That is a true hero. Here I go, running away again. Perhaps I am more like Batman than I thought I was. At the thought of what I am about to do, my human part becomes scared, but my cat part fights for its life. A great survivor, the Huntress is. Cats supposedly have 9 lives, but they've all been used up. I close my eyes and begin to fall.

This is my 9th life, and I don't want it...