DC's Path of Ruin: Book I

March 29th, 2015 - Part 3

Day 102 - March 29th, 2015 : Morning - Around 11 AM (Gotham, New Jersey)

Grant sat in the back of the van, it's doors opened and facing the sanctuary. He had been here for some time, having gotten a bit of sleep. He had investigated the ghost town some had remembered to be "Gotham City". There was much less people on the streets than last time he was here, which wasn't too surprising, but what was surprising was the lack of police officers or anything like that. It was interesting. People seemed even more scared to be seen walking around here. He knew that Black Mask couldn't scare people this much. It was almost like...The trees were parting. Grant looked up and saw Ivy there. He sat up and watched her for a moment. Ivy's collar was showing sign of weakness: the electronic, blue, circular meter had now turned teal, and soon it would be green if the heat subsiding chemicals circulating through were going to break down. It was going to be refilled.

Ivy herself tugged on the collar as she could already feel it was warmer than before. She stared at Grant inside the van, feeling everything and yet numb to him all at once. It held in her face: still, yet eyes swirling with emotion.

"Give me all the cartridges left. I'm leaving" Ivy said finally cutting the silence between them.

"Where?" Grant asked, pointing to the small crate that was across from him in the van. Pamela gradually stepped out of Sanctuary, her bare feet feeling dead Gotham under the flesh, and hopped in the van. Her flower scents filled it instantly and she maneuvered around Grant to go straight for the box, pushing the code she had seen Grant do on the keypad many times openly to grab the first frozen metal cylinder she could.

"Freedom: out of Lex's control and the thumb of the Justice League. Damn the consequences" She had started calmly, ending her words with an angry hiss.

"Okay. Then what?" Grant asked.

"I continue doing everything I have to to ensure Earth is renewed. My own obstacles do not matter - it will be done"

"Weren't you really just doing this anyway? I mean, you've been accomplishing what you set out to do-"

"-NO!" Ivy protested in a bolt of anger, grabbing at Grant's exposed neck in anger. "Because everything done was put back together - as if none of it mattered! The White House stands, again. London stands, again. Everything must be wiped away! I will not continue allowing the cycle to repeat time and time again!" She huffed, long bands of red hair dancing with her breathing.

"Ms. Isely, unless you have the means to wipe out every person on this planet, they are going to find a way to rebuild it again. Then, if you destroy it again, then they are going to rebuild again, creating a new cycle." Grant said simply, her hands around his neck still not making him flinch. Pamela's green hooded, emerald eyes narrowed on Grant.

"..I know this." She whispered, pulling away her hands and using the ice cold cylinder to stab into the blue circle of her collar. With a puff of air the contents flow inside and she felt relief in the form of a metal chill holding at her neck. She dropped the empty metal tube on the van's floor. "I cannot do it alone, so I am not going to" She said simply, looking back at the box and pursing her lips before vines from her hair emerged to wrap around the box.

"So who do you have to help you then?" The vines lifted the box and she stared at him past all her hair, the tail end of it laying on the floor of the van.

"It doesn't apply to you anymore. This is goodbye, as good as it can be..." She said with a trailing voice, looking back to Sanctuary. Grant shook his head.

"'Fraid not. You can't in accordance with your agreement. You are upset when people don't keep theirs. Yet, from what I've seen so far, don't care whether you keep your own. That is pathetic." Grant spoke truthfully.