Inflorescence • Poison Ivy's Daughter

chapter twenty two ~ betrayal

Her kiss was lighter then it had been the first time, her dry lips were surprisingly gentle and welcoming. He went to push her off, but she slipped her fingers through his hair and pushed her body into his. She moved her fingers down to his shoulder, taking them in a firm grip. Robin, gasped as her kiss suddenly deepened, he was brought back to the night they'd first met and the poison she had forced on him. The memory distracting him from the exact moment the poison filled his mouth.

Robin fell to the floor in a fit, gasping and heaving, from above he heard Bella giggle.

'Why.' he managed to gasp between the heaves, he stared up through his dark hair up at the flash of her grin.

'Oh, little bird. You didn't think I'd actually care about you did you?'

Robin tried to speak but could only manage a shuddered breath.

'Honestly,' she laughed balancing her foot on the top of his Adam's apple, 'people who trust and love so openly.' her eyes flashed in fury, 'Make me sick.'

She pressed down, cutting off the air to his throat. Robin struggled, limbs thrashing as much as they could, it was futile. He knew as he felt feeling slowly seep from him, his consciousness failing as black spots filled his vision. When Bella spoke again, her voice sounded distant as if it was underwater.

'You are nothing, Wonder Boy, an empty promise. You can't trick yourself into believing you matter, by doing something good. You will be better off the same as anyone else. Six. Feet. Under.' With the each of her final words she pressed her toes deeper into his skin.

A hiss filled the room, sounding through his haze. 'Let him go!' A voice bellowed, Bella didn't turn to him. She kept her piercing gaze on Robins. 'Let him go or I shot.' The voice shouted again.

Robin tore his eyes away from Bella's to the men who had filed through the doorway, each heavily armored and armed.

Another voice sounded over the loudspeakers, 'Think about this Kora, do you really want more blood on his hands.'

Something blank and dark crossed Bella's face. Softly she growled, 'What's one more drop to a sea of it.'

In a snap, she whirled on the guarded men. She took a step forward, off Robins' throat and felt the pain of air rushing through filling his lungs. He wheezed in deep gasps one after another.

Bella didn't stop though, she kept walking. Closer and closer to the men.

 'Stop.' one of them protested. When she didn't, gunfire cracked through the air.

Robin's eye's widened as he scanned Bella, who appeared uninjured then to the wall behind her which featured a bullet, half embedded in the white wall. He heard soft laughter from Bella, it mimicked something cruel but it struck Robin as sounding very sad and tired. 'I guess you guys didn't learn.'

What happened next was both violent and beautiful, as Bella switch from man to man, each becoming bloody and broken by the end of it. Screams filling the room amplifying the horror. When they were silenced, Bella turned back to Dick and he felt equal parts awe and fear at the sight of her blood-splattered face.

She rushed to his side, pressing something cold and smooth inside his mouth. 'Chew' she demanded, as she snaked her arm under his and pulled him up. When she saw his hesitant expression she demanded again, 'Chew, unless you want to be paralyzed.'

Cautiously Robin bit down, he wasn't given much of a choice, doubt swarmed in his mind but the fear of his heart slowly stopping overpowered it. Immediately his body felt more awake as he swallowed the bitter leaf, he didn't have time to check his ability to move before Bella swept him off his feet. Robin let out a startled yell as she pulled him onto her back.

She gave him a wry smile, 'Don't worry I'm stronger than I look.' But Robin couldn't help but hold on tight around her neck as she sprinted down the hallway. They made left, entering a room full of screens covering the walls. Each showing identical cells like the one they had been trapped in.

They came to an elevator, Bella dodged around it opening a door around the corner, a stairway.

'There was an elevator back there.' Robin said as she began hiking up the stairs.

'I'm giving you a pass seeing as I just poisoned you a minute ago. But come on, go into the metal box that my father has control over?'

Robin shut his mouth. He kept it shut as they climbed stories and stories of stairs, the spiral seeming to go on forever. Guilt panged him with each of Bella's wheezed breaths. He felt the urge to tell her to drop him, that he could make the climb on his own. But he knew from the aching numbness of his joints that he would only slow them down and his sense of pride wasn't strong enough to get him killed.

Finally, they came to a door, but Bella hesitated at it. Robin was about to question her but then she spoke, her voice breathless and distant.

'Whatever happens, from this point on, don't forget why I'm like this. Please know that I've tried to be better. But deep down, I couldn't change what really mattered. I may hold my mother's tenderness and love, but I am still what my father made me. And that's something I can never change.'

With a quick movement, before Robin could speak and before she could question herself, Bella ripped the door open. 

What they saw on the other side made Robins blood run cold.