"Barbara."
Her mask is torn on one side, the slice in her cheek stinging as the humid air of the cave sticks to her face and runs down in fat droplets of sweat.
"Barbara."
She looks up this time, meeting Jason's dulled blue eyes. His lips are stretched into a twisted smile, distorting his speech, drying his mouth. She knows hers is the same way, because every breath she takes rubs painfully against her tongue and goes down her throat like sandpaper.
"Stay...awakhe." He forces out, reaching for her hand. The square on his belt blinks green, a signal for help, that Bruce is coming for them. All they have to do is survive.
Barbara scrabbles at the walls, trying to escape the greenish water just out of reach. There's joker-gas in the cavern, and she knows she doesn't have much longer until it becomes too potent and she drops right off the rock. Jason's there. She has to remind herself who it is because his face looks a bit blurry and she's feeling nauseous and doesn't want to vomit on blurryface.
"I can't feel my fingers." She says it to the walls, to the water. Her breathing is slow, she's not getting enough air. Jason spits through his teeth, lunging forward and catching her around the torso with one arm. Barbara does a sort of strangled sigh, going half-limp and holding on halfheartedly with one hand.
A shadow falls over the opening. Rope falls, and she's lifted out by Jason and Bruce.
She's not quite well anymore, but Jason assures her that she's alive and the Joker didn't win again and that's all that really matters in Gotham.
