27 - Voice

[bodilesswarrior]

[Iris is dying.

It takes everything inside Barbara, every ounce of training and experience, to be still. She knows she'll be too late. If she goes bursting in without knowing the situation, chances are high she'll just die next.

She knows better than that. It's not what Iris would want.

So she stays in her tower. She maps the way to Jack's cabin in her head, and she gathers her weapons, and she waits.

She's just about to make her own call - to the people she trusts most - when she gets Iris' message. When her heart sinks and bile fills her mouth.

She will not feel guilty or foolish or afraid; there's no time.]

[Voice]

[Barbara's voice is low and grim, betraying none of the rage or grief she feels.]

Jack killed Iris. I don't know why, not yet. She's in his cabin; he might still be there, he might have left.

There's something wrong with Mason - drugs, she said. Not sure how it's connected.

[A slow, deep breath.]

The laughter. The warped mirrors. They might be connected, too. They might not.

Either way, you need to stay on your guard. Look out for each other. Iris might not be the first victim, and she probably won't be the last. That's how the Barge is.

[Private to Cain]

You got one too, right?

[Private to everyone Iris is close to]

[She switches to video for this. She figures she owes them that. Everyone else that Iris loves.

There are no tears streaking down her face. Instead, her lips are curled in a fierce snarl, and her eyes are blazing. Still, her voice is steady.]

No one go out half-cocked. We don't know what we're dealing with, not yet, and the last thing she'd want is you getting yourselves killed.

[Private to Motorcycle Boy]

[Back to voice! Hoarse but calm.]

Harvey may be missing. Have you talked to him lately?

Comments

Special Delivery!

[thejokerswild]

[ Jack is most certainly not in his cabin, late the night of July 23rd. Jack isn't in charge, anyway. ]

[ Joker, on the other hand, is ushering Mason away - having loaded him down with the ex-Derek goo, and shuffled off to vanish into the night. By the time anybody does anything, really, he'll be long gone and secured himself somewhere to make his own, big shiny reveal.... much later. ]

[ But he did leave Iris outside Bab's door, smiling beatifically at nothing at all. ]

I DIDN'T ORDER ANYTHING

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her sensors don't work on the Barge. There's no proximity alert, no cameras to tell her what's happening, to prepare her for what she sees. When she opens the door, it's simply to check the perimeter, gun at the ready.

She chokes down the gasp, but her eyes blur as she wheels outside. Barbara won't let herself touch her, not yet - not until she checks for watching eyes, for obvious traps.

There's nothing. Just Iris, smiling up at her, pale and bloody and broken.

She swallows the sobs, too.

It's difficult, to pull Iris up onto her lap, but she manages. She wheels them both inside, and she stops to breathe. Her heart is pounding in her ears and her tears are hot on her face and she wonders if this is how Iris felt, when Victor brought her head.

A deep breath and she moves again, settling Iris on her couch. Barbara will be there, when she wakes up.]

[imfollowinghim]

Where's Mason?

Voice

[bodilesswarrior]

No idea. When was the last time you saw him?

private;

[ichoosefight]

Don't be ridiculous. I'm fully cocked.

[ Her voice is grimly serious, and yes, she does mean that literally. You can probably even hear the 'click'. ]

private;

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her lips quirk, just a little bit. That's a Robin for you, isn't it?

She lifts her hand, and the light glints off the steel of her Glock.]

In due time, Stephanie.

[filter; sort of]

[halftheman]

[ Funny, Harvey -- who is quick to anger -- does not answer at all. ]

[filter; sort of]

[bodilesswarrior]

[She is locking you in a safety closet. Mira can visit.]

[private]

[exnihilo]

...Harvey isn't here.

[She's in his room, with his dogs cuddled on either side of her.]

He's usually more predictable than me. He should be here.

[She wasn't worried, before. It's a small ship, he's a big boy, she's not his keeper. In fact she's always thought there was something a little unhealthy and disturbing about his routine, although that says just as much about Mira's penchant for mutability as it does his obsessive mindset. But - now.]

[private]

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara looks different, now. There are tears on her cheeks, and blood on her shirt. Her voice is hoarse.]

Dammit.

When was the last time you saw him?

[punched_hitler]

Do you need a hand with anything?

[Even if you don't, he'll find something useful to do.]

Voice

[bodilesswarrior]

[There's no room to be grateful, right now. Later.]

Stephanie's doing reconnaissance, she could use quality backup.

[ not here ]

[walkingmeltdown]

[Harvey isn't the only Gothamite that fails to check in.

Whether he's become someone Barbara keeps on her radar enough to think of in a time like this, whether she realizes that the mention of either Iris or Jack and trouble should be enough to bring him metaphorically running...there is no response from Powers.

There won't be an answer if he's contacted directly. And there will be no sign of him, either.

It doesn't matter, though, if Barbara even thinks of him or not. Eventually she'll find out what happened. There may be no avoiding it, then.]

[ safety. closet. ]

[bodilesswarrior]

[She does expect an answer - and, eventually, her heart sinks when she gets none. It would make sense, for the Joker to target Derek. It would be easy, just as easy as Iris.

It's just a theory. Just a coil of guilt and uneasiness slithering in her chest.]

[Derek]

[Voice, this time, low and hard and aching]

If you get this, I need you to answer. ...Please.

[He doesn't, of course.]

[private]

[heisrisen]

[Quiet, solemn. He understands Babs' line of thinking entirely, and he'd share it, if not for one thing: Iris is a warden. And if they don't know why Jack did it or how, and he can still get at her - he doesn't know whether dying over and over would be worse than a week balanced on the very edge of oblivion or not. He thinks probably not, but he'd prefer they not have the chance to compare.]

We can't leave her there. She's coming back.

[private]

[bodilesswarrior]

[She laughs, low and choked. She has to, or she'll start screaming or destroying things and she doesn't have time for that.]

It's all right, he was kind enough to leave her for me.

Filtered

[shakenandlimp]

What has been done to her?

[No he will not go off half cocked, but when he does go off, it will be with not a grain of powder less than is needed.]

Filtered

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her face crumples, just for a moment. Her eyes are already red, and her voice is a bit hoarse when she speaks.]

She was shot.

[Private, filtered to Iris' friends]

[mistconduct]

Jesus fuck you've got to be kidding me.

[Private, filtered to Iris' friends]

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara's eyes are red, now, though she manages a crooked little smile.]

I wish.

...Have you seen Derek anywhere? [She barely notices that she doesn't call him Powers.]

[private]

[anewlanguage]

What the hell's going on?

[ Iris has died before. And it's never been easy on him, but there's something especially hard to cope with when it's someone from his world to blame. ]

[private]

[bodilesswarrior]

[She's grown - not used to it, not exactly, but she accepts the risks Iris takes. She knows she'll always come back to them.

But she can hear the Joker's laughter ringing in her ears and Iris' body is on her couch and -

Her smile is a bleak, brittle thing, beneath red-rimmed eyes.]

I wish I could say for sure. I've - she's here, now. He shot her.

Private;

[velocette]

Trying to track him down. Where is Jack?

Private

[bodilesswarrior]

He was in his room, when he shot Iris. Stopped to leave her here. [There's a bitter disappointment edging the words; she should have caught him. Should have shot him between the eyes.] I don't know where he went next, or what he was doing before that.

[PRIVATE]

[termofendearment]

....what.

[Ugh. Not for the first time he wishes he hadn't been such a complete idiot. He's too fucking exhausted still to do much, and sure, he could push it if he had to, wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last, but he doesn't even know what the hell to do about all this shit. And he's not about to go running around half-cocked for people he barely knows.

Except there's no chapel to go to to settle it. No group decisions, nobody sitting at the head of the table to organize. Lay everything out, pros and cons so everybody knows. There's just them and this fucked up situation, whatever it is. And Iris keeps sticking her damn neck out for him like the rest of it doesn't matter, and Mason's...Mason. Damn harmless, doesn't even belong in this shit, so he scrubs his face and lets out a harsh breath and when the offer comes out he's not even surprised.]

Funny. I'm already dead twice over, so what the hell. What do you need.

[PRIVATE]

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara manages a smile. It's not pretty, but it's real enough.]

Like I said - be on your guard. Keep an eye out for anything weirder than usual.

Trust me, she wouldn't want you dying a third time, not unless you do something useful with it.

[myironeyes]

Which is his cabin?

[bodilesswarrior]

You aren't taking my advice, are you? [But she's smiling, a little bit. There's something fragile in it, something aching and desperate.] 505. Right next door.

I doubt he's there, though.

[this_corrosion]

What, no, you can't just - how d'you know, huh?

[Gary is hostile, panicked, cornered.]

Where's your proof?

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her eyebrows arch, and her mouth tightens.]

Iris told me, as she was dying. That's enough proof for me.