Barbara Gordon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bodilesswarrior) wrote2014-07-23 09:53 pm
bodilesswarrior) wrote2014-07-23 09:53 pm
Entry tags:
27 - Voice
[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?
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?
Special Delivery!
[ 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
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.]
SHUT UP AND TAKE YOUR GIRLFRIEND
[ The laughing that echoes in the dark empty spaces of the barge... are that much more triumphant now. ]