Chapter Twenty-Two

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but Vanessa Edwards/Catgirl and Hallucination...

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A week or so passed, and my Fear Attacks were getting fewer and farther between. I was beginning to realize that maybe Scarecrow didn't create a Fear Gas that lasted forever, or maybe he didn't realize that he failed. The good news from that was that I was beginning to heal from the trauma of my abduction. So when I came home from school, on Halloween, I was in a pretty good mood. Then I saw Selena talking on the phone.

"She's not in the right state of mind to do this," Selena stated on the phone, and I stopped doing my Math homework (quadratics). "Look, do you want to talk to her yourself? She'll say no. Okay, fine." Selena handed me the phone, and with an eyebrow raised, I put it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Catgirl. How are you holding up?" the voice asked me.

"Who is this?" I immediately asked.

"Batman." Fantastic.

"What do you want?"

"The head of the Juvenile Delinquent Center contacted me. Hallucination wants to speak with you." I almost passed out then, and memories of the abduction came crashing back to me.

"Wha-why does he want to talk to me?" I managed, my mouth dry.

"We don't know. All he's saying is that you're the only person that he can talk to. Go to the Gotham Juvenile Delinquent Center tonight, cell 27 B." With that, Batman hung up, and I leaned back and rested my head on the back of the couch.

"You don't have to go," Selena stated, crossing her arms.

"I know. But I have to see what he wants. If I don't go, then when he gets out, he'll come after me again." With that said, I got up and walked to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, I undressed and stepped into the tub, my mind still whirling from Batman's news. This was definitely not 'asterous', as Dick would say. Wait, why was I using his stupid phrases? I thought back to that day in the courtyard, when he leaned closer to me. Was he trying to kiss me? I really didn't need him to like me, because I was already in a relationship with Robin. As I went to shut off the water, I realized that the handle was gone. And the drain was gone as well. To top all that off, I could not move my feet, and the water was quickly rising. My ankles...my knees...another Fear Attack. I quickly shut my eyes and bit down on my hand to keep from screaming. A few minutes passed, and my eyes opened to reveal the small droplets of blood on my hand. The handle and the drain were back, and I hurriedly turned off the water. How long would it take for me to go completely insane?

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Soon, I was jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the direction of Juvy. This was the last place that I wanted to be, but I had to confront Hallucination. Pausing for a moment, I looked down and saw a little girl dressed as a princess, walking with her parents and laughing. Lucky girl. I continued, and Gotham Juvenile Delinquent Center was soon in sight. As I approached the gates, the guards stopped and placed their hands on their gun holster.

"Um, I'm here to see an inmate," I stated, a sick feeling suddenly sweeping over me.

"What is the inmate's name?" one of the guards asked.

"Hallucination." The guards looked at each other, then lowered their hands.

"You Catgirl?" The other guard asked me.

"Well, I'm not dressed as a cat for nothing."

"Come with me," The first guard said. He unlocked the gate, holding it open for me. We walked through the front door and stopped at the secretary's office. The secretary was a middle-aged woman who had horn-rimmed glasses on but looked ten times tougher. Her name tag said she was Catherine.

"Ah, you must be Catgirl. Jack has been talking nonstop about you," she said, surprising me with a southern accent.

"Jack?" I asked.

"Hallucination's real name. Now, if you'll come with me..." She walked out of her office to join me, and we left the guard and walked through a pair of metal doors. We passed cell after cell, each filled with one or two people my age or older that made my skin crawl.

We soon reached Cell 27 B, and I felt like I had just gone down a steep hill on a roller coaster. This door had no bars or windows on it, so I couldn't see inside. Catherine took out a big ring of keys, sorted through them, and singled out a small grey one and put it in the keyhole. The door opened with a loud creak, and I saw him. At first, I didn't recognize Hallucination without his mask, but I noticed the eyes and knew it was him. He was sitting on a small bed, and I noticed a big scar that went across his right cheek.

"Yell if he tries anything," Catherine stated before closing the door. Hallucination (or Jack) stared at me for awhile, and I stared right back.

"Okay, I actually have a life, so can we hurry this conversation up?" I stated, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

"What, going trick-or-treating?" Hallucination smirked.

"Yeah right." I narrowed my eyes at him, then walked up to him and proceeded to grab him by the collar of his shirt. Then I threw him into the wall, still holding onto his shirt collar and pinning him to the wall. "Now why the hell did you bring me here?!"

"I would be happy to tell you, if you would set me down," Hallucination said calmly. My hands threw him to the ground, and he lay there for a minute before getting up and walking the short distance to his bed to sit down.

"Well...?" I asked. He was just sitting there, smirking.

"I've finally figured out how to control people," he said suddenly.

"What?"

"I just told you mentally to put me down. And you did."

"You're full of it."

"I'll prove it. Stand up and go punch the wall," Hallucination said. I stood up and slammed my fist into the concrete wall, resulting in my knuckles getting bruised. Badly. I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain, and I could begin to see the blood from underneath my glove. Why did I do that? I whipped my head around to stare at Hallucination, and he stared right back with triumph glinting in his green eyes.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Like I said before, I'm learning how to command people mentally. Each person has a 'key' to their mind; it could be a person, a memory, anything. As long as they're afraid of it and don't want to think about it, I use that key to enter their mind and control them. For you, it's your parents abandoning you," he explained.

"Don't mention my parents," I growled.

"You aren't the only one with messed up guardians."

"Your parents can't be as bad as mine."

"Really?" Hallucination laughed then. "My parents were scientists. Crazy ones. The only reason they had me was to experiment with me," He pulled up his orange sleeve and showed me various burns and scars on his arms. I thought of my own scars then, hidden under my gloves. "Blood samples, supposed fire-resistant spray...it was all tested on me. Then, when I was about 10, my father claimed that he would give me unbreakable skin with some sort of lotion that he put on my cheek. Then, before I could react, he took a knife and raked it across my face. Obviously, the lotion didn't work," I stared at the scar on his face, the one I had seen earlier. "From that moment, I knew I had to do something about my parents. I tried to talk to people, like everyone tells you to if you're having a hard time. They never believed me, because my parents would swoop in and lie about how much they loved and cared about me."

"Are they still alive?"

"No. About six months after I got my 'new face', my parents bought a big saw. I overheard them talking about cutting off my leg and seeing how hard it would be for me to live normally. That was the moment that I knew that I had to put a stop to this...madness. So, one day when they were setting it up, I plugged in the machine." My stomach churned at what Hallucination was implying. He murdered his own parents? I had to get out of here.

"Look, I have to go," I stated unsteadily. "Did you call me here to just tell me about killing your parents, or what?"

"I called you here to tell you about my powers. And that I've found out your key. Which means, when I get out, I'm coming for you. And you will do whatever I say. Including disbanding the Young Justice team," He paused for a moment before speaking again. "Permanently."

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*cue dramatic music*

This story is almost at 3,000 reads, and I know I do this every time I post a chapter, but thank you to all, especially the people that have been staying with me this whole time. :)

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~~The Bat has left the room~~