Fear To Be Replaced [Ra's]

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane had taken a long walk to get to where he was now. VerMillion had tagged slowly behind him and he didn’t mind. He preferred that she accompanied him most places now. It gave her more experience and made her more useful in the long run. There was also a part of him that just wanted her in his sight at all times. In fact he was going to make sure it stayed that way. It was for this reason that he didn’t care if she heard the conversation he knew he was about to have.

He went down the steps near the docs and motioned for VerMillion to join him. Near the edge of the wooden docks there was an old payphone. It was the same phone he’d used to contact him for years. It was a phone he never enjoyed using, but it had gotten him out of trouble many times and gotten him a fresh supply when he needed it. But now he was under a new employer….and he had yet to tell his old one.

He was not so stupid as to think that Ra’s didn’t already know, the man tended to know things before they came to light, especially when it came to him. But he found it better to communicate it to him so he could expect what he already knew was going to happen. Mr. Luthor had claimed that it wouldn’t, but Dr. Crane wasn’t one to trust openly. It was best he handled the situation on his own as he always had. His eyes kept upward and occasionally downward to the shadows, it wouldn’t be the first time he was ambushed here by the assassins for one reason or another.

Over the years Dr. Crane had strayed from Ra’s hand more than once and each time he had been able to pull him made through several methods. It involved everything from restricting supplies to even psychological conditioning. Dr. Crane rubbed his own jaw as he stepped into the phone booth and slowly picked up the phone. He dialed the special code he needed to get through to Ra’s and waited for the demon head to pick up the phone.

“ My circumstance have changed….and…” He swallowed and chose his words wisely.” I won’t be needing your services anymore.”

[Deleted]

“Operative Naaharis reports that General Diego’s body was found this morning floating in his pool by his cleaner. With the evidence being placed against Sanchez, we will have removed both the current leader and his second, allowing our own regime to take control practically overnight.” With his fingers stroking through his beard while listening, Ra’s was glad that the mission had ran so smoothly but he expected nothing less from his men. Sitting at his office desk watching the computer screen before him, he listened intently to each account of how his operative’s respective missions had been carried out. Five men on five separate cameras made up this video conference, each of them explaining how operations under their command was going. They are the Stratagem of The Demon, the five top Assassins who reported only to Ra’s himself.

“Very good, I believe that concludes the meeting. You each have your assignments, see that you carry them out as instructed.” A response jumped from each of them, with them all praising their Master in a farewell fashion before disconnecting from the meeting. A silence in the room as Ra’s closed the lap top, turning around in his chair to look out onto the streets below from the large window at the rear of the room. The ebony suit he wore matched the night sky that hung above the City, with a crimson tie being the only sign of colour on his apparel. His beard and hair was still dark and strong after his recent use of the Pits, although a few dashes of silver had appeared upon his side burns already.

The phone upon the desk burst to life, screeching out like a bell. An infernal machine in the eyes of Ra’s, with it often disturbing moments of tranquility. Picking up the phone, Ra’s would be lying if he wasn’t surprised to hear Jon’s voice on the other end of the line. Clenching his teeth before speaking, Ra’s paused before speaking, gathering himself. “If I remember correctly, as your Master, I choose when you leave my services but as of late, you have rarely bothered to honour our arrangement. What with your incarceration and your fling with that Child, it would seem you have very little time to actually get work done.” To the best of his knowledge, Ra’s understood that Crane had been dealing with various personal problems lately however that was irrelevant to their arrangement. The League provided the supplies and Crane created the toxin.

“Very well, I release you from your employment.” A bad investment should be cut off, like a parasite so that more useful endeavors may be engaged.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

The phone was sliding from his hand as he heard Ra’s speak. Why was it sliding from his hand? He changed the phone to be supported by his shoulder and looked at his hands. They were wet and he was sweating already. He took another swallow and refused to acknowledge what was happening to him. He felt like he had been caught in a cage between the glass of the phone booth and maybe he very well had been. He wouldn’t have put it passed Ra’s to have someone always following him, but no…That kind of thinking was…

He tried to bring himself back but then he said it. Dr. Crane nearly dropped the phone when he heard it. It was words that he never thought he’d hear for the rest of his life and since they were both immortal beings…..forever. He was always prepared to face this, but never this way. What he said could have been taken in many ways. He didn’t tell him that it was alright that he changed employers and being ‘released’ from employment could have meant several things.

But he wasn’t scared, no, he wasn’t afraid that someone would take his life here. They would find out that of course he was incapable of it. But if it was that way why was he looking around so much? Why was his heart slowly crawling into his throat and his mouth went dry as he tried to respond. The corrected words couldn’t come no mattered how much his lips parted to say something.

“It’s done then.” He said abruptly and hung up the phone. His face went pale and he stared at the poorly painted black devices which cord now swung to and fro. He debated with himself several times whether he’d pick it up and call again to say something different but he knew it was too late. What he had done now, there would be no reversing it.

The Doctor backed quickly out of the phone booth like he was expecting it to collapse any moment. His eyes were all over the street then waiting for shadows to come out and grab him for the treason he’d committed. Before he allowed his throat to get any tighter he made his way down the dock quickly back toward the regular streets.

[Deleted]

Dropping the phone back onto its hook, the dead buzz from the disconnected call rang out until the old fashioned looking device was placed back down upon the leather topped desk. A chilling silence followed, with the solitary Demon lost in his own mind, a thoughtful expression upon his well-lined face. The loosing of Crane was a costly move, something he would never say out loud but he knew it, the former Doctor had his uses…and his disadvantages. Lately, his work ethic had been slowed by his unfortunate incarceration, resulting in a lack of produce on Crane’s part. Neither Ra’s nor Jonathan enjoyed each other’s company but both tolerated each other as a necessary evil. Through their interaction, Crane got ingredients for his toxin and Ra’s had an asset in Gotham.

Without noticing him enter, Ra’s looked up at Ubu who had entered the room while his Master contemplated his actions. “Do you require me to silence Dr. Crane, Master?” He asked in his stoic manner, standing in the door way of the office with his head pointed at his feet. The Man lived to serve The Demon’s Head, as did his father and his father before him. Ubu was not a name but a title, passed down from father to son as a sign of great honor, with them serving as their leader’s chief bodyguard and protectorate. “No…Mr. Luthor has plans for him, so he will live for now.”

Nodding in understanding of his Master’s wishes, Ubu almost left the room as quietly as he entered before Ra’s looked up from his moment of thought. There would now be a need for change in the League’s influence over Gotham, but he would need to discuss his plans with the others before finalizing them. “Tell my daughter I wish to see her.” Following his instructions, the servant quickly fled the room to carry out the orders, once again leaving Ra’s alone in his study. Crane thought he was fear, he was wrong. He merely knew how to manipulate fear, a trick employed by the League but without the use of hallucinogens. There’s nothing God-like in his powers, just the use of narcotics to force the body to betray its own senses, to allow the mind to shut down into a shock induced coma. Not God, just a scientist.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Every shadow could have been the league. He had remembered his first run in with them and it wasn’t good. He had been there on his own terms, after his own study and his own research and still they ripped him from it. Not only did Ra’s rip him from it, he had made him a….slave. Dr. Crane would never be a slave to him again, of that he would make sure. Even with his new employment to Luthor he would make sure he’d never land into that trap again. He would find a way to make that plant grow and then he wouldn’t need either of them ever again.

Dr. Crane had headed down the street quickly and avoided all the dark places he could, he wasn’t scared. He wasn’t scare. He just wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to sit around long enough to let Ra’s send someone or have someone already near to try and kill him. That was impossible, he couldn’t die. But he didn’t want to have any further interruptions before he was able to get to work. There was much work to be done under Luthor and Luthor was going to provide him with every avenue he needed.

Ra’s had thought he had instilled fear in him, but he hadn’t and he never could. What he didn’t understand then and failed to understand now was that he is fear. He is the reincarnate of fear itself and nothing would stand in his way to complete his research. The doctor’s confidence came back as he got toward some of the brighter streets and made his way to a main one to catch a cab back to Luthor’s residence.

His heart was still racing, but it was only because of the quick walk.....