Who Do You Think You Are?!? [Ra's al Ghul]

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

The problem with the Himalayas is the language. Or perhaps there's multiple languages - she hasn't been paying close enough attention to tell - but whatever the language is around here, she doesn't speak it and all the pheromones in the world can't help her with that problem. She doesn't need to be able to communicate with a man to make him pledge his undying love to her, but she does if she wants directions.

But that's been the only problem she's faced on this journey so far. Her improved pheromones certainly do the trick - when she does find a man who speaks a language she actually understands, it's easy enough to get him do anything she wants. At first that was a matter of simply helping her get to the particular region of the mountain range that Crane had indicated. Once she was there, she simply started asking what they know about a man named 'Ra's al Ghul'. Which has yielded to her far more information than anyone else would probably get - everyone seems to be terrified of him, and she's sure that if it weren't for the heavy dose of drugs they wouldn't share so much so freely.

Then, to keep her tracks covered, everyone she talks to either experiences her new and improved mind-wiping drug - causing them to forget that she was even here - or she simply kills them. She's used the latter option sparingly, however - mostly when she'd convinced someone to be her guide for an extended period and she couldn't be sure that her drug would make them forget everything - because body disposal is always a problem and she doesn't know closely the man she's after watches the surrounding villages. A string of murders tends to attract attention, and she doesn't want that for once. In fact, she's even deigned to set aside her normal attire and dress like a local quite early on in her journey. And not a wealthy local, either - just an ordinary woman whose only oddity is that she likes to keep her face covered more than usual.

Finally she arrives at what she knows to be the correct mountain. And not just because the locals confirm that, but because she can feel it. She still remembers the feel of those plants she saw in Crane's lab so long ago - dying not just from being cut but from being in an area so totally unsuited to them. As she gets closer to the right place, she can feel her surroundings becoming closer and closer to what would be ideal for them. And, knowing that she's close and wary of letting anyone know that she's coming, she abandons the road and the villages and instead finds her own path.

She doesn't need people - they are simply convenient sometimes - all she needs are the plants, and her connection to them is stronger than ever. They can show her the way up the mountain by feeling the terrain with their roots, give her food and shelter, and even warn her when someone coming - everyone breathes, and with every breath the nearby plants get an extra dose of carbon dioxide. Her mental reach is quite far now, so with the plants acting as her spies and her guides it's easy for her to avoid running into anyone as she makes her way up the mountain.

Higher and higher she climbs, looking ahead of herself more with her mind than her eyes as she scans ahead for signs of the flower that she's here to find. It's not very difficult - this is a simple mountainside ecosystem, not the great diversity of a rain forest - it's simply a matter of patience and persistence until she finds it. And eventually she does - just on the fringes of what she can sense, a delicate little flower. A healthy one! It's still a short walk to reach it, but she's already quite pleased with herself for finding it. It would have been such a waste to come all this way for nothing.

[Deleted]

Ra's smirks.
Watching her from above.
He knew exactly what she had came for, as he had heard her coming as soon as she stepped foot on her mountain.
"Ah.  I was expecting you'd come." Ra's says from his walkway, approaching her. He noticed her looks, green pale skin. She was obviously becoming more and more plant like. It was perfect. You see, Ra's knew how to squash a plant. All it will take is a dose of herbicide and persuasion. The plant stood between them.
But between her, would soon be standing assassins.
A whole lot of them.
She didn't know that, to Ra's knowledge. If she had any sort of idea how many were here, it could easily be mistaken for his palace guards and staff.

"Ms. Isley..Or Ivy? What do you prefer?" Ra's asks. "As I'm accustomed to both, hearing your criminal name."'

 He says as he makes his way downstairs, truly facing her.
"Wow, they truly do not exaggerate the tales of your beauty." He says, surely he wasn't the best at charming, and clearly she isn't the type to accept it but Ra's wanted to at least get on good terms, but he needed that flower, but it didn't work.
"So. You've come for the flower and I come with a proposal." Ra's chuckles a bit

"Follow me, if you will." Ra's asks. He knew she wouldn't exactly comply, he coughed.
"Or would you rather see the plant harvested, permanently?" He asked her, hoping that'd at least push her to the table. He needed her as much as she 'needed' the precious flower.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Surprised to hear a voice coming from up above, Poison Ivy immediately twists to see who's there. Ah, she hadn't seen that there was a structure up there. Where there isn't any plants, her senses are more lacking than she's used to. But that he managed to surprise her with his arrival is no matter - he completely failed to take advantage of it.

Now that she knows where he is, she watches him very closely as he approaches, like a snake ready to strike the moment someone steps too close. She doesn't respond to him at first, and also at first she doesn't believe that he was expecting her. Though when he says her name that's proved wrong. How...? Ah, yes - the natives. She knows much of her climb up the mountain would have remained completely unseen by anyone, but it's possible that one of the mountain folk spotted her when she's first arrived near the base of the mountain and passed along word. Once again, the problem with this area is the language - they wouldn't have been able to do that if she'd known what in the world they were saying.

But the fact that he knows who she is isn't very important either. If anything, it should help - she has quite the formidable reputation back at home. Not seeing the need to keep herself so concealed anymore, she removes the long piece of fabric that she's had wrapped around her head and lets it rest around her shoulders. "I'm not 'Isley' anymore," she replies first, sounding like she's already rather weary of this conversation even though she's only said four words.

His compliment is ignored - any idiot can see that she's stunning, even in the drab attire of the local populace. Those words merely prove that he has eyes. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have a prayer of getting on good terms with her. She started hating him before she even knew his name. Now she knows his name, a lot of rumors, what he looks like, and little else - and none of that has given her a reason to hate him less.

It isn't until he asks her to follow him and follows that up with a threat that she responds again. And her first response is to laugh as if he told a somewhat amusing joke - a low, but very feminine chuckle. "No, I don't think so. You'll probably lead me straight into a trap - and what kind of a fool would I be if I let you do that?" she says, while her eyes are clearly looking him over - sizing him up. She takes a few steps - a circling motion, as if they were preparing to fight, not to talk. "An interesting problem we have ourselves in... Ra's al Ghul, I presume? I admit that I hardly know anything about you. But you hardly know anything about me either. The very name you called me proves that your information about me is horribly outdated. You don't even know how to talk to me," she says, stopping to shake her head at him.

"I don't want to waste either of our time, so I will be blunt: I have no interest in hearing any proposals from you. You seem to believe you have reason to feel like you have the upper hand in this situation - you do not. I've heard you have an army up here. I have more than enough means to kill an army. And if you damage so much as a leaf of that flower, I can and I will cleanse this mountain of everything human. If you want peace with me, you will spare me your idiotic attempts at diplomacy, give me that flower, and I will be on my way. Anything more or less than that means war - a war of a kind you have never seen before and are totally unprepared to face," she says, her tone surprisingly light. It's easy to tell that she's confident in her words - extremely so. She's not exaggerating one iota about what she believes that she can do to him - never mind that she got an earful of the local lore about the man that she's talking to. Even in person, he's simply not... enough to intimidate her.

[Deleted]

"You act as if i'm a criminal, but I am not. My buyer tortures the plants to make his stupid toxins. I just give them to him unharmed. I will give you the flower, if you send my pupil a message for me." He says, smirking. "Tell him, that his master is coming to Gotham......" He knew he couldn't come to positive terms, so he might as well punish the one responsible. He knew Crane put this enchantress behind this.
"Tell him he'd best keep a lookout on what is his, as it can easily be taken away."
With that, Ra's holds out the flower, then places it in her palms
"If you don't, I'll know and I will take it back." He says.
"I've got eyes everywhere, in the cities and in your beds. I do not want to have to meet again." On that last word, he disappears right in front of her very eyes.
Like the demon he is.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

The unimpressed stare that Poison Ivy gives him as he attempts to claim that he's not responsible for any harm to the plants should tell him quite clearly that she's not believing a word of it. Of course he's a criminal! He gives them to him unharmed? That's a lie! They're extremely delicate little things, and the instant that they're removed from their proper habitat they begin to die. By the time they reach Gotham and Crane, what he does to them probably counts as a mercy killing.

But she's used to the callous cruelty of everyone, so she's not surprised that he's so heartless and uncaring about it - quick to point the finger when he bears so much of the responsibility. Still, how anyone could do such a thing to so many small, beautiful, rare little babies just so that Crane can do his pointless little experiments is beyond her. And it's also beyond her to want to work with such a person, which is why she's so quick to reject his slightest attempt to be friendly.

Remaining quiet as he explains what he wants her to do, she only stops staring at him when he hands her the flower. And from that moment on, she seems to only have eyes for the flower, which she lifts to her eye level as she looks at it with a somewhat concerned frown. "Oh, you poor baby - don't worry, I'll take care of you," she softly murmurs to it. She does glance up when the man disappears, but only to note his absence and figures that means that she can leave now without him objecting.

If he bothers to have his men track her progress back down the mountain - which would be much easier than tracking her arrival since she's no longer trying to hide her presence, he'd notice that she takes her time in leaving the area. But that's only because she lingers in the higher elevations for some hours to locate some water for the plant and care for its other needs - its good health is now her top priority, but as Crane has discovered it's a very difficult plant to please. Though it's not nearly as difficult for Poison Ivy - having a psychic connection with it helps, since she doesn't have to guess what it needs.

It's still difficult even for her, though, because some of its needs are difficult to meet. In fact, the reason why she lingered so long near the top of the mountain was to make sure that it was strong enough to survive leaving its native habitat long enough for her to get it somewhere that she could find the supplies to reproduce it artificially. If it had been feasible she would have gone so far as to leave the plant on the mountain, go get the supplies, and then come back for it. But she couldn't trust that Ra's al Ghul wouldn't try to interfere with that somehow. Only when she has the plant happily flourishing under her care does she take the trip back to Gotham, where she takes it straight to her lab so she can begin the next phase - she has rescued one flower, but she will not be finished until she's rescued them all. This one will help her save the others.

One thing she doesn't do upon her return to Gotham is make any attempt to pass along the message to Crane - what does she look like, a messenger girl? Who does he think he is to think that she'd do him any favors, no matter how small? Especially since it will be far too late for him to attempt to take the flower back by the time he realizes that she's not going to do his bidding. Besides, she doesn't really care if this means that Crane will be taken by surprise when he's punished for telling her where to find Ra's al Ghul. She did try to go unnoticed, and it's not her fault that he correctly guessed where she got her information from - if anything, it's Crane's fault for wanting Dr. Arkham back so very badly. He should have just let her kill the man.

[Deleted]

Ra's smirked as he watched her, he was right back where he started.He knew that she was never going to return his message to his beloved doctor. So he would now take it upon himself.
He looked at his bodyguard, who was waiting for his next word.
"Ubu, prepare my plane. We have a city to reach." He says, walking back inside and walking towards his lazarus pit. This one was different then the one in Gotham, it was more ancient and demonic looking. A demon's head spewed the Lazarus out of it's mouth. The columns that held the bath steady were glowing in their cracks, with the same eerie shade of green as the pool. He sighed, removing his clothes and going inside.
The doctor had ruined their relationship. to Ras', this enchantress was clearly lead her by something, and he rarely has his assassins out on the street, and if they are they certainly wouldn't reach her attention. He merely sent them to spy on the detective and his proteges.
Ra's is returning back to Gotham, he has business to finish.

His fight with the plant lady is not over yet.