Professor Fear III

65

Daria and Jonathan ran back to the library.
Part of Jonathan's logic was to collect up any belongings in case the others were seized during the fight. Daria felt a huge ache in her stomach when they went to leave the library. It had become such a beautiful place.
The trees swelled with fruit and sweet flowers bloomed from Ivy's love and care, scenting the cool fresh air with a dainty sweetness. Daria had woken Lucy up to tell her about the situation. The girl had nodded and then fallen back asleep.

The lovers both did their best to get back home undetected. Daria was glad she had smashed all the cameras she'd encountered earlier. It surely helped their journey and gave Daria a new piece of mind.
The deep orange haze of the toxin cloud had thinned into a pale sandy hue. Due to the lack of direct sunlight for so many days, Daria found herself squinting occasionally from the unexpected brightness. Thankfully, by now, she felt she could find Jonathan's house even if she were blindfolded.

Police sirens had started to fill the city.

Daria felt disgusting for running. She and Jonathan hadn't talked the whole time since leaving the others with Superman and Wonder woman.

When they got home, she snapped, frantic.

"What are we doing? What if they are taken? What if those super people do something to them?" Daria's hands went to her hair. Her fingers recoiled quickly from the unexpected matted and dusty texture of her hair from the fight.

"Daria," Jonathan had removed his Scarecrow mask and needled glove and rested them on the kitchen counter. "I want to you inject me with my toxin."

"What?" She dropped her hands and looked at him incredulously. "Why? We don't have time for your experiments. They could kill our friends!"

"Killing isn't their brand." Jonathan replied, much calmer than Daria but still wired. His hair was also tousled, dusty and matted. There was a small crack in the left lens of his glasses. "You need to inject me because when they are trying to catch everyone, they may test for toxin residue in the bloodstream. I heard it was the Batman's suggestion. You'll be fine. Harley and Joker would be fine since they've breathed it in, but they will be taken in any way for their other crimes and for escaping Arkham. You and I are some of the only rogues that still have protected identities."

"You have no idea that they will test everyone's blood in Gotham. It sounds completely unrealistic and expensive."

"So, you aren't aching to get me back for all the times I used it on you?"
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him, so their faces were close.

Daria studied the contour lines on his face that were shaded by dirt. He was so beautiful even when he looked battered and messy. If Daria hadn't been so overwhelmed with the matters at hand, she would have felt compelled to challenge herself to make Jonathan even more of a mess: begging for her to make him feel good as she teased him relentlessly.

"No."

"You're not being honest with me." He frowned.

Daria realised he was right. She wanted to know what he feared. She just didn't want him to end up the way she had when they first met. Especially not now when time felt limited.
She wondered if Jonathan's plan was truly in response to a supposed plan to check everyone's blood rather than his obsessive desire to understand fear. In this way, Daria was a key component to Jonathan's own 'treatment'.

"Daria," Jonathan refocused her. He put his forehead to hers. "Ivy had superman. He was weak and under her poison's power. He inhaled a fatal amount of the fear toxin, and it made him sick. I made a powerful alien sick. My toxin has proven to be incredible. All our friends need to do is to get away. Edward went to get reinforcements."

Daria thought to how Edward hadn't been present when the fight went down. She hoped whatever he was doing would be enough.

"Now, come be a good student and take notes on me after you administer the drug." He beckoned her to the basement. Daria followed.

Jonathan sat on a chair while Daria prepared the toxin.
The power shift of her holding the needle while Jonathan sat in the chair was a strange experience that she had never fathomed.
For a moment she looked at the chair and saw the woman who she had been, timid and curious, perched on the very same chair not long ago.

"I want you to wear my mask." Jonathan gestured to his scarecrow mask. Daria's shocked face returned. He continued, "It has an incredible filtering system against the toxin, and it will be interesting to see how I am affected by seeing it when hallucinating."

Daria felt the rough burlap in between in fingers and carefully put the mask over her head and adjusted it to her face. It was surprisingly comfortable. There was a softer fabric and a thing structure on the inside which prevented the mask from being simply a bag over the head. The filtration system was the heaviest part of the mask and Jonathan had made sure to balance it so it was not uncomfortable.

"Fantastic." Jonathan smiled at her. He had taken his glasses off and put them on one of the side tables. "Will you not tie me up, too, so I don't hurt you?"

The chair had restraints which Jonathan had installed himself. He had never used them on her when she had been experimented on. She was glad for that. The idea of being strapped down to a chair sounded awful.

"No. I won't be doing that."

"I want you to." He insisted. "I don't want to hurt you and I don't want to ruin my lab."

"Okay." Daria crouched down to cuff his ankles. There were other straps for his thighs, torso, and wrists. There was a further strap for his head which Daria did hesitantly. Jonathan was completely calm the whole time. His eyes followed Daria's movements.

"Daria, darling, I need you to at least pretend to feel confident about being my 'doctor' right now while I enter this vulnerable state."

Daria immediately changed her demeanour. Jonathan admitting his vulnerability was an unusual feat.

"Of course. I know what I'm doing. I was taught by the best." She gave him a sympathetic smile.

"I hardly need to teach you. I picked you because you were the best. You were the perfect lab assistant without any prior knowledge of my work."

"You explained things well and I caught on easily." Daria shrugged. She too, like Jonathan, was currently replaying their first few strange months together in her mind.

They looked at each other with adoration and Daria felt her breath steadying again. She could do this.

Jonathan's sleeves were rolled up. Daria studied the veins in his forearms. With the one hand that was not occupied with the needle, Daria ran her hand up Jonathan's body and cradled the side of his face. She gave him a deep kiss and then as she backed away, she pushed the needled into his upper arm.

She watched over the course of 7 seconds as Jonathan's soft confident smile faltered before dropping into a trembling frown. She watched his cool blue irises rush inwards, shrinking his pupils. His lips parted.

Daria had never heard Jonathan scream.

It made her want to scream.

She never wanted him to be in pain.

Behind the formidable Scarecrow mask, Daria was steadying her breath again as tears welled in her eyes. She found herself feeling afraid to take the mask off in case Jonathan became scared of her own face. She kept the mask on and did as he asked: she took notes, she asked questions. After a few minutes, he had ceased his screaming and was able to speak again, although through laboured breaths. Daria figured his history with the toxin meant that he could interact with it better when it entered his system.

He spoke of reliving memories of his childhood abuse from his grandmother and father. However, the toxin distorted their faces into demonic beings with needle-teeth and fiery eyes.

Daria finally saw the Scarecrow and his project for the incredible thing it was, and she was completely in awe of Jonathan's fixation of fear and overcoming its confines.

At one point he described his father testing his experiments on Daria and locking her in a storm shelter filled with spiders, rats, and crawling bugs.

'Patient projects their trauma victimisation onto an other they hold dear. Their fear is extended to concern this other.' Daria wrote under her written transcription of Jonathan's words.

"Scarecrow." Jonathan was looking forward as he spoke. He repeated the word again and slowly turned his head to face Daria who was sitting one meter away to his slight left.

"I am here, watching over you, Jonathan." Daria found herself saying. After all, the Scarecrow had been formed as both a protective talisman of sorts for Jonathan, as well as an embodiment of the agent of Fear.

Jonathan stopped speaking and Daria looked up from her notes to see that he had hit his point of exhaustion. His eyes were desperate to close, but he was too scared to shut them.

Daria prepared the antidote and walked over to him. After she administered the antitoxin, she took off Scarecrow's mask.
Jonathan's head tilted up to look at her. His skin was glistened with sweat.

"You can rest now. It's all over. Go to sleep. I'll watch over you."

She wished she could carry him to the bath likehe had done for her. In the meanwhile, as he slept, she checked his vitals andretrieved a warm washcloth from the bathroom and wipe the sweat from him beforehe got too cold. She wrapped a blanket around him and sat with him as he slept,helping herself to one of the many books the basement offered to kill the time.