2222 Purity Lane has a two-floor house: the front is a perfect model of
upper middle class living, the lawn immaculate, the windows glistening,
the SUV parked in the driveway new, with a honor's student bumper sticker
on it. But the backyard is overgrown wqith weeds, inexplicable trenches,
boarded up windows, shattered glass, rusted-out car husks nestling in dark
shadows. Inside, Two-Face and his men are plotting some kind of crime
operation, Two-Face on the phone with someone.

It begins as soft flutters of sound, shadows playing across the windows
and then within the home itself. Nothing immensely noticeable, except for
one who's had to deal with Bat looking over his shoulder all the time. And
then ... a knock at the front door of the house. Followed by a second one
in the back.

Two-Face glances at the security monitors. "Check it out." he says crisply
to one of the toughs.

Not that it should be any inconvenience for Two-Face, a man used to having
two of everything, but the main power suddenly cuts out in the house. But
what should be more worrisome is that any back-up power is suddenly lost
as well. And then the soft murmurs of movement become more pronounced, all
around the house. And the knocking comes again. From in front and behind.

Two-Face frowns profoundly. Guns move slightly in the darkness, silencers
affixed. Two-Face lowers his voice to a snarling whisper. "Shoot through
the door in back. Open the one in front first. I'll be watching from the
balcony above. Go." They move quickly and skillfully. These are hardly the
bottom of the barrel.

Well trained thugs and mercenaries. Versus the cream of the world's
assassins. It might make for an amazing battle, if that was what your
guest had wanted. But its not. Instead, Two-Face's men likely discover,
about the same time as he himself, that both were a ruse. Because waiting
upstairs, standing at the entrance to the balcony and looking out on the
neighborhood, is a man. Or a demon. Its hard to tell anymore. What you can
tell though is that there is a very large and familiar figure standing off
to the side of him, awaiting the entrance of someone. "You have been busy,
Two-Face. I have been keeping watch." Strangely, there doesn't seem to be
/anyone/ else around other than Ubu and Ra's himself.

Two-Face pauses. "Put the lights back on." he says softly. "I was
working."

"As you wish." He doesn't move an inch, his back still to you as he allows
the wind to caress him, one of the rare joys he's allowed in his centuries
of life. And yet with those words from Ra's, your lights return, power
sliding back on just as suddenly as it had been cut. "You and the
Detective have been at odds recently once again. I had hoped that would
not be until we were ready to implement our plans. But perhaps it is best
this way, so as he has no reason to suspect." Turning back to face you,
Ra's motions for Ubu to step out of the way, then moves towards you. "Tell
me, Two-Face. Will Mr. Dent prove an obstacle to implementing changes that
will shake the world? And perhaps destroy a good portion of it?"

Two-Face stares blankly at Ra's for a moment, unreadable. "Who do you
think you are?" he asks, voice sizzling with sudden menace. "Who in the
/hell/ do you think you are? You think you are /pure/?" He puts one white
shoe up on the railing and brushes a little dirt from it. "Let me tell you
something about Harvey Dent. The person you think is Harvey Dent is not
Harvey Dent. The person /you/ are thinking of is an invention. An
invention of a lot of people. The bat. The media. The police. The doctors.
The courts. Dent's friends. Dent's family." He lowers his foot back down
and lowers his voice to a vicious, crisp, ugly spit: "They made a little
picture in their heads and called it Harvey Dent. And you're worried about
that /picture/. Pathetic. That wasn't Harvey Dent. Not even Harvey Dent
knew who Harvey Dent was. Nobody knew. And you don't either. So you just
head on back to Treasure Island and leave Harvey Dent to /me/." he hisses.
"Because /I/ am the only one who knows /who he is/, and he is /way/ out of
your league."

"Good." There's the barest hint of a soft chuckle there. A menacing
chuckle, the eyes on you ones that seem to look at, through and deep
within you. Down into the core of you that even you're afraid to see. "But
do not presume, Two-Face. Never presume, not with myself. I have seen more
than your twisted and brilliant mind could even begin to fathom." He takes
a step towards you, then waves you over away from the window. "And my
business is with you, here and now. Please, do take a seat." Ubu pushes a
seat forward for Ra's, who reclines without preamble, then watches you
over steepled fingers. "I will need several sites around Gotham secured
soon. And once secured, we will need the self-appointed saviours of this
city kept well away from those areas without raising their suspicions."

Two-Face takes the chair and turns it around, sitting in it backwards.
"Quit with the melodramatics. I'm not Jervis Tetch. Where exactly are we
talking?" he asks, cool and businesslike.

With that question, a large map is rolled out between you both by Ubu. One
that appears to be Gotham, laid out in careful detail. "You recognize
this, of course?" Ra's simply nods to the map, then continues, the
question obviously rhetorical. With a nod from Ra's, a second image is
overlayed on the first. With some radical changes on it, including a
staggering rift, a gash slashing through Gotham resembling a leer or
terrifying grin. The Demon falls silent, letting you examine the image and
watching your reaction.

Two-Face doesn't react at all to it. Either he's dreadfully prosaic, or
he's good at hiding his expressions, or, knowing him, some combination of
both. "What about it?" he says drily.

The consumate chess player, Ra's nods to Harvey's question, pointing
towards the large rift. "This city has become a cancer, and its protector
a thorn to too many plans. It is time both were excised. And a change is
in order, one that shall allow you and the Joker to choose self-contained
territories once the arrangements have been taken care of, and which will
allow myself to gather certain resources that shall be unleashed by these
changes as well." Shifting his finger slightly, he outlines the side rifts
that seem to enclose areas. "The larger rift will allow for a 50/50 split
between you both, and the smaller ones will allow you to assign
under-captains, if you will, for each region. You may do with Gotham as
you will, as long as neither interferes with my own machinations."

Two-Face nods almost annoyedly. "I was asking what areas you wanted to be
secured." he says. Apparently he isn't interested in the long view.
Apparently.

A third overlay is placed down on the map, key areas highlighted in red,
laying across portions of the rift in some places, and far from it in
others. A fault line, perhaps? "I will assign exact coordinates to you and
the Joker, once the equipment has been prepared for delivery to their
destinations. And then you shall both have less than 24 hours to secure
the location. You can understand that for security purposes, each location
shall be given serially." Ra's stands up, then steps onto the map itself,
facing you, "We stand upon a moment of change. Where the bright light that
the city's inhabitant's continue to believe exists, shall be forever
snuffed out, leaving them to see the truth of the world about them."

Two-Face mm-hmms. "What if the clown drops the ball?" he says. "Or
double-crosses us three?"

"Then he shall die. If you wish the pleasure, it may be yours. If not,
there are always other arrangements that can be made." Or perhaps, already
are. Contingencies within contingencies. That is the Demon's eternally
spun web. There's always a deeper pattern. "And I am making arrangements
for a pawn to be available to us, one that you shall likely find some
amusement in, I believe." With a secretive half-smile, Ra's turns and
walks slowly towards the terrace. "But have a care now in how you draw the
attention of the Bat and his allies upon you. For soon I shall need to
employ your services as we have agreed."

Two-Face nods a little. "His attention was on us the second we walked out.
He didn't even have the decency to wait two seconds." he says softly,
scowling hatefully, thoughtfully. "So when will you give us the first
area? And how big will we be required to secure? Just one building?"
You say "Uh, at a time."

"Perhaps as early as two days, perhaps as late as two weeks. Two
buildings." He considers his statement, then amends, "Let one set up their
device first, while the other perhaps distracts the Bat and his allies.
And then the second may act in reciprocation." Ra's nods slowly, "But if
either fails, the device must not be allowed to fall into the Detective's
hands. Are we understood?"

Two-Face nods slightly. "You got a dead man's switch for it?" he says,
narrowing one eye. The other, lidless, still leers hideously at Ra's.

Ra's Al Ghul steps out onto the balcony, where suddenly a rope dangles.
But it doesn't seem to be from the roof. And yet, no sound can be heard
from outside. "The contingencies will become evident soon, Two-Face."
Grasping the rope, Ra's nods to Ubu, who gathers up the maps then moves to
join the madman. "Beware the one of fair face. She may prove your
undoing."With that cryptic remark, Al Ghul suddenly gets pulled into the
air, and Ubu moves to grasp the end of the moving rope, getting tugged off
his feet as well. The responsible party, a military chopper on stealth
mode, begins to ascend and head away from the house, Ra's figure quickly
receding with it.

Two-Face looks up at it. "Gotta get me one of them. Someday." he mutters
to himself, and disappears back down into the house. The first words out
of his mouth are: "We're moving."