/AN: Takes place just a touch after the ending of Arkham Origins. I took some timeline liberties but as long as y'all don't play spot the difference it should still work. So this is my first fic, I hope everyone enjoys it genuinely or ironically/
CHAPTER ONE
It had been a little over a month since the Christmas Eve riots. January had come and gone with relatively little in house drama, but Blackgate wasn't the same. The air felt fragile, something dark had been building. The inmates were cautious and the guards worried about what they couldn't see. When it all came to a head, the riots were almost a relief. Blackgate fell within hours, any guards and staff that hadn't escaped ended up either mutilated and put on display or held hostage. This way the police barricade outside would choose whether to let the inmates and staff starve or send in food supplies. Blackgate became divided into Joker, Penguin, and Black Mask's territories. Each boss had a different facility to claim and the residents of those cellblocks could either join up or die.
Black Mask set up shop in the center control tower of his facility. Along with access to all staff offices, security feeds, files on every inmate within the building, he also had control over whose cells remain locked. The only way for someone to get out of their cell was to pledge loyalty to Black Mask. With his fondness for torture and irrational temper - that was a gamble.
At the time of the takeover I was housed in what became Black Mask's district. I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, this wasn't the worst possible situation. I could be stuck under Joker's jurisdiction.
I'd spent the last week hiding out in my cell, only leaving to scrounge for food and soda from broken vending machines and steal unattended blankets. The heating to this building hadn't worked properly since the initial riots, and a Gotham winter was never an easy one. Everything I did was in an effort to remain unknown and forgettable, being the only female inmate in this side of the penitentiary was something I'd like to keep to myself. Wrapped up in a mountain of sheets up to my eyes, I spotted someone stalking the corridors. My body went stiff.
Black Mask spent his time either holed away in his control center or making public displays out of other poor bastards. I sat up on my cot, pressing back into the wall. I was locked in a cell; there wasn't exactly any place to run.
He stopped on the other side of my cell door. For a moment all he did was look me over, his masked face tilted to the side, considering. He turned his attention to the door, gripping a bar and shaking it. The door was unyielding, locked. Black Mask's eyes cut into me, narrowing.
"I'm curious…how have you been getting out?" he rasped, inclining his head. My stomach dropped, I looked everywhere but his eyes as my knees began to tremble. Shit. His gloved hand tightened on the iron bars.
"Nothing happens in this happy little family unless I say so. You're not allowed out of this cage, but you've been out anyways. How?" he asked quietly, eyes widening with threat. My fingers pulled at the fabric around me, throat going dry.
"I – I'm good with locks."
"Is that so. Even electronic locks," he remarked, glaring with poisonous eyes. I flinched. I knew leaving my cell was a violation of his control, but I honestly didn't think Black Mask would care. Didn't he have better things to do?
"Show me."
"What?"
"I said show me," he spat. Tumbling out of my blankets, I grabbed my crummy lock picking tools and knelt beside the door. 'Tools' was a pretty generous term, they were actually just bits of splintered metal, mostly broken off my cot's frame, and a Taser I'd snatched from a guard's body during the initial riot. The Taser was necessary for tricking Blackgate's electronic locking mechanisms; the metal pieces were for forcing the bits to move mechanically. Focusing more on ignoring the white suit within arm's reach, I had the door heavily clunking unlocked within minutes. Popping back up to my feet, I quickly backed away from the door. Black Mask ran a gloved hand slowly over the bars then slammed it open. I jumped back, bumping against the wall.
"Fast. You're talented," he entered the cell, blocking any exit. I shifted uncomfortably at his proximity, clutching my kit against my chest. "I need talented workers. And now that your secret's out," he stepped closer, one hand against the wall, caging me under him "you've got nowhere to hide from me." I paled, staring back at his glittering eyes. My stomach flipped. This was exactly what I didn't need, exactly what I'd been trying to avoid. I screwed my eyes shut, cringing as I felt his body heat.
"Y-yeah, okay," I whispered shakily. There was a breathy chuckle beside my ear. He'd won.