So Let's Be Enemies

I do not own this fanmix, nor do I own the songs, I'm just borrowing them to make (what I hope to be) an enjoyable fic. I do not own the Batman characters, but I do own any OC's…

Yes, this is going to be like my 'CBL…' fic.

Prologue

"Clown Loves Senorita"

"Guys, I promised I'd get you in but-" It was eerie at night, no one but them in a place usually packed by day. Every shadow stretching towards him had claws to keep him in this lifestyle, as much as he hated it.

"And yer doin' a god job, Jack. So just shut the fuck up and keep leading."

-HA-

When the guards attacked Jack suddenly realized why he was wearing the mantle of the Red Hood… he was their bait. The guards must have thought him to be the ringleader of this little show, rather than a pawn, for they all converged on him. Panicking, and having nothing to lose (he knew it was them who killed his wife), he ran up to the precariously balanced upper levels. This was a smart move; only one of the guards would be able to come up without fear of the metal breaking and falling. Jack backed up, no weapon to defend himself with, until he hit a wall. Looking up however, he realized it was no wall… it was a man. A man of mysteries, the legendary Batman. Shaking in fear, he turned away from him, noticing he was caged in, no where to go- but down. He backed up too fast, hit the railing and fell. Desperate to stop unstoppable gravity he reached out, Batman's eyes reflecting the same emotional pain as his fingers missed him by mere inches. Jack closed his eyes and sighed, knowing somehow that Batman knew the truth- he always seemed to know the truth, whether the papers wanted to admit that or not. He listened, eyes still closed as he fell for what seemed to be ages, to the creaking, sounds of gears, and the shifting, splashing chemicals. Chemicals that he knew to be highly dangerous. He used to work here after all. And then the impact, the breath knocked from his lungs as an unknown liquid filled them instead. He writhed in mind-bending agony, even as he felt a swift current pulling him out of the vat and towards some destination that he knew not.

-HA-

Batman watched with distressed and wounded eyes as the man's form sunk and gradually disappeared. There wouldn't even be a body. And the man was fairly innocent, no doubt tricked or forced into this, definitely made to wear the red hood to make him a scapegoat. Which meant the real leader was out there… but he could let Gotham law take care of that. He needed to go back to where he knew he could focus; it was the first time he'd lost someone due to his own lack of action. But he knew it'd be by no means the last, though that didn't help the pain… He could feel the wound made from that fateful day when his parents were murdered before his eyes deepening, spreading inexorably until one day, it'd overtake him.

-HA-

Jack ended up outside the plant, his eyes shot open but all he could see was red. He threw that damned red hood off into the drain, so it would never be found again. It only took a second, but he realized everything he was seeing was red. Jack dug his palms into his eyes, trying to brush away the guilt by pressing as hard as he could. It was a wonder his eyes didn't burst from the pressure… But then, just as suddenly as it had come, the red left, leaving him relieved.

That is, relieved until he saw his hands. They were once fine hands, an artist's hands perhaps, but now they were foreign to him. Chalk white with sickly green fingernails, he couldn't stand the sight of them- but he had to see! Jack ran over to the river nearby and his mind could practically hear the crack as it snapped upon seeing… his own face. He had a clown's face, which forever mocked him and his failed comedic career. His now ruby red lips curled up in a smile, wider than Jack had ever had cause to smile before. His green eyes were dying inside, but he started to laugh. Just little giggles at first, but gradually it became paroxysms of uncontrollable laughter and he screamed in unworldly horror. Jack fell to his knees, trying to cry but just laughing, laughing, laughing.

"HAHAHAHA!"

He pulled at his green hair; it was the kind of green teenagers would kill to have… but it was killing him instead, his shrieks of laughter dying off slowly, tapering into a continuous chuckle. Jack stood and stumbled off unsteadily, occasionally a barking fit of laughter would bubble up but otherwise he was silent. Deathly silent as the grave.

Once Jack, he now switched to a different and wilder card…

And The Joker was born.

-HA-

"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just… one… bad… day."