A woman shifted in her seat on the plane. Just by glancing at her one could tell she was extremely uncomfortable, but for no apparent reason. She was seated in first class, had just finished a nice meal of steak and potatoes- much better than what most people on the plane were eating- and she had a window seat. But still every minute or so she would fidget around nervously, as if she were expecting someone to jump out at her any minute. Whenever anyone would walk by her seat she would sit up immediately and be on full alert until they returned to their original seat. Her eyes were constantly shifting around her, mistrust clearly visible in them. The woman was never fully relaxed and it was obvious that she never let her mind wander. She straightened out her leather jacket and tugged at her skinny jeans, just to have something to do. She glanced impatiently at her watch; it read 8:43, which meant that she still had another forty-seven minutes on this god-forsaken plane. She ran her fingers through her black hair, messing up a small braid that had rested there in the process. Without even thinking about it her fingers found the destroyed braid and redid it perfectly. If anyone had taken the time to notice one would have found she did this quite often, almost once every fifteen minutes, a nervous habit.

A young flight attendant walked by. She looked no older that twenty-three and was graced with the perfect blonde hair and bright blue eyes, the kind of looks that would have any guy falling for her, but the girl was obviously oblivious to this fact. The woman in the seat studied this girl. She looked so innocent, something the woman wished she could still be. But when one grew up in Chicago, especially on the South-side, innocence was something one couldn't afford for very long. "Anything to drink Miss?" The flight attendant asked politely. The woman with raven hair marveled at how polite this girl could be; after all she was a flight attendant, and the woman had been paying attention to all the pricks on the plane.

"Just water," the woman replied. The girl nodded and filled up a clear plastic cup with water. This woman intrigued her; here she was sitting in first class, the ticket she had bought had everything paid for, including any type of drink, and yet she chose the one that was free. The woman in question nodded her head in thanks as the girl handed her the water; her eyes had never left the girl the entire time she poured the water. One couldn't be too careful. She hesitantly sipped the liquid to make sure that it was in fact just water. She wasn't one to get drunk, or even tipsy unless in the safety of her own home. Discovering that the water was in fact water she quickly finished the drink before tossing the cup in the trashcan that was provided for her. Once again she glanced down at her watch; oh how she hated planes, the feeling of being trapped in something was what bothered her. Not the fact that she was thousands of miles up in the air, or that they could conceivably crash at any moment, not even the thought of terrorists frightened her, it was the fact that technically she was trapped. In a car there is always a chance to escape, even if that involves rolling out of a moving car, which she had done on multiple occasions and received little injury. But not on a plane: on a plane there was no escape until landing. And even then one had to wait around for everyone to get off, which took forever because of idiots blocking the isles while trying to get their bags down, only to realize that there is a different bag blocking theirs, but they're blocking the person the bag belongs to. All in all it was quite infuriating.

The woman would had slept had she any protection with her, but no! She wasn't allowed to carry her weapons onto the airplane with her. So the only protection she had was her own strength, which was still a great asset, but did not make her comfortable enough to be in such a vulnerable position as sleeping. So instead she stayed awake, glancing at her watch, ruffling up her hair, re-braiding parts of her hair, glancing out the window, blowing a bubble with her gum, just did anything to keep her busy yet alert. The woman thought of where she was going and smiled. Chicago was great yeah, but it was nothing compared to Gotham. Gotham was something special. In Gotham the criminals ran the city, no matter how hard the cops tried to make it otherwise. True the Batman had come into the picture a while ago, but that would just make it more interesting. In her opinion Batman had just made crime worse. He should have stuck to busting small timers, not the mob. Going after the big guys is what had grabbed the Joker's attention. Finally the plane started its decent. The woman sighed with relief while chewing a piece of gum to prevent her ears from popping, which, in her opinion, was the most annoying thing in the world. As soon as the fasten seat belt sign was off the woman was out of her seat, bag in hand, waiting for the doors to open. When the doors were finally opened she moved quickly towards her freedom, not even bothering to acknowledge the flight attendants saying good-bye. The woman took a deep breath as she stepped off the plane. "Freedom," She said softly to herself. Looking around she soon found the baggage claim area, picking up two carts as she went she made her way over to the conveyer belt. Most of her things were being shipped separately, but there were some of her belongings she didn't trust with deliverymen. Within the hour she had found all of her eleven bags and piled them up onto the carts.

In all honesty she was very surprised that her bags hadn't been searched due to the fact that four of them were full of weapons. But she wasn't complaining. The woman dug through her coat pocket for her cell phone. Scrolling down the list of contacts she pressed the call button at the name Mike. The phone rang three times before someone answered it. "Who is this?" a gruff voice on the other end asked.

"I need to speak to Mike," the woman replied, completely ignoring the question.

"What's the password?" the gruff voice replied annoyed at being ignored.

"How about I answer your first question?" The woman asked, though it wasn't much of a question. "Venom." There was a shocked silence on the other end. "Hello? Anybody there, did you faint on me?" She asked sarcastically.

"Mike thought you was dead!" The man finally replied.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Yes, that was the plan. Now give the phone to Mike." The man complied and the woman heard Mike's excited voice on the other line.

"Jesus Venom, is it really you? Because if this is some prank I swear to God-"

"Your real name is Gandalf because your parents were Lord of the Rings freaks, you changed your name when you were eighteen, moved out of your home and never went back. You never forgave them for naming you that because you got teased daily when you were younger until you turned into the bad ass we all know and love."

"My God it really is you, and if you repeat that to anyone there'll be hell to pay."

"If you can catch me, I've changed a bit since the last time you saw me." Venom explained. "Now we can catch up on gossip later but right now I'm at the airport and need a ride."

"The airport? Gotham's airport?" Mike asked.

"No Puerto Rico, yes Gotham idiot." Venom replied sarcastically. "Now hurry up I'm impatient, and bring something big, I've got eleven bags with me."

"Eleven?" Mike asked shocked. Venom responded with a patronizing silence. "Right, I'll be right there." He told her.

"See you soon old man." Venom teased him before hanging up. It was a nickname she had called him when they were younger, since his name was Gandalf. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for him to show up. She didn't like staying in one place too long. It just didn't feel right to her. Finally she saw a black van pull up to where she was standing. The doors slid open and a man of around 6'4 jumped out. He flicked his brown hair out of his eyes while he looked around. Venom smiled, he hadn't recognized her; she was going to give him shit about this for years to come.

"Damn, where is that girl?" he asked himself. "Hurry up and bring something big; I have eleven bags," he mocked in a girl voice.

"I knew you were a cross dresser by night, Mike! All the bad ass guys really are." Venom laughed at him. The man whipped around to face her; an expression of recognition spread across his face.

"Venom?" He asked shocked. Venom just smiled and nodded her head. "You look different." He told her as he made his way forward to give her a hug. Despite the fact that Venom wasn't really the hugging type, she allowed him to wrap his arms around her for a moment before pulling away.

"We can talk in the van." Venom said walking towards it. "I don't like staying in one place for too long." She explained. Mike shrugged his shoulders and helped her load her luggage in the back.

"Jesus, what do you have in here? Bricks?" he joked as he carried one of her bags.

"Weapons," Was Venom's one word reply. Mike didn't even pause at that answer, after knowing Venom for years he was used to this kind of thing, well not to this extent, but who was he to judge. After a few minutes the van was loaded and they were pulling away from the curb. For a few minutes they drove in silence. Venom smirked knowing that the silence was probably driving Mike mad. He wasn't one to leave questions unanswered, and she was pretty sure he had a million questions for her. She wasn't wrong.

"So, you're alive." Mike spoke up finally, not able to stand the silence much longer.

"Obviously." Venom replied rolling her eyes, the least he could do was ask interesting questions, not make obvious statements.

"But you died." Mike said emphatically. "I saw you die." Disbelief was evident in his voice.

"You did?" Venom asked curiously. "How?"

"There's this wonderful contraption called the TV." Mike replied sarcastically.

"Ooh! My fake death got on TV? I'm so proud!" she laughed. Mike gave her a look that clearly meant for her to continue. "Okay so where do you want me to start?"

"When I left." Mike replied keeping his eyes on the road.

"Right okay, so you left after graduation, but I didn't have anywhere to do so I stayed. About a week after that I was walking home from the park when someone started following me."

Venom's pace quickened considerably when she heard footsteps behind her. Not thinking clearly she ducked into an ally, hoping to loose her pursuer; but he followed her in. She quickly turned around and came face to face with one of DiFronzo's guys. (DiFronzo is a mob boss in Chicago) "What do you want?" Venom asked the man slowly, trying to figure out a way out of there alive.

The man responded with laughter. "What do you think I want?" He asked her smirking.

"My foot, up your ass? Because that's what you're gonna get if you don't get lost." Venom replied sharply. In retrospect not the smartest thing to say, but she kept her calm exterior. In reality her heart was beating a mile a minute. She had no idea how she was going to get out of this situation alive. In the back of her mind she realized that she was going to have to kill this man to get away. This was a problem; she had never killed anyone purposely before. Seriously injured? Yes. Maimed for life? Yes. But never killed.

"You have a big mouth, it's gonna get you in trouble one day." He spat back, slinking closer to her. Venom involuntarily took a step back. She had a strange feeling that by 'one day' he meant right now. Before she knew what had happened he had her pinned against the wall. Out of impulse her knee shot up and hit him in the groin. He doubled over in pain and Venom tried to escape. But he grabbed her wrists and slammed her against the wall. Venom stifled a moan, but not one of pain, but one of pleasure.

'It's times like this being masochistic comes in handy.' Venom told herself. She crouched down as if she were in pain, but pulled out her gun that she kept hidden under her jacket. The mob guy yanked her up and found himself on the wrong side of a gun.

Venom's mind was blank; she knew what she had to do, and she was going to do it. All the years of living on the South side had toughened her up, and now she was ready for the next step. Murder. Without giving it another thought she pulled the trigger. The man fell to the ground, dead. Blood splattered onto her jacket from the now dead man. Venom was slightly surprised as she realized she had no feelings on the matter. She was working completely on survival tactics. Suddenly she was surrounded by at least five men, and all of them were armed. Venom realized they must have been with the guy she just killed and swore under her breath. 'Were they there the entire time? And they were just gonna let him rape me? Really. I thought we had a higher-class mob. Can't they at least get laid willingly?' Venom shook her head to clear her thoughts. Now was not the time to have an internal conversation. When Venom looked back up she realized that they gang had gotten closer to her during her internal conversation. 'Well, at least I'll go out with a bang.' She thought to herself as the pack descended on her. She honestly expected them to kill her, or to rape her and then kill her. Not that she was going to go down with a fight, but she knew the odds were against her and the men would most likely win. She used what fighting she knew, which honestly wasn't much, and managed to take down one of the guys and injure another. But as she had expected she was no match for five mob guys. What she most definitely did not expect was for them to take her down to the police station and accuse her of murder.

'Did not see that one coming.' She told herself, as she was lead to the police station. 'It's not like it's false though.' She told herself as she sat down. She wasn't angry with them for this, she did kill the guy. She was slightly hurt by the fact that they were going to let the guy she had killed rape her. But what really pissed her off though, was the fact that they not only accused her of the murder if the mob guy, but of three other deaths. Obviously the mob had done it and they were trying to pin the blame on someone else. She was just the perfect victim, and this way they got pay back for loosing a guy. 'Unless it was all planned out! And they had been watching me for weeks and knew that if I needed to I would probably kill a guy. And they just sacrificed one of their guys without him knowing!' She rolled her eyes at herself and her ridiculous notions.

A police officer came up to her snapping her out of her thoughts. "Did you kill this man?" he asked handing her a picture of the mob guy.

"Yes." Venom responded without hesitation. She was a criminal yes, but she did not lie anymore. She killed the man and she wasn't going to say otherwise. Part of it was also a pride thing. She wasn't about to let someone else take credit for what she had done. No way in hell. "It was self defense." She added. The cop gave her a look that said he clearly didn't believe her. "He was either gonna kill me or rape me, and I wasn't about to let either of those situations play out." She explained, praying that the cop would believe her. But in the back of her mind she knew her chances were slim. This was Chicago, and everything was corrupt.

"That's not what these gentlemen here say." He responded, indicating to the other mob guys.

"Well I'm assuming he was their friend, of course their gonna want to cover his ass!" Venom replied seething. Just because she had expected him to not believe her didn't make her any less angry when he didn't. The police officer gave her a patronizing look. Venom caught a glimpse of a wad of cash in his back pocket. 'Of course, in our lovely city corruption runs rampant. The mob fucking paid him off. Asshole.'

"I'm going to have to take you to a holding cell for the night." The officer informed her after taking her mug shot and information. Venom saw no point in struggling; there were too many cops around for her to make an escape. The man roughly threw her into a cell before slamming the door in her face.

"Fucker," Venom spat under her breath. The least he could do was to pretend to be sorry, but no, he has to be a dick on top of everything. 'This is not a good day.' Venom thought to herself glumly. Seeing nothing else to do she took a seat on the uncomfortable cot provided for her and planned. She knew this city was corrupt but this was unbelievable. 'Somehow I'm going to find a way to make them all pay.' She vowed to herself. 'First thing's first, a way out of here.' It only took her a moment to realize she had a way out. Venom could have danced for joy once she realized that the cop hadn't searched her. She still had a knife strapped to her calf and her lock picking supplies in her jacket pocket. "God he's an idiot and a fucker." She mumbled happily. Venom knew that she would have to wait until the night, when most of the officers left, to break out. 'I'll probably have to kill the cops that are still here.' She thought to herself. 'Great the first time I murder someone and I'm going to have to murder at least two more people. I don't even get a break!' Venom realized that the saying 'it's a slippery slope' was very true in this case. She had been loosing bits of her humanity for years; this was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

With nothing else to do for about a good three hours Venom planned out how she was going to make this city pay, to bring it to its knees. It would be fun. 'The police can't know who I am; otherwise they could use that to find out information about me, which could be used as leverage against me.' She realized. 'So first thing first there can be no indication that I was here; which means finding my files and destroying them. Also finger prints could be taken so I'll have to wipe everything off that I could have perceivably touched.' After a moments thought she realized how ridiculous that was; she had no idea what she had gotten her prints on. 'What do people do to hide what they've done?' she asked herself. She thought back to all the movies she had watched over the years. 'They burn it down.' She answered her own question, smiling. The next two hours of her life were spent planning how she was going to break out of her cell, kill the guards, and blow the place up before anyone found out. 'I should strike right after a shift change, that will give me the most time, and I would have the least chance of getting caught. After that should I wait a few minutes to make sure the guards have a false sense of security, break out silently, and then take them down; It'll have to be fast so they have no time to sound the alarm.' Venom paused to think. 'Okay so then I'll grab my files and sneak out just incase someone comes before I have a chance to blow the place sky high. I'll break into the firework store and steal some explosives.' She made a mental note to thank Mike for teaching her about explosives if she ever saw him again. 'I bring the explosives back, then sit back and watch the fireworks.' Venom concluded smugly, with that done she just sat back and waited.

Two hours later Venom heard the sounds of men walking into the station. 'Must be the night shift.' She thought to herself. 'I'm almost out of here.'

"So then I broke out, killed the cops, and blew the place up." Venom finished.

"And they never caught you?" Mike asked surprised.

"Nope, I spent the next couple of years finding and proof of my existence and destroying it. I now have a fake everything. Fake license, fake birth certificate, and social security number." She explained smugly. "It took a hell of a long time, but I got it done."

"So that's why we all thought you were dead." Mike realized.

"Yeah, I faked my own death after I destroyed everything, just to make sure I would never be found." Mike didn't reply right away. "Oh, and thanks for teaching me about explosives and stuff. It really comes in handy." Venom added as and after thought. They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Mike spoke up.

"So where am I taking you exactly?"

"Huh? Oh Hardy Avenue. I bought a condo there."

"Isn't that kind of close to the Narrows?" Mike asked concerned. Venom looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

"Well, yeah, but I haven't exactly been the most innocent person the last coupe of years. Trust me I can hold my own." She reassured him.

"In Chicago maybe, but this is Gotham. It's worse than Chicago, a lot worse! I mean we've got crazies running around like the Joker. I mean hell Venom, I know you're tough, but this is serious!" Mike tried to reason with her.

Venom rolled her eyes at Mike's worrying. "Do you really think I haven't improved at all from back then Mike? Really, I'm a black belt in three different Martial Arts, I box, I street fight, I can shoot, I can use a knife, and for some reason I taught myself how to fence. Whatever anyone throws at me, I'll be fine. Besides, I own Chicago. Understand? Gotham's got the Joker and Chicago's got me."

"I'm really glad I'm friends with you and not your enemy." Mike laughed, although he was somewhat serious. Venom just smiled at him and turned to look out the window. Soon Mike was pulling up to Venom's condo. The moving truck was already there, waiting for them. Venom hopped out of the car before it was at a complete stop and made her way over to the movers. Mike shook his head at her dare devil ways and pulled the car to a stop before getting out and following her. After three hours of Venom directing the men as to where things should go and trying not to yell at them, her condo was pretty much set up. Now all she had left to do was unpack and set up the household decorations.

"Finally!" Venom exclaimed as she flopped down onto her leather couch. Mike soon joined her, feeling exactly the same way. "I swear those men are some of the thickest men I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with." Mike laughed in agreement. He could have sworn Venom was ready to kick them out and just do everything herself. Venom glanced at her watch, "Well, it's about time for dinner, want to come to the store with me to get food and stuff?" She inquired.

"Can't we just go out for dinner?" Mike complained. He really didn't want to go shopping. He just wanted to sit down and not really do anything.

"No, because I just had airplane food, and am therefore in need of real food." Venom explained. "Now c'mon, get your fat ass up and let's go." Mike was about to reply that she was also on the couch, but he realized that she had gotten up sometime during their conversation. He hadn't even realized she had moved, let alone gotten up. Mike sighed, realizing he was going to loose the argument one way or another, and got up off the couch.

Mike and Venom had been at the store for about an hour, and Mike was ready to just go home. But of course he had a feeling he'd be eating with Venom, so that wasn't going to happen any time soon. When they reached the check out counter Mike looked over at Venom. "You do have money for this right?"

Venom just smiled at him as the check out person rang up her items. The total was three hundred twenty-seven dollars and thirty-four cents. Without batting an eye Venom pulled out the amount due in cash, grabbed the cart full of food and left. Mike stood still for a moment thinking how dumb someone must be to carry that much money around with her in cash in Gotham, before following her. "Yes Mike I have enough money," Venom smirked as he reached her. "Honestly I thought you thought better of me, after all, I was the best criminal in all of Chicago."

"You shouldn't carry that much money around with you here, it's not safe." Mike spoke up as they got into the car.

"It's really not safe to carry this much money anywhere." Venom retorted. "But I do it anyway." She stuck her tongue out at him and laughed.

"Sure, real mature Venom." Mike rolled his eyes at her antics. Venom just flashed him a smile before turning to stare out the window. When they got back to Venom's condo Venom grabbed almost half of all the bags and brought them up on the first trip. Mike could only manage to grab five at a time. The next hour and a half was spent unpacking the groceries and Venom cooking. She had kicked Mike out of the kitchen after he nearly broke her favorite bowl. Just under an hour later dinner was ready and Venom called Mike in to set the table.

"I swear to God if you break anything you'll regret it." Venom warned him as she dished out the food. She had made schnitzel and spatzle, one of her favorite meals. Schnitzel was thinly pounded pork, which was breaded and then fried, and spatzle was a type of very small German dumpling made with flour, egg, milk, and a dash of salt and nutmeg. To top it all off Venom had prepared a small salad, nothing special but she liked to eat healthily. She couldn't afford to get fat in her line of work. No one would take a fat woman criminal seriously! It would ruin her reputation.

"This is really good." Mike said motioning to the food. Venom nodded in acknowledgement to his compliment but said nothing. She wasn't really one to partake in small talk. "So do you have any plans?" Mike asked after a while. He was the polar opposite of Venom; he hated silence and loved small talk.

"I tend not to really make that many plans unless it's for a big job, I sent in an application for an auto shop, so if they accept me I guess I'll work there until I can work things out criminally. I mean I have enough money to get by for a while, but I don't like just sitting around not doing anything." Venom explained. Mike didn't know how to reply to that. It kind of creeped him out that Venom was so similar to the Joker. They finished dinner quickly and Mike stood up.

"Well, I should probably get going now." Mike told Venom. Venom looked up at him from a suitcase she was crouched over. She simply nodded and went back to unpacking the suitcase. Right before Mike walked out the door Venom spoke up.

"Mike remember that if anyone suddenly finds out who I am I'll know it was you." She spoke softly and it sounded almost conversational, but Mike knew it was a threat.

"Of course Venom." He replied heading out the door. The threat didn't bother him that much. He was sort of expecting it and if he were in her position he would do the same thing. Venom smirked to herself, she knew Mike wouldn't turn her in, they went way back, but it was never a bad thing to be careful about these things. Besides the only person the cops could possibly use as leverage against her was Mike, and that was on a good day. It would be completely pointless for Mike to tell them who she was because a) then she wouldn't give a fuck what happened to him, and b) the cops would be stupid to try to use the person who had ratted her out as leverage. Sighing Venom realized that she was too tired to get any real unpacking done. She changed into her pajama's and got ready for bed. Before climbing into bed she slid a knife under her mattress, put a gun on her nightstand and locked all of the doors and windows. She would set up the full alarm system tomorrow. Now feeling relatively safe she allowed herself to drift into unconsciousness.

A/N1: So guys what do you think? This is obviously going to be a lot different from Break Your Rule. I really like what I have planned for this story, and hope you guys like it too.

A/N2: As you could probably tell I'm trying to make these chapters longer than my ones for Break Your Rule, which means this story won't be updated as often. Let me know what you guys think!