A/N. Hi there. Thank you for clicking on this and if you care to read on, I hope you enjoy. Firstly, in case you are new to me, I have written three stories already in the Batman/DK category and if you are reading them or just starting, please be assured that I am going to finish the last one. It's only a couple of chapters off.

I really wanted to try something different, some new characters and it occurred to me that there are not many Cat woman/Joker fanfics out there so I thought I would have a little try at it myself. I have always LOVED the cat woman character but I wondered how she would fit into a Nolan verse Batman world so I looked at her origins. The original Cat Woman character was a bit vague as far as back story goes, only that she was possibly quite rich at some point and was a cat burglar with a liking for big heists. It was hinted that she may have had an abusive past or was a prostitute. So I have decided to kind of play around with her origins and create my own back story, as at some point in the future she will be involved with the Ledger/Nolan Joker. I hope I've done it justice. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please Pm or review, that would be great. I have a few good ideas for this and hope you like it! Bit nervous as you can possibly tell!

I own none of the DC Comic Characters.

Volume One

Beginning

Pain was all that existed.

She lay among the rubble, her vision blurred and her heart hammering in her ears. It was like time had stopped still for her but yet she could still make out shapes moving around her. Above her, only metres away, a woman was shrieking out a boy's name.

"Jim!" she was screaming, "I can't find my boy…."

The girl closed her eyes. Maybe if she could just rest then her body wouldn't hurt like this. She remembered the fire that had torn through their apartment building. She remembered the smoke that had curled under the door, like long, black snakes crawling across the carpet towards her where she had been wrapping her Father's Christmas present. They were going to Black Gate Prison in the morning to give it to him. She remembered her mother carrying her down the fire escape stairs, her bare feet thudding on the metal steps. Then the building had blown and it was too late.

The girl opened her eyes. She had been on fire.

Sirens. Sirens everywhere, filling her head, making it hurt.

I was on fire. I was burning.

Her eyes were wide and the blissful moment of peace that had been shrouding her shattered. Suddenly the pain was so much more real that it knocked the breath right out of her. She rolled in agony and saw that the building that she had grown up in was crumbling before her eyes. Scrambling to her feet she stared wildly around.

Chaos was everywhere. People were screaming, crying out, desperately searching for anyone left amongst the debris. The girl stumbled forward, her face wet and dirty.

She saw a woman laying on the ground, a blonde haired, pretty woman, but her neck was bent at a curious angle. Her eyes were open but empty, like she would go on staring forever into nothingness.

"Mommy?" the girl whispered, "Mom…get up…please,"

The girl stepped away from the body, her foot catching on a piece of rubble. She fell backwards, her ankle tearing and she landed on her bottom with a thud, face to face with the dead woman that used to be her mother.

It was the searing began. A fleeting glimmer of the pain she was going to experience. It started in her fingers, a creeping, burning sensation, a gentle throbbing that passed and then returned. She opened her eyes wide as the pain grew stronger and she looked down at her arms. The sleeves of the night gown she had been wearing was gone, all that was left was charred, flayed skin. It was everywhere. Her chest, her neck, right down to the small of her back. Right in the middle of the street, littered with debris, police and now paramedics, the child tore off the nightgown, unable to bear it near her body a second longer. Having it there was killing her, it stung, the sensation making her choke. She frantically looked down at her burnt body, unable to keep it in any longer.

She opened her mouth and screamed.

////

Shivering, she cooperated as the paramedic placed her face down on the gurney. She drifted in and out, preying for death. To be burnt, to still feel the fire racing under her scorched flesh was more pain than she could endure. Her breathing was shallow and from her wet eyes she saw the paramedics lifting the gurney. Everything was suddenly white and sterile. The sheets hurt her skin but she couldn't stand to feel the cold on her ruined body. She let out a wail and one of the men, a pale faced, dark haired boy looked down at her.

"It's alright princess," he told her, "I know it hurts, but we're going to get you to a hospital real soon,"

You don't know how this feels, she wanted to scream.

"Can you speak at all?" he peered down at her, his eyebrows knitting together, "Can you tell me your name?"

She opened her mouth, her dry lips half pressed against the sheet against her face, but no sound would come, only a choked, wet gurgling noise.

"Its Selina," came a voice from the back of the ambulance. She wanted to look up but her muscles wouldn't obey her. She thought she recognised the voice.

"Sir, you are?" the young, dark haired paramedic called to him, his neck craned away from her.

"I'm Raj Lin," the other voice called back, "I own the restaurant down the street…they come in regular…I saw the girl's mother back there, dead. Please is she alright?"

"She's alive but badly burned," the paramedic answered, "Sir; do you know where we can contact the girl's father?"

There was a short pause. "Michael Kyle...he in prison. They were on their own, nice family….such a terrible thing…."

Mr Lin. The nice, kind man from the restaurant that her mother liked to get take out from. The man who always called her 'Blondie' and gave her sweets when she came in. Selina wanted to lift her head. The relief of knowing that there was someone out there who knew who she was washed over her like ice. She couldn't have bared another second in that dream world where she seemed to be moving along in slow motion, like she was wading through tar.

The paramedic turned back to her and she saw that he was trying to smile at her, even though he must have been under terrible stress himself. She could see that in his eyes. Her world had turned into a disaster movie in a matter of seconds.

"Selina…we're going to get you to Gotham General," he spoke kindly, curling a finger though one of her blonde curls, "Can you feel my hand?"

Although it hurt to move her eyes, she saw that he had placed his larger hand under hers, so as not to touch her burned skin. Weakly she nodded.

"Ok, well if you need anything, just tap my hand Ok?" he smiled and she nodded again.

Just before she lapsed into a blissful, dream like state, into a world where she wasn't burned alive, she heard someone climb into the ambulance and felt the thud as that person sat down.

"I'll come with her," said Raj Lin, "She is alone now, poor little thing,"

"How old is she?" asked the paramedic.

"Five or Six….I'm not sure. Only that she comes in with her Mother every Friday. I know they were alone in the world…."

Selina jolted as the ambulance moved. They were leaving.

Her eyes widened.

"Mommy!" she cried hoarsely, her small fingers tapping the back of the paramedic's hand.

"What is it honey?" he whispered.

"My Mom!" she cried, her voice dry and raspy, but her tears were hot and wet, "She's still out there….you have to go back for her!"

The paramedic shook his dark head. "We can't honey. We have to take care of you now. Someone will find your mom, I promise,"

But you can't leave her there. She's on her own and she takes care of me. You can't leave her all by herself on the ground.

Tears choked up in Selina's throat and she was thrown into a coughing fit, which wracked her body with a new pain. Shivering and afraid, she buried her face into the starchy hospital sheets, hating their sterile smell. She wanted home. She wanted to be back in her living room, wrapping presents where everything smelled good and safe. How had this happened so quickly? How could everything just change in a moment?

The fire that had swept through her building had torn away at her peaceful simple existence, forcing her into a harsh, new reality but at this moment she had no idea who or what was to blame for that.

The ambulance tore through the narrows of Gotham City, a place that Selina had barely gotten to know, but a place soon she would become part of in more ways than one.

"Michael Kyle…." The paramedic's voice was faint and Selina realised that whatever they had injected into her was slowly beginning to work, "Isn't that the guy who was locked up for fraud…."

"I don't really know much about them," Mr Lin's voice was hazy, "Only that it was something to do with the mob….he was their accountant,"

Daddy, she was fading, her eyes growing heavy, but with every ounce of strength she fought felt something new. She hadn't experienced this feeling before, or not that often anyway. She felt hatred. Hatred for the person who had done this to her. Hatred for the person who had taken away her life.

She would fight. She would allow herself to feel every ounce of the pain that was to come. She would become strong again.

Because this was only the beginning for her. Somehow, Selina knew that a bigger fight was to come. And she would never be a victim again.