Prologue
She sighed while going through the trash can, her clothes ratty and falling a part. She was so hungry and could feel her stomach growling. She knew she signed up for this life but she left before anyone else could hurt her. She looked at a puddle and saw a grime covered girl. She wore discolored blue jeans and a faded black shirt, the beanie on her head used to be a red color. Now it was more of a light pink color. She knew she wouldn't last this winter unless she joined a gang or something. She had been on the streets for three months. "Hey kid," a guy in a green over coat said and handed her an apple. "it's not much but we homeless got to stick together." She nodded and smiled at him, she knew him from the shelter.
"Thanks Tony," she said sitting next to him in the alley, he was a good guy who fell on hard times. Lost his wife and his job, then finally his house. He drank most of the time and ate at the shelter. "I need to get a thicker jacket if I'm going to live past this winter," she said shivering and breathed on her hands to warm the up. She spoke good for a six year old who only had a fifth grade education. She was a part of the foster system months ago till her new father got a little handsy and started to beat her. She figured she could survive better on her own.
"You are a good kid," he said and yawned sliding down the wall, his alcohol temporarily forgotten as his mind went cloudy. She shivered and watched the cars drive by in this dirty city and felt anger enter her chest. She was stuck in a horrible life and hated everything, she threw the core against the wall as her stomach rumbling did nothing for the pain. She sighed and walked away from Tony, walking farther into the shadows. Most kids would be scared to walk around so late but she was mostly ignored, except by social workers and police. Most pimps and whores left her alone as she walked by, seeing her as just another street urchin. Most assumed her mom was some whore who died or that she was abandoned to the streets.
She sighed while watching the whores and pimp as they sold their wares, she wondered briefly if that would be her fate later. Addicted to nasty stuff and forced to sell her body for money. The pimps looked at her with disdain and a few yelled at her to keep walking. She ignored them and stuck her hands in her hoodie. This was Metropolis for you, like any great city in America. She found herself over looking the ocean and sat on the stone bridge watching the black water. "I wonder what it would feel like to drown," she whispered to herself. "Would it hurt?" She sighed and looked at the stars, counting as many as she could.
"I hear death is painful," a voice behind her said and she jumped looking his way. He was in a black suit and was bald, he had a beard and a weird guy all in black following him. "Why are you here child?" he asked and she shrugged looking at the water. "Do you truly wish to die that badly?" he asked with a smile. Her eyes where interesting pools of emotions, the color a pale green and he found himself interested in the child. She was obviously only six or seven years old and had be on the streets awhile by the state of her clothes.
"I'm just tired living day to day wondering if I will eat or freeze," she said simply. "I don't want to go in the system anymore either, my last family was horrible." He was impressed, she was well spoken for a child and had quick eyes, even when pained by hunger. He debated on taking the child with him for the next stage of his plan. She was alone and desperate to find warmth and a place to belong. "What's your name mister?" she asked watching him look her over. He smiled and decided why not, it was good to take them at a young age for training.
"I am Ras Al Ghul and I have an offer for you young one," he said crouching down to her height, his dark eyes crinkling in mirth.
-twenty years later
Alison sighed while watching the news in her one bedroom apartment, she had recently moved to Gotham for the next stage of the plan. Her hair was pale blond and was in a bun behind her head, her pale green eyes where cold and mirthless. She had the look of someone who has killed and would not be afraid to again. "Be a psychiatrist they said," she hissed. "it would be fun they said. Ugh I swear this is an annoying idea." She scowled and looked at the certificate of achieving her doctorate. Dr. Alison Rose, valedictorian of Metropolis university and a doctor at the age of twenty six. She sighed while looking at the book on her desk. A book from Dr. Jonathan Crane and his study of fear. Ras Al Ghul told her to get to know this man and his work.
"You will join this man in making the fear gas, Alison," he had said to her as the plan came forward and why she received a doctorate in psychology the first place. She she could be sent to protect the leagues newest pawn and his making of the fear gas. She sighed again and looked out at the stormy sky, a cold and cruel smile stretching across her lips. In a year or so this city would be destroyed and everyone dead, then off to her next assignment. She had already been added to Arkham asylum as their newest intern, the turnovers at the place where startling. She had met Jonathan Crane briefly but tomorrow night she would join Ras Al Ghul in a conversation with him and reveal herself to him. She sighed and walked towards her room of her dingy apartment, you would think the league could afford more comfortable apartments but oh well.