Takes place after Asylum but just before the events in City. Don't expect facts to be dead on , although I did do a fair bit of research.

Farewell To The Fairground

Chapter One:

From The Ritz To The Rubble

But now the haze has ascended
It don't make no sense any more

From The Ritz To The Rubble - Arctic Monkeys

Tucking her blonde hair into the collar of her orange jumpsuit, Cali hurried across the wet, sodden road and suppressed the urge to just push herself out into the open and see what Arkham City was really like.

The Docs always said that she should suppress urges like that - they weren't good for her at all. Urges like that got her into stupid situations like getting a tattoo of a question mark on her right butt cheek (Edward would never let her live that down, drunk or not) or her brief substance abuse or, she supposed, teaming up with the likes of The Riddler. These things were always followed by the pleasure of finally committing the act and then, sometimes, the guilt.

The Docs called it Impulse Control Disorder.

Cali called it one of the many.

Cali's mind was like a pond, with lots of different fish jumping around in it. But then, sometimes, you got a tadpole, a frog, a toad, a dragonfly - all different, yet all living in the same place. One of the Docs told her that to help her understand why they were always diagnosing her with different things and claiming that wait no that can't be right. She had more misdiagnoses than actual diagnosis's.

Cali's eye caught a green question mark at a wall further down the road and she followed it, biting back a quick grin.

She pushed herself against a grimy wall, ducking low and listening to the echoing shouts in the distance. The night sky was alight with artificial light and the air was filled with the sounds of pain, torture and happiness - hell, she'd gotten chucked into Arkham a week after Riddler found her, and that was two years ago, back when she was sixteen. She was used to sounds of pain and torture.

Cali knew that she should find Riddler quickly. More and more of the Arkham inmates had been spilling into the run down, isolated part of Gotham named Arkham City. And so, here she was, fresh in her Arkham jumpsuit and ready to find her boss. She thought about maybe finding Harley, but knew that Mistah J wasn't too fond of his Harley's not-so deluded sister.

She couldn't understand why Batman hadn't snapped the loons neck long ago. The guy cared far too much about justice and doing what was right - he'd had tons of opportunities to just kill Joker and be done with it, so why hadn't he? Cali didn't understand that. She didn't understand why Batman hadn't ended it all.

But she couldn't think about that now. She needed to survive, to stay away from the dangerous inmates and the traps and the TYGER guards. She needed to hunt down any clues that Riddler would have left her - because Edward, well, he would know that she would be here soon. Since last being separated when they had been caught during the rebellion at the Asylum, she hadn't seen him since.

Stuff like that made her angry. Why couldn't she see him? Just like how Harley and Joker were separated - wait, no. She was nothing like her doting, doe eyed sister. She would never look at Edward the way Harley looked at J. She hated it when people said things like, 'those Quinn's and their Rogues, huh?' The Intermittent Explosive Disorder that she may or may not have tended to get bad in those moments. It was then that the Docs would calm her down and tell her to strum at the elastic band around her wrist.

It left marks sometimes, but it helped.

Arkham City was slowly becoming wetter and wetter with the downfall of light, soggy snow falling onto the ground. The snow had been on and off - Cali had seen it from her cell window.

She wondered - as her eyes caught the glow of green, neon paint - whereabouts Harley and Joker were. She hadn't seen her sister since a joint therapy lesson that had the two of them reminiscing about their mothers blood shot eyes and how it had felt for Cali to finally stab her mother in the back. But that was years after Harleen had turned into Harley and Cali had finally snapped at their Ma's verbal abuse about the eldest Quinzel.

That's why she had left her home and ran into Edward.

Harley's face when Cali had been thrown into Arkham is something that she'll never forget. 'Eddie, look at what you got my little sis into!' Harley had left with Joker when Cali was thirteen, but as she walked through the doors at sixteen, Harley had beamed with pride. 'Hope ya didn't make her too borin', huh?'

Not boring, no. But better.

She was right. The green paint was a riddle, and a hard one at that.

Lighter than what I'm made of,
More of me is hidden than is seen.
What am I?

Shit.

Cali closed her eyes tightly, being sure to lean heavily against the wall so that none of the other inmates would see her as she tried to figure out the riddle. Of course he would test her. He must have stuck this up near the entrance because he knew, eventually, she would make her way through it.

Light? Maybe the wind then. But the wind was always completely hidden - never seen at all. That couldn't be right then. Her temper was peaking, and that was never good. She'd only had three really bad fits of rage. And, yeah, okay...maybe she'd killed her Ma during one of them, but that ice cold bitch had deserved- wait....ice.

Lighter than what I am made of.

Hidden. Beneath the water. An iceberg! Brilliant. The Iceberg Lounge. She knew she could do it.

'I see you've figured it out then, judging from your look of triumph. It took you long enough'. His voice was perhaps one of the most recognizable things to her, but she knew he wasn't in that alley with her. He'd often set up audio and webcam feeds to places that he wanted to see - it seemed Edward and been waiting for her.

'I've had a stressful day'.

'An infant could have figured it out faster. But, I suppose, you did so in the end'.

Cali was used to such insults from him, so they really meant nothing to her any more. 'Iceberg Lounge? I heard that's where Penguin was. You with him?'

His voice was haughty when he spoke - like always. 'It is. Do not insult me, I am not holing away with that man. I am merely near there. I will not say exactly where, which is why it is prudent for you to meet me there. Now'.

Cali rolled her eyes. 'On my way now'. She stepped back, eyes glancing up at the looming wall to try and find any clue of a glinting camera. Alas, nothing appeared. She wasn't surprised - Edward would hide it efficiently.

'And Cali?' She stopped, turning her head to show her attention. 'Do try not to die in the short time that it will take you to reach your destination. I know that it may be hard for you'.

The smile that appeared on her face was hardly amused.

From what she saw of Arkham City as she slipped through the shadows was that it was a mess of a place, with broken things and shattered places. This place - this decay of a City - was all they were worth.

She saw goons, and she hid from them all. Even Joker's men, who she knew wouldn't even try to hurt the Little Quinn (a name that Cali hated and Edward grimaced at) in case of Harley finding out. If Harley was upset about Cali's death, Joker would probably punish those who upset her in an attempt to shut her up. Cali saw some of Two Face's men as well, but everyone else seemed to be hidden deep into the confines of the City.

She wondered where trouble was brewing, and whether Strange would be behind it. She knew he was up to something, and hell if Edward didn't too.

'-Hear Joker's hiding out in Amusement Mile with Harley. Betcha he's plannin' something big, like back at the Asylum-'

Cali slipped away from the conversation quickly, glad to know where her sister was hiding. She wouldn't bother going for her yet, mostly because she couldn't bare to see Joker and the way he would sneer at her.

She'd smiled when she she'd seen the various glowing question marks slapped onto walls and tiles, but not quite knowing who they were for. She'd have to ask Riddler when she saw him. It was almost exciting, to know that she could see him after months of confinement and having the constant company of those in the cells around her.

When she'd first arrived at Arkham, she was low priority, but every time she came back she was put in a more secure and secluded cell. Soon enough, she'd be with the Rogues. On one hand, she'd have Harley, on the other, she'd have Hatter. He was on another level of annoying - more so than Riddler and Joker combined.

Cali hoped she wouldn't run into Crane. Even though she was a mere block from the Iceberg Lounge, the thought of running into that maniac had her walking just a little bit faster and anxiety on full force. She'd never been on the receiving end of his toxin, and she'd be more than happy to not start now.

The cane came out from behind the corner so quickly, that Cali had trouble keeping her balance and suppressing the surprised yelp. It was green and chipped and she knew it was his.

'Come here,' he snapped, gloved hand grabbing hold of her forearm and pulling her back toward him. Cali slid behind him, going to rub her sore leg but stopping once he turned to her, glasses glinting and green bowler hat in place. It was times like this that she had to repress the stupid smiles that he'd roll his eyes at.

He looked older, his suit dirtier and his eyes sharper with paranoia. Still, though, his cane was extended toward her in an extension of himself, ensuring that she would not move. 'Running isn't exactly the inconspicuous manner I had in mind for your travels here'.

Cali made a tsk sound. 'I wasn't running. Don't exaggerate'. She spied out his green eyes, his fingerless gloves, the oh-so familiar question marks. 'I had to break someone's wrist before they deemed me too much of a nuisance and sent me here. I came as quickly as I could. I promise'.

Her strong impulses that made her want for doing or saying something were sometimes a godsend. Otherwise, she would never say such things to him, and part of her wanted him to know that she was very loyal to him. Sure, she thought he was a narcissistic asshole, but he was still her boss, of sorts.

He looked, for a moment, as if he would smile. 'I assumed as much. Now, come. I don't want my hideout to be spied out'. He went in front of her, leading her away from the lit up Iceberg Lounge and continuing down the steps. They were quiet, cautious, two pairs of eyes working together.

How Cali had missed it.

Once they got passed the electric fence and through the doors, Riddler deemed it safe for them to talk while he checked on his many screens in the glowing green light. The place was poky and stuffy, but Cali knew that she would grow used to it. She always did.

'What's been happening, then?' Cali questioned, pushing aside a green question marked object with a peculiar look and then focussing back on Edward. With a creak of the table, she plopped onto it. 'I noticed Strange is up to something'.

'If you noticed it then it must be quite obvious'. Cali glared while he took the trophy from her side with a tight jaw and careful fingers. She'd ask him what it was later. 'He's been taking patients - forgettable patients, but patients nonetheless - and destroying their minds and free will with the help of Jervis Tetch'. He settled the question mark away from her, safe from prying fingers.

Cali swung her legs out, catching him short as he paced. 'Hatter?'

'Indeed. It seems Jervis's mind control techniques are of use to Hugo Strange, as he slips the ex-warden his own special medication'. He looked to Cali, spying out her reaction. She knew very well that he adored the reactions of others as he spilled out his carefully found information.

'He's controlling Sharp?'

'Precisely. Keep up, now'. Riddler was quiet for a moment, his head turned away, though Cali could still see the tightness of his jaw and the hard grip he had on his cane. He got angry too sometimes and, like her, he was never really very good at hiding it.

'Edward?'

She leaned forward a little, hand curled around the edge of the desk to spy out his face. The computers hummed, the green light glowed. Edward twitched his face toward her, green eyes peering upward in an annoyed gesture, capturing her curious gaze. He breathed in tightly for a moment.

'He knows who Batman is'.

Cali leant back quickly, eyebrows shooting upward. 'How?'

He put on his haughtiest voice yet, an air of bitterness and anger surrounding him as he straightened up. 'Strange created a psychological profile of the man most likely to fit Batman. Child's play, he called it. How could he - such a blithering idiot - find out the true identity of the Bat before I, The Riddler! The mere thought of it is ludicrous-'

'I don't know,' Cali admitted, more upset than anything. And she wasn't saying it to reassure him, she honestly did not know. Edward...he was a genius, and Cali had always assumed that he would, one day, find out who the Bat really was. Maybe...maybe she had admired his abilities a little too much.

Maybe she was more like Harley than she knew.

The thought had her toes curling and the chain around her stomach clenching. In an attempt to defer the conversation from a topic that had obviously been eating as his enlarged ego in her absence, Cali posed another question. 'How's the spying on the rest of the inmates going?'

May as well stroke his ego to make him feel better.

He turned to her, standing before her with his cane balanced underneath both hands. She stilled the swinging of her legs, hating that she got all pathetic when he turned so fully to her. Edward was above such basic, animal feelings - but Cali, she was eighteen. Perhaps that was why Gothamites would sneer and grimace at the professional attachment the two had to one another. They would always assume she was another Harley Quinn, that she was just like her big sister: she was the Little Quinn, of course they would.

'I have spies dotted around the City. We are safe from any imposing threats - I will know before they have a chance to attempt an attack'.

'Okay. That's good'. She chipped her nails along the edge of the table, aware that he was looking at her, aware that she couldn't possibly tell him she'd missed him. 'How's my sister - heard anything about her?'

'Joker is planning something. I just can't understand what yet-' He stopped short, narrowed eyes on Cali's strumming fingers. 'Will you stop that?'

She did. 'Do you have anything I can wear?' she piped up suddenly. 'Do you even have a bed in this place, or a shower?' They'd stayed in smaller places than this, but even then Cali would have access to clean clothes and a decent nights sleep.

Edward stepped back, his question mark cane pointing up to a set of stairs at the end of a narrow corridor. 'Up those stairs you will find four doors. The first on the right is the bathroom, the second on the left is the bedroom. Soon, you will begin to miss the luxury of the Asylum, I assure you'.

Cali hopped off of the desk. 'Luxury? Be realistic now, Edward'.

'There is no hot water, no cleaning supplies, and the only clothes are the ones I have worn previously'. Something akin to a smile tugged at his face. 'Enjoy and welcome to Arkham City'.

And yet another OC Fanfiction. I believe I have a problem.

Hope this suffices and that Cali fits in with the story line. I do love a good incorporation of a character into a story. Cali's thought process might be a little wishy washy sometimes, but I do make it so on purpose. She is insane, she is a little coo-coo. Some things may not make a whole lot of sense, but gaps will be filled, I promise!

A review would be lovely!