Fast aside before we get started on the story, first thank you for checking this out. I haven't written a Batman story in a very long time, almost ten years in fact, and it was a very short story to begin with featuring the Scarecrow and a mute victim, purely a one shot. The reason for this is despite loving the DC universe I largely stopped reading around the early 2000's, stopping just a little while after the Hush story line, around the time Riddler was reformed and made into a private detective. I still liked the individual comics but some of the stories were getting too dark for my tastes so I largely moved onto other things. The universe restarting with Countdown, the very odd mess of the New 52, and just some strange choices how to make the characters more "goddamn" gritty made me wander to other stories. I liked when the books were mature instead of dark for the sake of being dark and greatly enjoyed a few things that were brought up like, Damian Wayne. He was a created character from much earlier Elseworld stories I'd loved and seeing him brought into the main continuity in all his angry little glory felt amazing. I also adored the expansion of characters like Harley Quinn (now reminding me greatly of Deadpool as she does both bad and good, has emotional and sweet moments as well as zany adventures, and even was retconned to be a single parent to a child kept safe with others in the background) and others like Stephanie Brown as Batgirl.

Recently though, I found a comic I totally loved, aka, the White Knight. If you haven't read it, first you should because it's amazing, but it's a non-canon story set after the whole Convergence reboot and is a redemption story for the Joker of all people. Basically he regains his sanity and works to undo some of the damage he's done to Gotham and his relationship with Harley. It's beautiful in showing that unlike the hyper competent rouge's gallery that are rather good at planning ahead and reasonable thinking despite being clinically insane, the Joker from this world is actually fairly broken and explores just how badly his insanity affected him and how crippling it was at times. He's also, even before reformed, much less evil killer monster clown and more the gimmicky Clown Prince of Crime he was in much earlier comics, mostly before Death in the Family and Killing Joke. Think more along the Animated Series of the 90's, serious but not in the angsty way, but with real and believable drama.

Anyway, all that gave me an idea for this story, a sort of experiment if you will, to try an idea. I don't honestly know how it will go over but I'd like to give it a shot. All reviews and criticisms are welcomed at this point since I'm mostly using this as a writing experiment. I want to try and shake things up for the story and deal with fallout of something major happening in Gotham. I'll go into more details in my thought process in all of this after the chapter, since I don't want to spoil anything by talking about it now.

I do want to establish a few things though. This will probably have a loose relationship with the continuity. DC has made things pretty confusing with retcons, event comics with strange focus problems, worlds ending and whatnot but I will do my best to keep it simple in a general timeline. Like I said most of my knowledge becomes sketchy around the 2003-2004 stories since I stopped buying most of the books, but I think I know enough to include characters like Damian and the reformed Harley Quinn, as well as probably adding the little cutie that is Jonathan Clark(I know he's from Convergence and didn't exist technically before but if DC can play fast and loose with timelines why can't I?). Seriously, after the Super Sons comics I just wouldn't want Damian to be without his best friend. You can figure the New 52 didn't happen cause what I did see of it I didn't much like, just like stories like Amazons Attack and the Identity Crisis, which started the whole darker and edgier world thing in the first place so I'm just ignoring the lot of it. I will ESPECIALLY be ignoring Cry for Justice and what they did to poor Roy Harper and his kid.

Basically it will have the full cast of the Bat Family and other characters of the DC universe to the vague timeline of when Batman Incorporated started, but in a style more of the comics and cartoons of the 90's where dramatic things did happen but it was less about sickening shock deaths and out of character behavior and more characters trying to balance their lives with being superheroes. The only thing I will keep from the earlier mentioned stories is Tim Drake being without parents and getting adopted by Bruce since it's so ingrained now in how the characters interact with one another. Even before his dad died in the comics a lot of media was presenting Tim as an orphan anyway and a little brother to Nightwing, so I won't shake that status quo. The main reason I bring all this up is when characters like Lian show up right alongside others like Jon, I want people to understand why and not get confused about the timeline. I tried to keep the setting straight while still using different elements for this story from various sources. I'll do my best to keep it all clear cut though. After all, like I said this is largely a writing exorcise but I do want it to be an enjoyable story.

Now that I got that long winded bit out of the way, I think it's fairly clear I don't own the Batman franchise. It all belongs to DC and Warner Brother, and anyone else involved in the day to day operations. Please enjoy the story.

Chapter 1: A Lost Soul

There were a lot of assumptions that people who were not native to Gotham would often make about the city. It had a reputation about it based on assumptions that a lot of people made and while quite a lot of them were true, a city with a former DA now robbing banks along with a plant woman and at least two crazy clowns running around did have a tendency to leave an impression on people after all, not ever single one of the rumors were quite on the mark. In fact a lot of thing were just downright wrong about what kind of things were commonplace about anything in the city borders.

The police station of Gotham was a location that a lot of expectations were wrong about as well. In the time before the effort to clean up the crime, mobsters and gangs had ruled everything about the city. Corruption had been down to almost every element and the police had been right there with it. It left one thinking of grungy cops that took bribes, sleazy deals including wads of cash left off in brown paper bags, a place and people that was both figuratively and literally dirty. Even after the Batman had come and Gotham started on the road to recovery the image stuck.

It wasn't entirely true though, not anymore. Enough time had passed, enough work had been put into the effort to a make a better place, that a lot of things had changed. In the right time, Gotham City Police Department could actually be quite cozy. The city had become so engrossed in crime that it was going to be an uphill climb for quite a while, even after so long. The police department was always bustling and busy, people comings and going at anytime there. Cops and detectives often had to pull double shifts and overtime, caring too much about their city to let it slide backwards now. The corruption from this place was gone, for the most part, and there were certainly now a lot more officers that cared than those who didn't.

As such, it was almost a second home to just about everyone who worked there, and they made an effort to keep it pretty nice. A lot of people brought decent coffee from home for the machines, the smell of a good meal cooked quick in Tupperware during a lunch break wafted in the air instead of filth, and there were several throw pillows on the couches for the stray officer to get some sleep during breaks when they needed it. The old building had even been lovingly restored recently, a donation drive to keep the place in top shape and up to code done a couple years back and the construction finished a few months ago. A few rooms still smelled of fresh paint with clean and sparkly floors, a far cry from the crumb filled carpets and coffee stained desks from so long ago.

Money back in the day to improve anything for the police often went into back pockets instead of where it belonged, though that had long since changed.

It was supposed to have a welcoming atmosphere, to make people feel safe, and maybe even a little at home. In most cases, it probably would. Hundreds of people had to come in here every day to give reports or testaments of some kind, comforted by a warm cup of coffee offered to them or a friendly police officer reassuring them and telling them that things would be okay.

The woman sitting in the questioning room wasn't really sure if it was working or not. Honestly she wasn't feeling very comforted at the moment but to be fair she wasn't feeling much of anything right now.

The door was open and she could hear some talking from outside in the hall, but she wasn't paying much attention to the words. She felt numb and cold, in more ways than one. Though there was a hot cup of coffee in her hands, she hadn't taken a sip from it, and it was starting to lose it's temperature, along with the blanket over her shoulders that was feeling more like a heavy burden than a source of warmth. She'd only been brought in a short while ago and had spent a very long time outside, hours at least she was sure. At this point she'd kind of lost track of time aside from the vague notion that too much of it had passed since she'd last been able to check.

She sighed over her coffee and shut her eyes for a moment. It was a mistake, immediately seeing something in her mind that she didn't want to. The sight of the bodies in front of her on the cold ground was still stuck in her head, and she wanted it to go away. The horrible way the eyes hadn't closed at death drilled into her like a drill and the awful thoughts just wouldn't leave her be. She'd always thought that happened when someone died. In the movies it was always how it worked. Someone would get hurt, have long enough to have some final words and then their eyes would slide shut and the head would slide a little to the side to always show they'd passed on. What she had seen had not been anything like the movies, not at all.

Swallowing, she suddenly took a deep gulp of the lukewarm coffee. It might have tasted wonderful while hot but she wouldn't have noticed. Everything tasted like ashes now, but it was late and suddenly she was terrified of dozing. What would happen when she fell asleep? What kind of nightmares would haunt her when she drifted off? The woman was already feeling sleepy and yet she couldn't imagine allowing herself to go to bed any time soon. Suddenly all she wanted was caffeine to stave off tiredness for as long as she possible could.

"Miss?" a gentle voice called into the room and she looked up. An old man was standing in the doorway, a strong looking figure despite his hair of white and bushy mustache. He looked tired too and she wondered if he had been up for a long time as well from the slight bags under his eyes. Was that a permanent look on him, she wondered. This was Gotham City after all. Surely they all burned the candle at both ends. Still, he smiled for her as he came into the room, a kind and sweet smile meant for grandchildren, full of wisdom in a world he'd occupied for a long time. "My name is Jim Gordon, commissioner for the GCPD. How are you feeling?"

"I'm… I don't know," she breathed honestly. "I really don't. I'm sorry. I know you-"

"Ma'am, it's okay. I know things like this are always a shock," he said as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Though, I have to admit, this is just a little bit out of my jurisdiction. I understand that you already gave a statement to the officers that found you. They informed me of what you said."

"I must have sounded crazy," she sighed.

"Not that crazy. You'd be surprised what kind of things I've seen and heard in my time on the force," he assured her. "A lot more than I like to think about at times. This must be very confusing for you, but don't worry. We're here to help."

"Thank you," she whispered before she sat the coffee down on the table in front of her and pulled the blanket a little closer. She hadn't really been wearing clothing intended for the outside, slacks and a simple white button up shirt, not even a jacket. She was lucky it hadn't been snowing or she was sure frostbite might have happened in the time she'd been outside, sitting on the curb while with the cops and giving her statement as they waited for the ambulance. It was hard to remember exactly what had happened then, the red and blue lights flashing around her, all the questions hitting her, and the god awful sound of laughter filling the air. It all seemed like a bad dream, only half recalled and muddy in her memories.

"I know you've already given your statement, but I was hoping that maybe you would be willing to go through it again with me, just to make sure we have a full understanding of what happened," he stated. "Do you mind?"

"I… I don't think… I'm not sure," she said as she shook her head. She didn't want to talk about it again. She didn't think she ever would want to talk about it another time but did she have much of a choice? Something told her this story was going to be drug from her several times, from police, maybe on the stand in a courtroom, and who knows how many reporters would come after her once word got out. "Oh god… I just want to go home."

Before she knew it, a hand was on her shoulder, not heavy as it rested on her but surprisingly light. That kind of caught her off guard given his bulk. He looked like a tall man and barrel chested, and his hand was large on her shoulder. Still, it was a light pressure, one she could push away if she wanted to.

It made her wonder, as she stared at it with misty eyes, just how many times had he gone through this, comforting a victim. She swallowed a lump in her throat and blinked away the tears, trying her best to calm down, even as her lip trembled.

"It's okay," he assured her in a soft voice, like someone not wishing to spook a trembling and scared animal. "It's going to be okay, I promise. It might seem like the world is ending right now, but it will feel better eventually."

She sniffled before rubbing at her eyes, trying to wipe away the unshed tears. She had already cried more times than she could count tonight. It was amazing she was still capable of it at this point. Was it even possible for them to dry up?

"Where's my dad?" she asked him instead. "Please, can't I see him? Just for a bit?"

The man looked hesitant for a moment before shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, but he's in the hospital right now. Until this whole mess is cleared up then I'm afraid it's going to be a while," he explained to her.

"How long is a while?"

"We won't keep you from him," he promised. "This is just a difficult situation. Cooperating with us is the best way to keep this moving smoothly."

She found herself frowning at that. She doubted he had intended it like the way she'd heard it, but it had sounded a bit like a threat to her. Would they keep her here until she did as she was asked? Would they keep her dad from her? Was that even allowed?

Given the fact he'd killed someone right in front of her she supposed they could do whatever they wanted with him.

"It was self-defense, or I mean close to it. He only did it to keep me safe," she said firmly. "He's a good person, I swear. He never would have done it except to protect me."

"According to your statement the attack happened after your mother had been killed," Gordon said. "Are you changing your statement?"

"No, of course not. I mean… He did act after my mother had been shot but… I swear, I swear he's not a bad person. It's not revenge, please. Please, don't lock him up," she begged, her voice on the verge of breaking before he gently shook her.

"Ma'am, ma'am, calm down," he said. "I just need the facts. The more I know the easier it will go for the police, you and your father."

She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. That didn't sound as reassuring as it should have. There was no answer about her father, none that she liked. Would she even see him again without bars between the two of them?

"Okay, I'll talk," she whispered softly. "Do you want the whole story or just to answer questions?"

"The whole story, if you will?" he said as he moved back around the table and sat down in front of her. Pulling a small device from his coat, he laid it down on the table to reveal it to be a recorder before pressing a button to turn it on. "Whenever you're ready. Take your time if you need to."

She drew in a deep breath and sighed before nodding her head. The whole story, huh? She barely understood everything that happened herself but she had to do the best she could, for her father if nothing else.

"My name is Lucy," she said, trying her best to keep her voice as even and strong as she possibly could. She didn't want to waver at all while doing this. "I don't know where exactly, or why I'm here but… I don't think I'm supposed to be here. My father is… He had begun partnership for investigation into a theoretical science concerning alternate dimensions under the theory that different vibration frequencies had different worlds. Experimental machines to locate and record these places was being worked on. I don't really know all the details on all that, just that my dad was handling the legal paperwork and the permits for the building since it was taking so much space and stuff. I wasn't involved really, but I went there tonight with my mother..."

Her throat caught up at the mention of her mom and she had to stop to take a breath, suddenly feeling a pain in her chest. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be in some station explaining the demise of her mother. She wanted to be at home where it was warm and waiting for dinner to be made, maybe even helping out with the food. It suddenly occurred to her she hadn't helped in the kitchen nearly as much as she should have.

"I… We were there to pick up my dad. He was there to get some papers signed with the head of research," she continued. "There was a blackout and… I don't know. The lights just suddenly came back on and all the machines flared up."

"Was it some kind of accident?" he asked her.

"Maybe? I mean, like I said, I don't know anything about this kind of thing. I'm not a scientist," she said as her shoulders slumped. "The machines just turned on when they'd been off before. There wasn't any testing going on in the evening anyway so I guess they shouldn't have been on in the first place. It didn't seem like any big deal to me, but suddenly there was… this… this light, I guess, this really blinding white light. Next thing I know we were standing in this warehouse. I had no idea what was going on, and the scientist who'd been with us was just gone."

"The head of research. Can you tell me his name?" Gordon asked.

"I'm not sure. I'd never spoken to him before. Tom I think? No… no, it was Tim. Tim Fox," she said as she struggled to remember. She think she'd actually seen him for the first time that night, introduced in passing by her dad as he'd been gathering things into his briefcase. Had she even said hello to him? She couldn't really remember.

"We weren't sure what had happened. The building was the same but it was all empty, abandoned and dusty. We couldn't just stay there so we decided to try and get some help. Our phones weren't even working, no signal or something, so we decided to explore and maybe find someone."

She still remembered walking out of the building and seeing no one around at all. That part of town when she'd went inside had been bustling, streetlights on everywhere and people walking around, but when coming out it had been deserted, lights broken and graffiti everywhere. Doors and windows had been boarded up like no one had lived in that section of the city for years. A tingle of fear had run up her spine then, as if knowing something horrible was going to happen. She should have begged for them to stay where they were, wait until day to get help, anything other than just walking out into the streets.

"We found someone eventually… he… he saw us and said we weren't supposed to be snooping around here. It was pretty obvious we weren't supposed to be there and we tried to leave before… We got surrounded instead, there were all these men around us and… and the most horrifying person I'd ever seen. This guy with a white face and green hair and..."

"The Joker?" Gordon supplied but she shook her head.

"It can't have been the Joker. I mean, I suppose it was, but that just doesn't make any sense," she breathed. "My dad… he… Oh god… He just freaked out and we were grabbed. The Joker saw us and… I don't know. He did this double take and then just… he just started to laugh. He… he seemed to think we were funny and… look, I don't know why he did it. He was crazy. We weren't a threat. He just started spouting nonsense and we were kidnapped!"

"Miss, calm down. I-"

"How am I supposed to be calm?" she asked him suddenly. "I didn't know where I was or what was going on! We were just trying to find someone to help us and that maniac started yelling at my dad about copycats or something! He didn't do anything! None of us did! We just suddenly started getting drug off the streets and into this factory across the street that looked like a carnival from hell!"

The tears came to her eyes then and she started to sob, unable to hold it back. Covering her face with her hands, she shook her head. This wasn't real, it wasn't real. It couldn't be real. It was all some bad dream and she was going to wake up any time now.

"He kept demanding who my dad thought he was, even as he tried to calm the maniac down. Then… the J-Joker pulled a gun, said if we didn't explain then… my mom... she tried to get to me when the shooting started," she gasped out. "I ended up getting pushed to the ground in the struggle while my mom... she... god... she got shot and my father he… he snapped. He just started to shake and looked crazed. He suddenly just threw the one holding him to the ground and jumped on the Joker and… and… he grabbed him by the throat and he..."

Her father has started laughing. It had been the most high pitched and yet awful sound she'd ever heard in her life, like some kind of crazed banshee. She'd just sat there, watching in horror as she'd watched her dad strangle another man to death like it had been nothing, seeing her mother twisted on the ground as she bled out only a few feet away from her. Someone had bumped into her, rushing to get away she guessed, like most of the others had scattered. It had all erupted into chaos at that point as the two had wrestled about and the Joker was firing shot after shot into the air, though she supposed the shock of all that would be enough to make anyone freak out and run even without the danger. No one had seemed to be in any rush to help their boss, that was for sure.

Even she had been paralyzed, watching as her father had slammed the back of his opponent's head on the floor over and over again, choking him as he himself laughed the whole while. For a long time she had felt like she couldn't move as it played out in front of her, too weak and scared to even whimper out. She'd never so much as seen a dead body before and in the span of a few moments two corpses were laying out in front of her.

"My father didn't mean it," she breathed. "Please, he'd never hurt anyone. He's a good man, I swear. You have to know that, I mean, I'm in the past or something, right? You have to know him, that he's not bad. This is all just some kind of weird mix up or something or… Please. Please, just let me see my father."

Gordon didn't say anything for a moment before he reached out and shut the recorder off and put it back into his pocket.

"I have to check up on a few things. I want you to wait here," he said. "I'll see about having an escort take you to the hospital so you can see him. It won't take long."

She looked up at him with hopeful eyes, red from tears, but he didn't quite meet them as he walked away and out of the room.

The stairs up to the roof were worn and creaked, despite being replaced only recently. He walked up them so often that they already felt old. How many times had he climbed up this path to get to the roof? Enough times he'd long since lost count even this year. Opening the door and letting the wind of the cool November month hit him, he strode up to the Bat Signal and turned it on. He didn't figure he would have to wait long, he never did on most nights.

Sure enough, after a cigarette or two he turned around and saw the large figure on the roof's edge. No Robin or Batgirl that Gordon saw. Were they already at the scene and looking around, or was there other business going on tonight? He hadn't heard anything but sadly, despite it being his job, sometimes he didn't hear things until it was too late. He hoped that wasn't the case tonight. There was already enough on his plate.

"Do you already know?" he asked, wondering if he was going to have to explain things in detail, but the man in shadows only nodded his head. "This is going to be a mess when it gets out. The Joker is dead, along with him two victims, and we have some madman who looks just like him that strangled him to death, and a witness claiming to be the perp's daughter despite how he looks. I don't think she knows exactly where she came from, talking all this stuff about machines for finding alternate dimensions."

"We've come across that kind of thing before," Batman noted. "Several times, really."

"Yeah, you would think the Mayor's office would have a policy for this kind of thing considering how crazy Gotham can get at times," Gordon sighed as he pulled his glasses off and rubbed at his eyes. "This is a fiasco. I don't know where to even start with this one. Do we even know what she's saying is true, or did the shock get to her? Even if it is, do we have jurisdiction to handle people like this? Alternate universes or time travel or whatever it is really aren't our kind of thing, and it would be a big enough mess without Joker cooling down in the morgue and someone in a hospital who hasn't stopped laughing once from what I heard. The papers are going to be all over this the second they find out."

"The first thing to do is determine the truth," Batman said. "We're going to have to find out exactly who she is and why she's here."

"I'll admit, it does sound like there are some holes in her story. She can't even explain how she got here and her memories of the incident are sketchy at best. It makes sense given her shock but she could also just be making things up. Not the first time someone would run around claiming something crazy about the clown and it was all false. It doesn't even sound like there was an accident in this supposed lab she said she was in before she got here. Claimed she was there with her family, the machines somehow turned on after a blackout and then she was just here."

"A teleportation device of some kind?"

"According to her they were supposed to find and record different dimensions, nothing about traveling, but she admits herself she doesn't know much. Unfortunately without another witness we might not get a lot of info, but she claims her father was involved in the project so he might know more, if he'll talk to us eventually," Gordon admitted with a sigh. "Look, this is the kind of thing you always handle. We're not equipped to deal with monsters and aliens and all the other nonsense like this. It's why we have the League in the first place. I'd really appreciate the help."

"I'll look into it," Batman assured him. "Where's the girl?"

"Lucy Napier, and she's downstairs in one of the questioning rooms. She's been asking to leave but I'm not sure that's wise. I can't hold her for long without charging her with something and I don't think she really even needs to be, but she's got nowhere to really go either as far as I know. She wants to see her father who's in Gotham General and I told her she could when I find someone to take her."

He'd only turned away for a moment and the man was gone. Sighing a little, he wondered if he should even rush downstairs to the room. He had a feeling it wouldn't do any good. That girl would surely be gone by the time he reached it.

Despite the brisk nature of his odd partner in fighting crime, he wasn't worried. Batman had never given him a cause to worry before. She'd be fine in his hands, and things would work out somehow. They always did.

Still, he'd love it if one day he would be able to get through a single week without something headache inducing hitting him like this.

Downstairs, Lucy was just wondering if she would be allowed to get up and wander a bit to keep her legs from cramping up when she glanced up and let out a gasp of surprise, immediately throwing her chair back as she jumped up in shock. Batman had seen the reaction too many times to think on it much anymore. Though the costume and motif had always been intended to scare criminals it worked well on just about everyone. Even when he didn't try, people were often unnerved by his presence when he popped up out of nowhere. Fear shone bright in her green eyes under the mess of her blond hair, completely unguarded.

The similarities to Harley Quinn was astounding, but it wasn't proof of his suspicions. He needed to know for sure.

"No," she said firmly, backing herself up into the wall. "No, leave me alone."

"Relax," he said in a tone much less gentle than what the commissioner had used, but still with a soothing tone before. He'd spoken to enough victims and witnesses to be able to keep the balance of a firm voice without coming off as harsh. "I'm not here to hurt you. Do you know who I am? Did you have one of me in your city?"

She frowned a little bit and nodded her head, though looked him over, seeming confused.

"What?" he asked.

"You… you just… look a bit different," she said. "Where's your uniform? Your bullet-proof vest, the badge."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean," he said. "It's very likely you're in an alternate universe right now. This isn't the first time I've seen this. I know it's confusing but we're here to help you. The man you claim is your father, the Joker, he-"

"His name is Jack Napier, and he is my father," she pressed. "He's not a bad guy."

He paused a bit before frowning. She certainly wasn't calming down at this rate. Perhaps it would be best to just cut to the chase.

"Your mother, the woman who was with you. Was her name Harley?"

"Harleen, actually, but… yeah I mean some people called her that. Not a lot though," she said, eyes downcast at the mention of her mother. "She… I can't believe she's gone. I don't want to believe it, none of this. When dad saw her get shot… he just… Please, he didn't mean it. He's not like that. He doesn't kill people."

"Do you want to see him?" he asked evenly.

"I… What? I mean, yes. I do want to see him, of course I do," she said. "Why?"

"Come with me then. I'll take you to the hospital and we can talk on the way."

"I'd rather not."

"Why?"

"Because he's told me about you, told me about the things you're capable of. I'm not about to trust you."

"Am I a villain in your world?" he asked. It wouldn't be the first time he had heard that before. "Is your father a hero of some kind?"

"He's my hero… but no, not someone in a suit. He's a civil servant. You're the Dark Knight of Gotham but not everyone is a fan of you. My parents told me how extreme you can get," she said. "And you certainly never gave my father any trust, that's for sure. He used to be a villain, but he reformed years ago."

"I'm not your Batman," he reminded her.

"How do I know that? How do I know I'm just not in the past or something? The cops told me what year it is and it's off by about two decades. In my time you're an older man, working alongside the GCPD, and James Gordon isn't even alive anymore! He retired years ago and died in the hospital after a heart attack. It made all the papers, I remember."

"You're not going to get any answers here, I promise you that. So you can either come with me and explain what you do know and we can figure this out together, or I can leave and get the answers from your father. I-"

"No! No, you leave him alone!" she cried out as she surged forward. It momentarily caught him off guard, the sudden shift. She'd gone from cowering away from him to rushing forward and grabbing his cape in her hands so fast he caught her wrists in his hands on reflex, but she wasn't trying to attack him. "Please, please I'll talk! Just don't hurt him!"

It was easy to see the fear in her eyes, the desperation. She clearly wasn't taking any of this situation well.

"You've been through a lot," he said, easing his grip on her hands so he wouldn't bruise her, pulling her off his cape. "Believe me, I understand what you saw. It's not easy. It never is, but to help you and your father I need you to give me some answers."

Her arms fell down to her side and she nodded her head slowly.

"Please, I just want to see him," she breathed.

End of Chapter 1

Like I said before, this is mostly a writing experiment for me. See, as a Batman fan I have a sort of love hate relationship with the Joker. He's easily a very fun and charismatic villain and I've seen so many versions of him that I absolutely adore. On the other hand, the Joker Immunity and revolving door of Arkham has always got to me. It's easy to not mind it when he's just a robber with a gimmick, like in the 60's show and other lighter versions. He doesn't need to die there. He's just a common criminal, but when stories are written when he's literally killing dozens of people every Tuesday when he gets out, it gets harder to swallow. Now, I'm not one of the people who thinks that Batman should kill him. I respect the fact he will never cross that line because he's not the government and he shouldn't be the one to make that call out of fear what will happen if he justifies it even one time, but the utter incompetence of Gotham City keeping anyone locked up is just garbage.

I once read a story where the Joker was killed by Huntress, and it was an excellent read, but besides that I've seen very little on the idea and that was just a one shot as it was. I had the idea to expand on it a little, to show just how the people in the city would react and take the news, the citizens, villains and superheros. I didn't want to ruin the name of any heroes though, so after reading White Knight, I had the idea of hey, what if another Joker did the job?

Originally though this story was going to be much different. I'd planned to have Jack Napier to come in with Harleen without Lucy. Lucy Quinzel isn't really a character of mine, just the established child Harley and the Joker had in the main DC canon, but this would have the problem that Jack would essentially be all alone afterward without anyone to be there for him after his wife had been killed, and I just didn't like that, so I gave them their own version of Lucy, aged up since a kid wouldn't be able to go around and do much. That and I didn't want any confusion between DC's Lucy and my own iteration. Sharing the plan with a friend who is a DC nerd to the extreme, he helped me flesh out her character a little go give the story a central focus.

In any case, opinions are more then welcome and very much appreciated. More will be added later and thank you so much for giving this a read.