Jonathan Crane was pleased as he observed Becky's work. The girl was very bright, and picked up on things quickly; taking down numerous notes while the others just stared at him, bored.

He had heard a few of them call him "the Crowguy" or even "Scarecrow", which only made him jot down their names of who would be the first to get a taste of his new fear toxin he was working on. Secrets must be kept secret for a reason.

As he graded the papers that the class turned in, he couldn't help but chuckle at the idiocy the students thought they could get away with.

For some reason, he found plucky Becky Albright to be a fascinating individual. The last time he had seen her, she had been studying Law and the court system, not having a clue to how the mind works, and now, after he had (potentially) scarred her for life so badly, she was probably fascinated by what he did and how he did it. After all, the best way to get rid of fear is to face it.

She would, on some occasions, stay and work on her homework he assigned in class.

It was during this time, in the quiet silence, that he would talk to her.

"You seem to be doing very well in this class, Becky," he said, opening the conversation between them. "I remember hearing you were going to major in Law, yet you changed your major right before you were about to finish you bachelor's degree." He walked towards some of the empty desk, sitting across from her. "Tell me: why did you suddenly decide to change?" he asked, his cold, blue eyes staring into her warm, hazel eyes.

Becky looked down, marking an answer on her paper. "I don't know, really, why I suddenly decided to study psychology instead of Law."

Crane raised an eyebrow, "That seems like quite a drastic change to decide on a whim."

She looked up, stopping her work, "Maybe it was. But a certain someone made me wonder what it is that drove him to such madness that he would willingly scare people to death just to observe their fears."

"You mean the Scarecrow."

"Of course I mean the Scarecrow! Who do you think I was talking about? Sigmund Freud?" she snapped at him, before letting out a frustrated sigh as she tapped her pencil against the desk, stuck on one of the questions.

Crane grinned. Oh yes, I like her already, he thought, moving over to see which question she was stuck on.

"Do you think that maybe, you should probably think of how the victim copes with the problem?" he asked, giving her a hint of how to answer the question.

Becky blinked, before slapping her forehead. "Oh, right. I should have thought of that. Thank you, Professor Crowley."

Crane just shook his head, before chuckling, "Please, call me James. Professor Crowley is for a more…formal setting. This is just me helping you with homework."

She nodded, "Alright, Profe—er—I mean, James."

Jonathan smirked, and went back to grading his papers.

After she was done with her assignment, she gave it to Crane, and then exited the room, going home.

Crane soon gathered up his work, and headed towards his hideout.

On the way out, he bumped into Tetch, who had just headed down the same hallway.

"So, how goes your little endeavor, Jonathan?" Jervis asked, a grin on his face as wide as a Cheshire cat's.

Jonathan only returned the grin, before putting a hand on Tetch's shoulder. "I think we don't need to resort to kidnapping, Tetch."

The Hatter blinked, "And why's that?"

"Because they'll play exactly into our hands. All we need to do is play our cards right," Crane replied, and the two grinned.

Jervis, however, stopped suddenly, his nervous demeanor coming back to him. "Um, Jonathan?"

Crane stopped, turning back to the Hatter. "What is it, Tetch? I want to get home before the Bat starts to patrol."

Tetch tapped his pointer fingers together. "I-It's about Alice."

Crane raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. "Yes, what about her, Tetch?"

"Well…she-she-"

"She what, Tetch? Spit it out," Crane snapped, impatient.

"She recognized me!" Jervis blurted, before putting both of his hands over his mouth.

Jonathan's eyes widened, before he pulled Tetch up by lapels of his coat, "She What?!"

"She recognized my face. There was nothing I could do," Jervis whimpered, shaking slightly.

Crane cursed. He should have thought about that. "What did you say to her?"

The Mad Hatter grinned, "That's the thing. I told her I was reformed now."

Crane raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Jervis nodded quickly, "Yes, and even if she reads the paper, I'm not doing anything illegal, so maybe she won't report me."

Jonathan dropped the man, before crossing his arms. "Are you really sure that she can be trusted? She's a civilian. We're criminals. Do you really think it would work out?"

The Mad Hatter looked down for a minute, and then looked back up at the Scarecrow. "What about Becky?"

Crane just laughed, a chilling sound that reminded Tetch of the Jabberwocky. "What? Her? Please, she's just an experiment. Nothing more, nothing less. Once I'm done finding out about what she fears now, I'll just kill her and be done with it. No trouble."

Jervis frowned. That doesn't sound like Jonathan at all. "Jonathan, I don't quite think that's the right way to go about—"

"Nonsense, Tetch. This will go perfectly," Jonathan reassured his friend. "After all, she has no idea who I am. If she did, she would have run away from now."

Jervis thought about it, before shrugging. "Oh, alright. Your call."

Jonathan grinned. "Trust me, Tetch. This will be a cinch."

Becky looked down at the newspaper clippings in her hands. She flipped through them, cutting out some of the images of the Scarecrow.

"Something's not right with this man," she mumbled, flipping through more pictures. "It's something about his voice, his figure. I've seen this before. I just know it."

Her eyes widened as she finally found an image. She gasped, backing away slowly as everything finally clicked into place.

For staring at her from the photo, cold, blue eyes stared into her, was the image of James Crowley. The man's carrot-top head, half-rimmed glasses, and his cold eyes matched exactly to the man she had as a teacher.

Becky just stared at the photo, too scared to look away.

"What do I do?" she asked herself, biting her lip.

She debated whether to go back to the University, or just leave town altogether.

"Wait a second, what am I doing?" she asked herself, smacking her head. "I shouldn't be scared of him. I wasn't scared of him then, I shouldn't be scared of him now."

Becky thought for a bit. But then an idea struck her.

"Wait…I can use this. All I have to do is play his game for a bit, and the minute he drops his guard and spills the beans, I'll record it. Then, I can testify against him."

Becky began to plan, excited to finally get rid of her fear once and for all.