Title: Everything Burns

Rating: T (for now, may increase later…)

Pairings: None

Warnings: Mild language; Angst; Violence; Gore. Read at your own discretion. This isn't for children guys.

A/N: Again with the lateness. I'm sorry! I really hate taking upwards of two weeks to post a new chapter, but even without school (thank HEAVEN that's finally over for the next few months), I've still got work and family stuff and I'm working on two other stories and planning numerous others so… Still busy, just slightly less busy.

Anyway, thank you all so much for the reviews last chapter! You guys are amazing and I'm glad you're all interested in the story so far! This has, amazingly, become longer (or as long as) most of my multi-chapter fics with nearly half the chapters! And I can't help but be just a teeny bit proud of it, so thank you all for your reviews/alerts/favorites!

Now, back to the story since that's what you're really here for!


Chapter Nine: Masks and the Men Behind Them


Previously…

"Selling your tainted drugs?" the Joker raised a brow, glancing at Crane. The former psychiatrist didn't respond, meeting the Joker's eye and waiting for an explanation. Finally, the Joker sighed and reached into his coat pocket, producing what appeared to be an oxygen mask, the cord tangling back down into some pocket in the coat.

"Put on you mask, Doc, we're going to have some fun!"


The restaurant was full of chatter when Reid arrived and took the seat across from Harley. She was smiling brightly at him as they chatted, waiting for their orders to arrive. He didn't know why he felt like blushing whenever she looked at him. She had pretty blue eyes; they reminded him a bit of JJ, honestly.

"So, what made you want to be an FBI agent?" she asked, taking a sip from her drink, lashes fluttering.

"I… wanted to help people," he said. He'd never really thought too much about why he'd joined the FBI. It had just seemed like the natural choice for him. "The BAU just seemed like the place for me to do that. Why did you become a psychiatrist?"

Harley leaned back in her seat, thoughtfully playing with her napkin, "Not really sure," she said slowly, "I've always been fascinated by the way people think, you know? What makes them tick? And there's nothing more interesting than people who don't think the same way as everyone else. Some of the patients are Arkham are the most interesting people I've ever met."

"Like the Joker?"

"Mhm," she nodded, a smile on her face, "I've never met anyone so… unique. When I heard about him, on the news, I thought he'd be terrifying, you know? Some monster, for sure."

"You're not scared of him?" Reid asked curiously, leaning forward.

"No!" Harley objected the idea immediately, "I think… I think he's just misunderstood. All of his other doctors said he was crazy, just insane. But I don't think they ever really listened to what he has to say, you know? He's really not a monster at all, he's doing what he thinks is the right thing, fighting corruption and evil and injustice. He just isn't going about it right, that's all."

Reid nodded slowly, "You really think that?" he asked, "What did he tell you?"

"Our first private session was a few weeks ago," Harley explained, "I was really nervous, I mean, this was the Joker and he's supposed to be this horrible, evil psycho. I could hardly hold my notebook straight when I went in! And those scars of his are terrifying…"

She trailed off for a moment and Reid watched her face, the way her eyes lit up and her lips tilted into that odd little smile. He remembered the way she'd looked when he and Morgan had interrupted her session with the Joker before the bombs went off in the hospital and found himself wondering if maybe she'd fallen for the Joker's lies without meaning to. She was young and naïve and obviously fascinated by the man…

"But then we started talking and he told me about his family," she continued, "How his father had never loved him and his mom wasn't around and all I could see was this scared little boy who just wanted someone to love him and care about him."

"Did he say anything else? What his father did for a living? Who his dad was? Did he tell you his name?"

Harley sighed and shook her head sadly, "No, he never would tell me his name or anything like that. But the things he said about his father… it just broke my heart, Spencer! I know he did some bad things, but everyone just seems to think he's this evil, horrible monster when he isn't! He's just trying to get someone's attention, trying to prove himself. Sure he isn't doing it right, but…" she sighed, "Can you really blame him for wanting someone to care?"

Reid wanted to tell Harley that he absolutely could blame the Joker. A bad childhood didn't exactly erase everything that the man had done to the innocent people of Gotham. But some part of him wanted to agree with her. He'd seen the same thing hundreds of times before with UnSubs from abusive and neglectful families and there was always that part of him that wanted to absolve them of their guilt. It wasn't entirely their fault that they'd been treated so terribly and he could understand why some of them turned into the killers that they did.

"I think…" he frowned, "I think we can't blame him for what he had no control over," he finally answered, "But that doesn't mean that what he did was okay. He obviously knows it's wrong, he knows exactly what he's doing. I seriously doubt he's even slightly insane. He can reason and argue and think for himself."

Harley smiled, looking down at her glass, "I think you're right about that," she said.

"About him not being crazy?"

She nodded, "I've talked to him dozens of times and… he's just not like the other inmates. He's articulate and smart and logical. He doesn't belong in Arkham at all."

"Why didn't you mention that to anyone before?" Reid frowned, "His doctors? The Administrator?"

She sighed, "Because he isn't the one saying he's crazy. Everyone else is! All the doctors say he's insane and everyone thinks it. But I don't see it, not when he talks to me. He's completely sane."

Reid frowned, "…Maybe… for everyone else it's easier to say he's insane than accept that a perfect reasonable human being could do the things he did."

She laughed and leaned forward, "You know, Spencer, you are the first person to understand that! It helps them sleep better at night if the Joker's some lunatic, but if he's just as sane as we are then anyone is capable of doing what he did!"

Reid wasn't sure why he found himself agreeing with her – at least in part. It was one of the things that made his job so difficult at time, knowing that most of the UnSubs he came across had little more than emotional problems. Most of them were perfectly sane or at least sane enough that they knew the different in right and wrong. It at the very least always made him question his idea of evil and good and what it really meant to be human.

He started to say something when the doors of the restaurant were thrown open and two men burst in. One he recognized immediately despite the lack of face paint and the oxygen mask that was obscuring his features. The other was wear what looked like a burlap sack over his face, distorted eye- and mouth-holes giving the mask a disturbingly frightening look.

His hand instinctively went for his gun as people around him began to panic and scream and try to run. The Joker shot one man directly in the head and he fell dead where he'd stood. Before Reid's fingers could pry his own gun away from his hip he felt a surprisingly strong hand tugging him down and found himself underneath the table a moment later, Harley pressing a napkin to his face.

He reached up to yank the napkin away, frowning, "Harley, what are you -?"

"Shh!" she hissed, "That's Dr. Crane with him! Didn't you see those canisters in their hands? They're going to gas the place! If we stay hidden and don't breath it in, we'll be fine."

Reid frowned and bit his lip. He had no desire to be dosed with any more drugs, but there were more gun shots being fired and people were screaming even louder now as the gas was dispensed and the Joker was taunting them, apparently looking for someone, he never said the name. Or at least, Reid hadn't caught the name. He slipped his gun from the holster at his hip and held the napkin to his face, hoping it would be enough to protect him from the drug as he leaned forward.

"Spencer, don't!" Harley hissed, "It's too dangerous!"

"I can't just do nothing, I've got to try help," Reid insisted, not turning around. His muscles felt tight and he wasn't sure if he actually could move at all as he slid forward. He was about to push himself completely out from beneath the table when he felt something pinch the side of his neck and he spun around to look at Harley, except Harley wasn't there and his heart nearly fell out of his throat when he found himself staring into the Joker's unpainted, grinning face.


TDK-CM


A little more than two dozen people were inside the small, cramped restaurant. All screaming and panicking. And that was before he'd tossed the first open canister of the wonderful, terror inducing drug. One man had made a drive for the door only to be stopped by a bullet from his gun, two more were soon victims of the same gun, only lucky – or unlucky – enough to not be killed immediately.

It brought a giggle up through his throat just refused to stop. Crane had thrown the second canister a moment later, into the kitchen. Now the staff were screaming and clawing at themselves, trying to escape the gas. Stupid people.

The mask was uncomfortable on his face, but he didn't really care at the moment. This was definitely not boring. Far from it, watching people running and screaming in terror, no real plan in mind, despite what Crane thought. He couldn't imagine why everyone assumed he had some grand scheme in mind. He really didn't, he just made it up as he went along. More interesting that way, definitely more fun.

His dark eyes scanned the tiny space, looking for the familiar blond head of Dr. Quinzel and the mop of messy brown hair that was Dr. Reid. He started humming a tune in his head when he spotted the table where they'd been seated, no one sitting there now, but he could see Harley's bag sticking out from beneath the table cloth.

He tugged Crane's sleeve and dragged him along to the table with him, yanking the cloth up and dragging the young, blond woman out from under the table quickly.

"Helloooo, Harley!" he hissed joyously in her ear before shoving her into Crane's confused hands. The "Scarecrow" masked man held her there while he knelt down and grinned brightly as Spencer spun around. Amusing, the way his eyes nearly bugged right out of his head when he saw him. He wished he could have such an effect on everyone he met. There were always those annoying few who were good at hiding their fear.

Spencer looked almost comical, his eyes round with shock, holding a napkin against his face to block the gas. Smart, really. He certainly didn't want to feel the effects of the drug twice in less than twenty-four hours.

"Spencey!" he was practically giddy with the excitement. Sure he'd technically broken his promise. At least one person was dead. But could they really expect him to sit idle for an entire day? "You look so much better! Hate to interrupt your date! But I need to have a word with Harley dearest…"

Spencer's fingers were wrapped around his gun, but the Joker just watched in amusement as he attempted and failed to get the gun to lift. His fingers weren't working. Excellent! He giggled as Spencer's eyes rolled back in his head and he started to slump forward. He caught the young man and eased his head down, yanking another oxygen mask out of his coat and shoving it onto Spencer's face.

"Just breathe, Spencey," he told him, still grinning, "I'll be back to see you later."

Spencer was gasping, trying to cling to consciousness. It was almost admirable, really. And certainly amusing. But soon his eyes fell closed and the Joker stood, leaving the mask on his face and brushing his suit off, surveying his work.

People were screaming and crying and the restaurant was in utter chaos. Beautiful. His work here was done.


TDK-CM


"Took some digging," Gordon said as he enters the room again, brandishing three files. "They were buried in the old filing room. No one's digitized them yet." He sat down across from the FBI agent and frowned when he realized that one of them was missing.

"Where's Dr. Reid?"

"He had a lunch date," Prentiss said, a faint twinkle in her eyes. "One of the Joker's doctors at Arkham."

Gordon didn't say anything but he found it just a bit unprofessional that they'd allow a "lunch date" in the middle of his entire world crashing and burning thanks to a madman with face paint. And bombs, of course.

"What did you find?" Agent Hotchner picked up one of the files and opened it, frowning.

"I haven't looked through them all yet," Gordon said, "But like I told you, we think they were working for Falcone before he was sent to Arkham. We tried to talk to Falcone several times since then; he's not talking. You're friend's lucky Batman has that antidote, that drug of Crane's has some nasty side-effects."

"Anything else connecting them?" Rossi took another of the files, "Besides the break in at the chemical plant?"

"A murder," JJ said, reading over Hotch's shoulders. "The three of them were prime suspects in the murder of Jeanie Napier. She was Twenty-eight years old. Home invasion… All three of them were acquitted."

Gordon frowned, "I think I remember that… She was pregnant. God, it was brutal. Loeb was on the case, but they had Falcone's lawyers behind them. We never could figure out why they did it, they never admitted to anything. It was all over the news for two weeks."

"That's it though," Prentiss said, "That's the only other time those three men show up together. The chemical plant and that murder. It has to mean something to him. Something important, right?"

"I doubt it's the chemical plant," Morgan said, "Has to be the murder. Who was she? What was important about her?"

"She was pregnant, was she married? Did she have any other kids? Brothers? Sisters?" JJ asked, frowning as she skimmed over the file, trying to ignore the more gruesome details of the murder. She'd been raped and beaten and eviscerated. It was bad enough seeing the crime scene photos, she didn't need to read about it too.

"Only child," Prentiss answered, "Parents have been dead for ten years. She was killed two years ago."

"She was married," Hotch said, "Husband was Jack Napier. He worked for the same chemical plant that the men broke into last year."

"But he was laid off," Gordon said, frowning, "The same week she was killed. I've heard that name before…" He stood and left the room in a flurry, snapping the file shut. The BAU frowned as the commissioner left, wondering where he was off to when Morgan suddenly gasped and nearly dropped the file he'd taken from Rossi.

"What?" JJ frowned, glancing over his shoulder as he passed her a photograph that had been in the file, a picture of Jeanie and her husband, Jack, smiling and happy like all the other depressing pictures that they saw on a nearly daily basis of victims before they'd been attacked.

"Her husband," Morgan said, "That's him… that's the Joker…"


TDK-CM


Alfred knocked gently on the bedroom door and entered after a moment's pause, smiling faintly as he spotted the young Wayne heir tangled in the bedclothes. He'd gone straight his bedroom the moment he returned home. He'd meant to get some work done, call Lucius again and see how he was doing on the Arkham employee search. He'd planned on taking a short nap, instead he'd been almost clinically dead since his head had hit the pillow.

Alfred hadn't disturbed him, allowing the younger man some much needed rest. But he'd been keeping an eye on the news and he knew he'd have to wake the young man now, though he was loathe to do so when he was sleeping so peacefully for once.

"Master Wayne," he tugged the curtains back, allowing the late-afternoon light in. Bruce grunted and twitched under the blankets, muttering something about sleep. "I'm afraid it's time to get up, Master Wayne. There's been an incident downtown."

"Ughmphft…" Bruce grunted into the pillow and rolled over, squinting his eyes against the bright light. "What happened?"

Alfred hesitated, balancing on the edge of knowing Bruce would want to know and wanting to let him have just a few more hours of peace and rest. In the end though, he really didn't have any other option. He had to tell Bruce because Bruce had this illogical sense of responsibility and duty.

"There was an attack. The Joker and Dr. Crane… Downtown in a Chinese restaurant."

Bruce sat up, scrubbing at his eyes, suddenly feeling much more awake despite how heavy his eyelids and limbs still felt. "Have the police caught him? What happened?"

"They haven't said anything for sure. At least two people have died," Alfred spoke carefully, "He's gone now. They're trying to sort it out as best they can. They think he used the drug, that fear-inducing drug Ra's Al Ghul attempted to disperse on the city last year."

"Damn it," Bruce tossed the covers back, standing and leaving his bed a mess and he grabbed the discarded clothes from his floor. "Call Mr. Fox, tell him I'll meet him in Archives in two hours." He fumbled through the mess on his bedside table and grabbed his phone, "I've got to contact Gordon. Definitely be late tonight, no dinner. Sorry Alfred."

The butler just smiled fondly, yet sadly, as the young man hurried out the room, shirt only half buttoned, untucked, jacket hanging over one elbow. He could hear Bruce's feat clattering down the stairs and he sighed, turning to straighten up the mess Bruce had made of his bed. Alfred wasn't exactly a devout Christian, but he found himself praying quietly as he went about his work. Whatever happened, Bruce would certainly need all the help he could get.


TDK-CM


A/N: So… still a bit shorter than the usual chapters. And I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with this chapter, but meh.

The team made some progress – didn't expect them to find out all that so quickly. But it happened. Not gonna help them *too* much I suppose. But maybe enough to understand him a bit better. Also, do not remember if Jack's wife name was Jeanie or not. If I'm wrong, please let me know. Didn't have much time to do fact checking tonight.

Hope you enjoyed! Please review!