By the time night fell, Lily had begun to whine loudly, causing Jeannie to snap in annoyance at her and thus making things even worse. Jeannie's own head throbbed with hunger and she was freezing, since it was the middle of autumn and there was obviously no heating system in the warehouse. She cuddled up with Lily on the mattress to keep warm, listening to the wind howling over the ocean (they must be somewhere near the docks, judging by the sound of waves crashing nearby) and was beginning to despair that the Joker would never come back.

Just as Jeannie was about to give up hope entirely, she heard quiet footsteps moving around downstairs. Lily had exhausted herself with her tantrum and had fallen asleep, her head on Jeannie's shoulder. Jeannie tensed as the Joker walked into the room, smirking when he saw them. "How…touching," he sneered. "It's a shame I can't take part."

"Where's the food?" Jeannie demanded.

"Food?" He pretended to be surprised, but there was barely concealed glee in his eyes.

"If you intend on keeping us here you're going to have to feed us," Jeannie said shortly.

"Care-ful with your words, tiger, or I might not be so generous next time," he cautioned her, grinning. "How's this…I'll give you food, but only if you give me something in return."

"What?"

"You know what." He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"No," Jeannie said. "You don't want that, Ja—Joker. You don't give a shit about fucking me—"

"Watch your language, Jean-nie." He made a disapproving noise and pointed at Lily, who was still sound asleep.

Jeannie had the sudden urge to smack him, but she took a deep breath and continued, "You just want to prove your dominance over me."

"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't need to do that. You already know it, don't you, hmmm? What happened to the Jean-nie who would stand up to me?"

She glared darkly at him. He roughly shoved Lily off her and pulled her up, his hot, stinking breath blowing into her face. "I'm not keeping you here out of the goodness of my heart," he snarled. "I need information from you, and we'll see how good you are at amusing me."

"We can't stay here forever," she spat.

"Try to get out, then," he replied, and she involuntarily jerked her hand back as if preparing for a punch before stopping in horror, her eyes widening. Of course, the Joker didn't miss this.

"Go on," he said, half-laughing. "Give it your best shot."

When she didn't respond, he rolled his eyes. "Ah, I see. You're a coward now, hmmm?"

"Being terrified for my life isn't the same thing as being a coward," she replied immediately.

He laughed. "Touché. But you jump to conclusions too quickly! No, no, you had no idea what I meant. Pity…I thought you were smarter than that."

"I'm not giving you Lily," Jeannie said immediately.

"I don't care about the kid. If you want to eat tonight, you're going to have to beg for it."

"What?"

"Beg," the Joker said, his lips twisting upward. "Mean it. Beg."

This was even worse than rape. He wanted to make Jeannie completely dependent on him and degrade her to something subhuman. "Please," she said half-heartedly.

"Come on," the Joker growled. "You can do better than that! Beg!"

It was then that Jeannie understood.

He wanted her broken.


Edward Nashton sat hunched up in his cell at Arkham, staring blankly at the ceiling. Predictably, he had had another one of his "breaks from reality" and had tried to kill a patient. After the guards had wrestled him down and pushed him into his cell, he had been taken off his medication, and he was now only halfway aware of what was going on around him.

"Good morning, Mr. Nashton," a voice announced. He slowly turned his head and raised a quizzical eyebrow at Jonathan Crane, who was standing in front of his cell door.

"I offer my condolences," the ex-psychologist said, sneering. His sneer only grew wider when he saw frustration pass over Edward's face; he loved to watch other people squirm while they tried to solve impossible riddles; but when he was left in the dark then everything changed.

"Condolences?" Edward finally asked, annoyed.

"I believe your sister and her children were killed last night," Crane explained. "It's all over the papers."

Edward merely raised an eyebrow in slight interest. "Really?" He'd never had any affection for his family, but Emily's death did come as a shock. He couldn't say he was upset about it, though, just…indifferent. And he'd never met his nephews, so it didn't matter about them one way or another. He was, however, ecstatic to hear that Anthony Garcia had been killed. Edward had always despised his self-important manner. In fact, he was slightly disappointed that he hadn't been the one to finish him off. "Who did it?" he asked.

"The Joker," Crane said, relishing every word. "The Batman tried to save them, but he was too late."

Edward rolled his eyes; the bat-freak belonged in Arkham with the rest of them. He didn't believe that Wayne would murder Harvey Dent—oh yes, he had deduced Batman's identity long ago. It was faintly amusing that no one else was intelligent enough to put two and two together; but of course, that was typical of Gotham.

"So the Joker's out causing pandemonium again, is he?" he muttered to himself. "His plans will always fail. I suspect you know who he is?" he barked at Crane.

The doctor traced his lips with his fingers before nodding. "Of course. I would suspect that anyone who knew Jack Napier would figure it out. But seeing as how most of those people have moved out of Gotham, are dead, or are too scared to say anything, I doubt that the truth will be revealed anytime soon. There wouldn't be a point to it, anyway, even if word does get out who he is."

"Was," Edward corrected, rolling his eyes. "He must have captured his wife and is hiding her somewhere."

"She had it coming to her," Crane replied coldly. "Anyway, you know as well as I do that we cannot let him run the city like this. We need to let him and the Batman know who's really in charge."

Edward grinned. "That should be easy."