Evil Shadow


10.


Elaine (thirteen years old)

Elaine, Pete and five of Two-Face's original crew stood before Dent. They had returned from Elaine's first heist to his secret base in the old industrial area of Gotham. The small house stood there had been abandoned for a long time, and Dent had recently taken it as his own personal base.

"Fifteen bags filled with money," chuckled Dent as he walked over to the team, his eyes landing on Elaine.

His voice was smooth and she knew that his nicer side was talking, clearly the joy from the successful mission affecting him. "I knew it wasn't a bad choice to make you tag along with me."

"I just did what I was told, sir." Her voice was monotone, the safest way of speaking with Dent.

Even though they had known each other for two years now, she was still not comfortable around Two-Face. Her loyalty was still with Penguin, the man who had taken her in when she needed a home. And although she didn't want to admit it, her loyalty was also with whoever Mark trusted and since he trusted Cobblepot, she remained loyal to the strange little man.

"You know, you remind me of your mother when you talk like that," said Dent, causing Elaine's eyes to snap up to his distorted face, her heart skipping a beat when he said this.

Had he known her mother? Had her mother been in the same business as she was now? Was she still alive?

"Sir?" she asked, trying to make him tell her more, though he only chuckled and patted her head degradingly, before walking over to Pete.

"Get the money to the safe," ordered Two-Face to the man. "Lock it up and return back here."

"Yes, sir," replied Pete, him and two other guys walking away.

Elaine was left there with the remaining men. She kept staring at Dent, wanting to know more of what he knew about her mother. And she was about to open her mouth and ask, when he suddenly snarled at her, his other side coming forth, "What are you all still standing around for!? Leave!"

And so she did, still without information about her mother… She wondered if she'd ever get it, or if he'd keep it to himself to use against her…

Elaine

Two years later (Fifteen years old)

With a dull expression on the teenager's face, Elaine walked over to yet another safe, busting it open easily with the new technique she had been taught before placing the money in the bag she had hanging over her shoulder. Pete ran past her, the alarm almost making his footsteps inaudible. Although they had failed to turn the alarm off, they still had some time to grab as much money as they could before the police would arrive there. At least the security cameras were turned off and their identities were safe.

With her bag now filled, she began her way back towards the doors, knowing the van was parked right outside of the bank. She looked at her watch, pushing some stray hair out of her face as she did, and noticed that she wouldn't have time to run back inside again. Just as she was about to open the front doors, the sound of a scream reached her ears over the blaring of the alarm. Her body tensed up and she looked back, seeing nobody there. She knew Pete was still inside and he was the closest thing to a friend that she still had in Dent's crew. The other men that had been taken from the Penguin had all already been arrested. The rest of Dent's crew was… strange. They didn't harbor the same class or morals as those the Penguin recruited, and she couldn't help but feel a little unsafe amongst them. Even the female thugs were… unnerving.

And so, thinking she could not lose her one friend, she made her way back, keeping close to the walls just in case they had company.

Elaine had been lucky her entire life and had never really met the Bat during any of her missions. Though she knew what to do if she ever did meet the Bat.

Run.

There was no way she, a fifteen years old girl, could take down the Batman. Especially not if he had his little helper with him. As she noticed the unconscious body of Pete lying a few feet away from her, her motives changed. There was nothing she could do for Pete now as she knew it would take her too long to drag his body outside to safety… the police would manage to get there in time.

With wide eyes, Elaine began to back away again, heading back to the front doors. She kept a strong grip on the bag filled with money around her shoulder, her eyes darting up and down all around her, knowing he could be being watched…

She was almost there, almost free, almost safe…But then she heard the sound of something fluttering behind her, she stopped and turned around. Out of shock, she dropped the moneybag and fell backwards, hitting both her wrists on the hard marble floor when she tried to catch her fall. A gasp escaped her as she landed, the air leaving her lungs. Though she didn't care, her veins filling with pure terror as she saw the Batman standing there, hovering over her and looking down at her with what seemed to be white holes used for eyes.

Being raised by villains had caused her to hear many scare bedtime stories about the big, mean Bat. All she wanted was to get away.

Starting to scramble away, rather pathetically, she managed to get up on her feet again and run away, bursting through the doors and into the van, yelling at the people left of her team to drive away. Finally catching her breath again, she looked back at the bank, seeing police cars stopping outside of the bank, not having noticed the van driving away.

That had been her first meeting with the Batman and she had gotten away. It was odd, considering how close he had been to her. Surely he could've taken her down, gotten her arrested and what not. Why had he let her go?

Bruce

His heart skipped a beat as he landed behind the young girl. Seeing her face as she turned around to look at him was even more strange. She looked exactly like Millie. All that was different was the shorter hair, and the obviously more muscular body. Bruce could easily see that Elaine had been trained to her fullest extent, probably to become something of a specially strong thug or henchwoman.

He knew it was dangerous to let her stay with criminals. He could already see they were using the teenager, which they had probably been doing since the moment she had been found wandering the streets on her own. It was dangerous, because these criminals knew what could, potentially, defeat the Bat, and if they trained her to fully work against the Batman, she might become something of a problem in the future.

However, Bruce could not grab her. It had been those frightened, blue eyes that looked up at him that had made him freeze and let her run off. Those eyes that looked just like his mother's, those eyes that had made him never stop thinking about Millie when he had first met her all those years ago…

The last time he had heard about Elaine it had been from Catwoman. Selina had told him Elaine worked for Cobblepot… Now, here she was, robbing a bank with Dent's crew. Since the moment he had taken Millie in, he had been searching for Elaine though had never found a trace of her. Then he got the some more intel from Catwoman, which would have helped him normally. Yet, he had not been able to find Elaine on Cobblepot's territory either two years ago. Now, he knew why. The only thing he didn't understand was the reason behind why Two-Face had taken her in. Did he want to make her the perfect thug, his new right hand the moment she grew up? If so, why did Cobblepot let her go when he could have made her his very own?

Robin had been away taking care of the rest of the crew inside of the bank, and so he hadn't seen Elaine, Millie's twin sister, and he had not seen Bruce let her leave either. Dick was already keeping enough secrets from Millie and Bruce did not want to add anymore. Bruce felt relieved about that.

Although Elaine was now halfway back to their hideout, Bruce had not entirely let her go. He was a fast thinker after all. Perhaps he couldn't take her down, but he could use her to get the coordinates of Two-Face's current hide-out. He had quickly placed a tracer on her back as she ran away from him, throwing it at her and making it stick to the back of her shirt. She didn't notice it since it was tiny and because she was panicking. Most certainly, the thugs she worked with had told her all about the dangerous Batman and what he could do to her. Briefly – although it was childish of him – he wondered if they told her about him during scary bed time stories. Though he quickly realized that the thugs had probably never read her bedtime stories, a thought that sort of made him feel sad.

When Robin walked over to him, the sirens of police cars appearing outside, Batman glanced over at Dick.

"Did you get them?" asked Bruce with his voice a few pitches lower than normal.

"Yes, they're all tied up and ready for prison out in the back," said Robin with a nod of his head. "They'll be on their way to Blackgate or Arkham soon."

"Good," said Bruce before the police entered, Gordon in tow.

"Batman!" he exclaimed, seeming relieved to know that the robbery had been taken care of. "Who?" he asked, the rest of the police immediately going to arrest the thugs that had been taken down by Robin.

"Two-Face's crew. I'm tracking them now. I'll be able to find their whereabouts easily," said Batman.

"Good. Let me know how things work out."

With a nod, Batman and Robin brushed past Gordon and out of the bank, the chilly air hitting the skin on their faces that wasn't covered by their cowls. Police officers that ran past them looked at them oddly, not every police officer having seen them yet or being on Gordon's side when it came to whether or not the two vigilantes should be allowed to do what they did. Yet, neither of them cared.

"How'd you manage to track them?" asked Robin, earning a glance from Batman.

Batman stayed quiet, instead lifting up his arm and pushing the button that called Alfred.

"Yes, master Bruce?"

"I've placed a tracker on a thug. I need the location of it," said Batman quickly.

"From what I can tell, the tracker's on its way to Midtown."

"Send me the coordinates once they've stopped," said Batman before ending the call, turning to Robin.

Surely, he could keep quiet about what he just saw; who he saw. But he knew that Richard was going to find out the moment they reached their hideout. He hoped Dick would not have to see Elaine, and that Bruce could skip that awkward discussion… that way, Dick might not ask him even more questions that would mean he'd have to tell Dick even more truths he didn't want to tell either Dick or Millie.

Hopefully Elaine would get away.

Elaine

With a disappointed look on her face, she entered the hideout of Two-Face. They had barely managed to get any money out of the bank and most of the men were now probably on their way to the GCPD. They had failed the mission. Everything had begun to go wrong when she failed to turn the alarm off. New systems meant new codes to crack and sometimes that just went wrong. Though, they could have handled the police. The Batman, however, was another story. She tried to tell herself that it wasn't completely her fault; that she hadn't been able to foresee the Bat arriving.

Then again, Two-Face's crew had been hitting banks a lot for the past month. They were bound to attract attention eventually. In Gotham, that attention meant the Batman. Perhaps she would have been able to foresee it after all…

The moment she saw Dent appear in the room, her entire body tensed up. The men were standing behind her and she was going to have to take the hit. That's what a leader did after all; that's what Mark would have done.

"What happened?" asked Harvey, his voice smooth and his eyes flickering over each thug that had managed to get back, before resting on the small number of bags that were filled with money.

"The Batman appeared, sir," explained Elaine with an as monotone tone as possible in order to not provoke her current boss.

"The bat!?" Two-Face nearly spat at her as he said this, rushing up to her and leaning down to her level, his one good eye squinting down at her. "And that stopped you because?"

"Sir, it's the Bat. We couldn't possibly take him on-"

"But you should've tried!" he screamed down at her, making her flinch and her eyes widen.

"We did, but sir. Robin was with him and we t-tried, really, we did-"

The slap echoed through the room and as Elaine hit the floor, the pain from his palm connecting with her cheek hit her like a flame exploding against her flesh. A soft moan of pain escaped her lips before she managed to prevent it from escaping and she placed her cold hand against her cheek.

"Don't you dare! That stupid bird shouldn't have stopped you from trying! Either you kill the Bat, or you don't come back at all!" roared Two-Face down at Elaine.

Her heart was beating quickly and she tried her best to avoid looking at him, tears threatening to spill over which would only show as weakness in the eyes of her current boss.

Don't cry.

Slowly, he bent down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, nearly making her flinch again. She wondered if this would've happened if she had still been a part of Penguin's crew, though she was pretty sure it would've.

"Look at me, child," said Harvey Dent, his voice once again smooth and less harsh than earlier. As Elaine complied to his demand, he forced her hand away from her cheek and grabbed her chin with his cold and rough fingers, lifting her face into the light so that he could inspect the damage he had inflicted on her. "I know you did all you could. But we needed that money."

Elaine slowly nodded her head, forcing back the tears so that her vision was clear. She could see no remorse on his face and although she wasn't surprised by this, it warned her that she probably had underestimated how cold the man she worked for was. Yes, she enjoyed hurting people too, but she had never been hurt by one of her co-workers without the other person showing remorse for what he or she had done. And she herself had never hurt another co-worker in that way. Yet, even if it hurt and even if she knew it was wrong, it also felt thrilling to be hurt in such ways by those who ruled over her. This feeling was most certainly the reason for why she stayed with criminals to begin with.

When a cry echoed through the room from someone out in the hallway, Dent let go of Elaine and stood up straight, grabbing a gun and clenching it in his hands.

"Did you check if he followed you?" asked Dent quietly, looking down at Elaine.

Her shocked and horrified expression was enough of an answer for Two-Face and he growled under his breath.

"Great… Boys! The Bat's here!" he exclaimed, the men standing behind Elaine turning towards the door, all aiming their guns at it, prepared to fire at the Bat.

With ungraceful movements, Elaine scrambled away from the scene and placed herself behind a desk, pulling out her knife. She had some training with guns, however she wasn't good enough to own a gun of her own yet.

When the door burst open, revealing the hallway filled with smoke, Harvey and his men started to fire into the smoke aimlessly. Elaine held her hands over her ears, frowning at the loud sound and hoping that it truly was enough to stop the Bat. It wasn't until the smoke started to clear that the men along with Harvey ran out of bullets. The room filled with a dead silence that nearly hurt Elaine's ears more than the shooting had done.

Carefully she peeked over the desk, watching as the smoke slowly disappeared and revealed an almost empty hallway. Only Dent's men lying on the ground, unconscious or dead, could be seen. They hadn't been touched by the bullets since there wasn't any blood. Though the Bat didn't kill, and in that smoke, he could have easily taken them all out.

None of them cared enough about the men to go and take a closer look. Had they done this, they would have seen the way the smoke had affected the thugs; how their lips had been dragged up into creepy, ominous smiles, and they would have realized much quicker that the Batman was not behind this at all…

Suddenly, the sound of someone whistling a happy – though creepy – tune echoed through the hallway. Rounding a corner, was a man and a woman along with several thugs behind them. The thugs all held guns in their hands, though none of them were aiming at Dent's men. Instead, they were walking behind their bosses with a nonchalant strut. They wore clown masks and shaggy clothes, revealing to Elaine – even though she had already seen the bosses – exactly who they were working for. Even without much knowledge about the criminals in Gotham, one would know who these thugs worked for…

Those were the thugs working for the Joker. And walking before them, grinning widely were, indeed, the Joker and Harley Quinn.