An attraction so deadly.

Standing by the docks, the wind blowing by her making her hair and the bag she was holding blow in the wind. Mist couldn't believe she was doing this, how had her life become so mixed up? She'd somehow went from being a law abiding citizen to affiliating with criminals, insane criminals at that.

She turned around to see no one was there, to make sure no one would see her, that's when she heard it, the water moving in a big splash.

Mist turned back to the docks, her eyes widening and slowly traveling up the figure of the woman…? Was she even that anymore? It was hard to tell, but there she stood, staring down at Mist with her arms folded across her chest.

"Penguin told me you need a way into Arkham."

Mist blinked a few times before she shook her head slightly. "Yeah… I need a way in to Arkham without being detected."

"I can get you there," Orca declared before she leaned down and narrowed her eyes at her. "The rest of it, being inside Arkham, navigating your way around, that's on you. Nothing to do with me."

"Harley suggested I take the sewers and then the air vents."

"Smart," Orca agreed before she slowly walked back into the water, turning back to Mist who zipped her coat up and stood at the edge of the peer. "Get on then," Orca gestured to her back and Mist quickly climbed on. "You're gonna need to hold on tight, also… hold your breath."

She really wished she'd had more warning about what was about to happen, Orca was a fast swimmer, especially when she was under water.

At the last few metres, Mist didn't think she could hold her breath or hold on much longer, her grip was becoming weak as they neared the destination and finally Orca rose out of the water.

Mist coughed and spluttered as she climbed into the sewer pipe, it was huge and she winced at the smell, covering her mouth and nose as she coughed.

"It's up to you now," Orca explained. "Good luck and also… watch your step."

Mist glared slightly before she turned on her heel, facing the darkening pipe. "Yeah.. thanks…"

There was splash behind her and that's when she realised she was on her own now, didn't have any way of getting off the island and was stuck in a sewer pipe.

She sucked in a breath before marching forwards, keeping her hands out in front of her, the bag she held firmly in her grasp as she went looking through the darkness for some way of getting out of the damn stink.

Mist didn't know how long she'd been walking in the dark and smell, but then she saw it, light shinning down at her and she grinned, quickly running up to it, only to find a grate blocking her way.

"Oh for the love of…" she ran a hand down her face before she began to kick at the grate with her foot, slamming into it as hard as she could.

Thankfully the grate was old and rusted and came away easily and then she climbed out, stepping out into the lit underground hallways of Arkham's secret passages underneath it's buildings.

As she wondered through, she was surprised to find no guards, then her eyes landed on a iron door and she grinned. "Finally."

She walked up to it and tried the handle, but it was locked causing a frown to fall across her face before she suddenly screamed and backed away in terror as something bagged against the metal door itself.

Mist looked up at the small window and her eyes widened as she found one great big yellow glowing eye staring back at her, it's pupil like that of a lizard… or a crocodiles and it was then Mist knew who this was behind the glass.

Waylon Jones… Killer Croc.

She backed up, her hands tightening around the bag she was holding as she stared at him before he slowly backed away from the glass and slinked off somewhere.

She stood there for a while, expecting him to back but he didn't and then she was back to trying to find an air vent that could lead her to Rat Catcher's cell.

What had Harley told her to do again?

Mist went to step when she heard a squeak and quickly lifted her foot to find a rat who quickly ran away from her and then she saw it, a whole trail of rats, running along the side of the wall and as she turned to look behind her she found more following.

Oh that's what she'd said… follow the rats.

"I have a dilema."

Jonathan peeked over the top of his book and raised an eyebrow at Edward who was leaning against the bars, tapping his fingers against them lightly as he stared outside.

"And what could that be?"

"Strange knows about Mist and about…" he trailed off biting his lip before turning away to look outside his cell again. "Something else. He's going to hurt her… I can't allow that," then he suddenly turned and narrowed his eyes at Scarecrow. "Like I won't allow you to hurt her either."

Jonathan chuckled darkly at the back of his throat before he looked up at Edward and smirked. "What can you do?"

"What?"

"Tell me, Edward," he gently placed his book down and rose to his feet. "What is it that you could actually do? Compared to me, you're nothing but a weakling, pathetic really."

"Stay away from Mist."

"You and I both know that will not happen… but you have a rather… unhealthy obsession with her don't you?"

"I'm not obsessed."

"Oh please," Jonathan rolled his eyes. "You haven't stopped talking about her since you realised it was her. You claim it to be love but it's not. The only reason you're worried about Strange is because you're like a child and you don't like other people touching what you believe to be yours."

"Oh shut it, Crane!" Edward snapped. "What would you know about love anyway?"

"Only that what you and Mist have is not love. In fact…" Jonathan trailed off. "You're almost creating a mania out of her. How… pathetic. Truly. The lowest you've ever sunk."

"I am not creating a mania out of her!" he snarled back in response, turing on Jonathan so sharply that he almost lost his balance. "She's mine. I claimed her all those years ago, she cannot belong to anyone else!"

"Not creating a mania you say?"

There was a small clatter from the vent above them, causing both men to raise an eyebrow before Jonathan started to chuckle, rising to his feet as he walked under the vent. "I believe that's your lady love now," he said as he flicked the latch that held the vent's casing up. Something Edward had made as a quick escape route and a way to get out of his cell without causing any alarms.

Sure enough, Mist came tumbling out of the vent, landing on the floor of the cell in a heap, rubbing at her head.

Edward blinked as he stared down at her. "My dear mystery if you really wanted to see me so badly you only had to call."

"Oh shut it," Mist growled as she got to her feet, dusting herself off. "How far away am I from Rat Catcher's cell?"

Edward grinned at that. "So you finally figured it out..? Took you longer then I was expecting my love, are you quite right in the head?"

Mist narrowed her eyes at him in response to that before she walked up to him and held up a finger. "Out of the two of us… who's free and who's currently locked up in a mental asylum?"

'Can't argue the fact that we should be in asylum, Misty,' Sphinx chuckled as she leaned up against the far wall, but Mist was doing a good job at ignoring her.

"I'm not insane," Edward snapped. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"You obviously don't hear yourself when you talk sometimes do you?" Crane muttered from behind Mist who jumped back slightly as he stood there starting intently at her.

"Of course I do!" the riddle lover growled. "It's the only time I ever hear someone of actual intelligence speak!"

"And on that note…" Mist reached up and began to climb back into the ventilation system.

"My dear mystery… what do you expect to find?"

"I don't know Edward… but you said Rat Catcher knows something, so I'm going to ask and this time, I have something that might just win him over."

"Mist."

She stopped and looked back at him glaring. "What?"

"Don't go near Joker."

"Not that I was planning on going near the psychotic loon, but why?"

Edward was silent. "Just… don't."

A chuckle got both of their attention and they turned to Scarecrow who was smirking at the both of them.

"You two… you're going to destroy each other," he declared before grinning in the light of the cell. "It's going to be quite fun to watch…. I might not even interfere, I might even let it run of it's own accord."

Neither spoke, before Mist shook her head, muttering something to herself as she pulled herself fully into the air vent and continued on her track through the vent.

She tried to ignore the various cries and shouts of inmates, the various insane mutterings and general self harming individuals who slammed their heads against the wall, trying to get the voices to stop.

She shuddered at the thought, how someone's own mind could betray them like that and turn against them? It was a scary thought.

Mist soon found herself crossing over a guard post, taking extra care to remain as quiet as possible and not make a single sound.

"Did you hear about the new guy?"

"Huh? You mean Andrews?"

Mist paused and looked back at where the guards where stationed.

"Yeah, did you hear about his death?"

"Course I did, stupid kid. Shoulda known better then to stick his nose in business it didn't belong, let alone get involved with those two reporters."

"Yeah but… what Strange is doing-."

"You saw what trying to be a hero did to Jimmy, just leave well enough alone."

The second guard shuffled nervously. "You didn't see him,"

"Who?"

"Fright."

"Lucifer?"

The other nodded. "Strange had him hooked up to.. to a machine… he's preforming experiments on his brain, see what it can or can't do, wires poking in and everything… if the kid wasn't disturbed before, he will be now."

"No way Strange would do that to a child.. I mean, yeah Nightmare's troubled and all but… no he wouldn't!"

"Well he did, and apparently he isn't finished, he's going to move on to all the meta humans, testing them, seeing what they do and as well as experimenting on any of the lower risk levels."

"That… procedure he performs on them… the effects are permanent right?"

"Yeah," the second shuddered. "These people may be crazy… but god help me, they don't deserve what Strange's gonna do to them, no one does… well except maybe Joker."

"I saw Strange outside Joker's cell once."

"He's been there multiple times, all of the Doctors have. It's nothing new, but I think Joker knows they're there."

"You think Joker knows anything? About what's going on here?"

"Are you kidding me? C'mon, I think we can drop the act while no inspectors are here, everyone knows who runs this Asylum and it sure as hell ain't Strange or Sharp or hell, even Cash; it's Joker."

Mist sat frozen in the air vent staring down at the two guards, neither knowing or suspected her presence. Joker. Joker was the key, if there was one person who knew what was really going on here it would be Joker.

But why would Joker tell her? He was insane, loved chaos, was probably enjoying what Strange was doing to the patients here, it wasn't right but nothing was right about the Joker.

Mist swallowed as she began to crawl back through the air vent, she knew she would have to talk to Joker, but Edward told her not to go near him, to stay away.

"And since when did we listen to Eddie?"

She rolled her eyes at Sphinx. They both knew the answer to that question, but maybe this time she should listen to him.

She looked down at the vent and saw one of the rats she'd been following round a bend and she quickly followed it, before it dropped through the gap into a cell and she looked down to find Otis sitting in a pile of rats.

He was calm, had no reason to worry, but it was funny to watch him jump when she dropped the bag of cheese into his cell in front of him.

"There. Some damn cheese to feed your rats, it'll last a good month," he looked up at her with wide eyes as Mist glared back at him. "So. About that information."

Otis sighed and shook his head. "Strange has a secret lab in the asylum," he looked back at her. "You can get to it through the vents, but it deep under the asylum, in a secluded part, people don't even think there is something there anymore but there is. It's where he takes patients to experiment on them."

"If you know this why haven't you told anyone?" Mist bit out and Otis laughed, as he began to break a piece of cheese off and feed it to his rats.

"C'mon. I feed rats and talk to them. Who in their right mind would listen to me, which begs the question," he looked up at her and tilted his head to the side. "Why are you listening to me?"

"Sometimes it's the most troubled of minds that see the truth," Mist explained as she narrowed her eyes at him. "But I need one more favour from you."

"Alright," Otis took a bite of the cheese himself. "But what's in it for me?"

"I'll owe you."

He thought about this for a second before smiling. "Alright then. What do you want?"

"Can you direct me to Joker's cell through the air vents?"

Otis almost choked on his cheese. He looked up at her, mouth agape, unruly hair brushed into his eyes as he stared at her. "I thought you said you'd owe me? You go down to Joker you won't come back up and I have no desire to be the one who lead the Riddler's girl to her death."

"I'm not going to jump into the cell with him, I'm just going to sit in the air vents and talk to him. If anyone knows what's going on here, it'll be Joker. He runs the asylum, despite what the heads of this department would have you believe, Joker is king here."

Otis nodded. "Yes…" he agreed before looking back at her. "But there's a reason he's king."

"Otis, I need to talk to him," she narrowed her eyes. "You want this to end don't you? You're smart enough to know that you will be one of Strange's experiments at some point, he's building himself up."

The Rat Catcher was silent as he seemed deep in thought before he sighed and looked up at her. "Alright. But it's your funeral," he nodded to one of his rats and placed it into the air vent. "He'll lead you to Joker and if you're still alive afterwards he'll lead you back here."

Mist nodded. "Thank you."

"You really shouldn't be thanking anyone for leading you to your death."

"Back off from Mist!"

Jonathan smiled and looked over the top of his book at Edward who stood in front of him glaring down at the man of straw.

"Oh, believe me Edward, I will be doing just that."

Edward narrowed his eyes. "I don't believe you."

"Well you should," Scarecrow smiled. "I would much rather see how this plays out, this deadly attraction. It really is quite amusing."

Edward shook his head. "Mist hates me," he muttered. "I can fool myself all I want, but she hates me, I can see it in her eyes."

"You obviously don't look hard enough," Jonathan grinned as he rose to his feet and walked towards Edward. "She still loves you. I see it in her eyes. She still holds a torch for you, one she can't get rid of, no matter how hard she try."

The other was silent and stared at him.

"W-what?" Edward choked out, backing up slightly.

Jonathan smiled, his lips curling up in a horrible smile.

"Yes… an attraction so deadly, I really can't wait to see how it plays out, but I wonder which one of you will come out on top and who will be the one who dies first."

"No one's going to die!"

"You really think so?" Scarecrow laughed. "Edward if there is one thing I have realised about that woman, is she doesn't listen to you, ever," he smirked. "Also she should've come back this way by now, but look at that she hasn't."

"What are you saying?"

"You're a smart man Edward, I'm sure you can figure it out," he walked up to him and held a finger up to make a point. "Who's the one person you told her not to go near."

Edward's eyes widened.

"And the penny drops," Scarecrow grinned.

"Joker… Mist, she's gone to Joker!" he turned on his heel and made short work of the lock on his door and quickly slammed it open, running through the corridors as fast as he could.

Jonathan merely laughed after him, before returning to his book and crossing his spider like legs. "Such a deadly attraction indeed."

T.B.C:

Note: I haven't updated in a while I know, but here we go the next chapter! Since we're leading up to the evens of the Arkham Asylum game, I'm going to be including the interview tapes as the starting points for all the chapters from now on :D