Sorry about the delay on this one! It's a bit longer than usual, about twice the length of a longish chapter and four times the normal, and as such took some time to edit through. I have a lot going on with school nowadays, tests, projects, and studying for midterms all taking away my free time. I go on break in two weeks, so I'll update much more during my extended winter break!

Anyways, special thanks to me-ladie and to Bashlei for the reviews and for adding this story to their watch list! I am glad that you both have enjoyed it, and I dedicate this longer chapter to you guys!

Before we get started, I will answer a question some people have mentioned to me: This story IS going to follow the events of the game. The ways in which it does I do not know yet...things will be different than in the game for sure, but only the sections pertaining to these characters. The rest will remain the same for sure. I think you guys will understand what I really mean when we get there, but since that is a long ways away, I hope you enjoy this chapter in the meantime!

71. Obsession

Dr. Young sat in her chair, her usual lab coat worn over a grey dress shirt. Around her neck hung a small necklace that went under her lab coat, covering it from view, and her hair was held back by a purple hair tie. Jonathan sat across from her in his usual straightjacket, although it was once again undone and he sat freely on his chair.

Young was glad that she was still able to see Crane. He was truly getting better, and she intended to see the treatment through to its end. She was worried that if he began seeing this Dr. Absonus he would begin to go back to how he was, and her hard work would be undone. That would be not be acceptable.

Penelope decided to ask her patient a more serious question than normal, "Jonathan, would it be correct for me to assume that your extreme predilection for fear stems from your childhood trauma greatly?"

Jonathan looked at his doctor and spoke, "That would be fair to assume, yes. I've lived my life in terror, and when I saw a chance to reverse the roles, to make those who prey on the fearful feel fear, I took it."

Young noted that for once one of her patient's environments likely had a lot to do with their psychosis, although he did still have some distinct anxiety disorders. Nodding her head, Young replied, "A poetic justice of sorts…did you target any of the people who had tormented you when you were younger?"

Watching his eyes as he spoke, Young could feel a cold fury behind them. She learned recently that the best way to see what her nigh expressionless patient was feeling was through what his icy blue eyes with silver in the middle said, "Yes, they were the first targets I had. I made them pay for what they put me through…" he stopped and grew a minute frown, his childhood memories flooding back into his head, "countless instances of bullies beating me, shoving me into dumpsters, pushing me down stairs, and trying to run me over with cars all were avenged when I unleashed my fear gas on them. The way I did it was by recruiting them to participate in 'experiments' run through my university, under a false name that they would not recognize…my then untested fear gas would be turned on them."

Penelope frowned more than her patient at the mention of his criminal past, "You were fired from the university, if I recall correctly."

Nodding his head lightly, Jonathan took in a deep breath, "Yes…that was the proverbial last straw. The dean had been cruel to me while I worked there, and when he learned that my experiments were not the most humane, he fired me and literally had security drag me off the grounds."

An eyebrow rose on his doctor's face, "Was that the creation of your 'Scarecrow' persona?" Thinking for a moment, she quickly added, "And if I may, why Scarecrow? Most people think of the Wizard of Oz when they hear the word scarecrow, and there must have been other, more frightening things you could have taken the form of."

Jonathan averted his gaze slightly, his eyes still showing what Penelope thought to be a repressed rage within them, "I chose Scarecrow because of my childhood torment…you see, I was tall and slim as I am now. I was known as 'The Scarecrow' by my peers, and it wasn't helped by how they also forced me to run after birds and scare them…if I didn't, they would beat me until I bled and could not walk."

Young let out a small gasp, shocked by how intensely Jonathan had been hurt. She knew he had been bullied, but she was just beginning to realize the extent, "That's horrible! How could your teachers let things like that happen? A lot of this must have happened at school, how could they just stand by? And what about other kids? Surely not everyone stood by and watched it happen?"

Shrugging his shoulders slightly, Crane looked as indifferent as always, "I was the school freak…whenever I thought someone actually felt sorry for me, they were just trying to get close to me so that they could hurt me even more later…that's why I would strive to punish them later. These bullies became successful you see, and they never paid for their crimes in any way. I was so furious after I was fired that the Scarecrow hunted down any one that I had not already experimented on."

Young shook her head, "I can't condone killing others, but I do understand your thoughts behind doing so. They had horribly mistreated you for years, and they would go on to be rich and famous and would never pay for what they did to you."

Jonathan continued to keep his eyes from looking at his doctor, purposefully trying to look downtrodden and pathetic, "I know that what I did was wrong, but at the time I didn't care. I had had enough of being pushed around, of others hurting me cruelly for petty reasons. So one after another, the people who had hurt me paid for what they did…" Jonathan paused, looking up at the ceiling lazily, "I thought I had truly become a living nightmare, but I was proved to be no better than a pretender. The Batman gave me a frightful awakening in that regard."

Young titled her head, confused, "What do you mean? How does that vigilante factor in?"

Jonathan met his doctor's eyes once more, but she couldn't read them this time. Instead, she felt a shiver go down her spine as she looked into his frozen eyes, "He…the Batman is the true master of terror. He causes full grown men to cower and cringe by mere mention of his name, mob bosses to do business during daylight so as to avoid him, and criminals to go straight simply to not have to ever fight him…" Crane stopped again, pausing to think. When he was done, he continued on, his mouth curling down into a minor scowl, "He brought me down and took my title of the 'Master of Fear', with the help of a certain Rachel Dawes. Batman…he is the biggest bully of all. He beats up hundreds of other people in his crusade on crime, and although I like seeing some former bullies get their just desert by my enemy's hands, he also fights those who know no other way of life. There are some people who don't have the abilities to do anything but crime…is it truly righteous for him to be putting them away in jail when they have families to support?"

"I would suppose not, but just because they have no other way of getting income doesn't make their careers any less illegal.

Jonathan nodded, "Yes, but the same could be said about me. I am a former criminal who has hurt many people. I am not exactly someone who could go get any honest work now."

Taking into account her patient and his situation, Young thought about how to answer him, "Well, as long as all of this is in your past I see no problem with you resuming your old life. People who earn it can get a second chance in life, and I believe that if you keep up on this rehabilitation track you'll no doubt get it. It will take awhile for you to repay your debt to society, likely your entire life, but it is still possible."

Jonathan's scowl transformed into a neutral expression, "Why that is most kind of you doctor Young, but I doubt that me being released would really have any long-term effect on my residence."

Baffled by what he was saying, Young questioned her patient, "Why is that? If you are released by being declared sane, then-"

Speaking matter-of-factly, Crane replied, "Then the Bat Man will come and drop me back off here. It doesn't matter to him."

Still confused, Penelope continued to question Crane, "But why would he waste his time putting a sane person back inside of an insane asylum, especially when you wouldn't be hurting anyone?"

Still using the same tone, he shook his head, "The reason Doctor Young, is that he is as obsessed with his crime fighting ways as I am with fear. If he registers someone as a threat, then they are to be put away."

Young let out a breath, trying to focus herself, "In any circumstance, if possible, would you like to be released? I'm not promising anything, but I could have you declared sane."

"Being released from this prison of lunatics would be nice, I must admit. But why the sudden willingness to let me out? Does it have to do with our new Doctor?"

Penelope nodded, "Well yes, yes it does. Absonus has something he is not telling anyone, something which I intend to find out, but in the meantime I do not want him to meet with you under any circumstances…you're like a test subject to him and with his shady appointment and attitude, I would not like to see what he would do with you."

Crane could laugh at the irony if he were one to really care about such trivial things. Here was his own test subject trying to find a way to protect him from someone who saw him as a test subject, "Your caring is greatly appreciated…but I must say that Absonus will not be a problem. Like I've said before, he and I have come to an…understanding."

"Yes, but as you've also said, it is temporary. He still fully intends to go through with whatever it was he planned. While I am not so concerned as to what he plans on doing to the Joker, you are a patient I actually intend to help readjust to society. We have programs to help people even after they've left Arkham-"

Shaking his head, Crane turned the idea down, "I must extend my thanks for the offer, but I wish to stay here. I truly do. I can handle Absonus. I am not scared of him."

Young looked at her patient seriously, "Are you sure Jonathan? I have the feeling that he may actually be dangerous, given my last meeting with him."

Jonathan sighed, "Yes, yes I am. If worse comes to worse, I could always scare him off."

Young looked at him sternly, her voice apprehensive and the tone scolding, like a mother to a child who just broke a vase, "Now Jonathan, I don't want you relapsing into your old behavior. We've come quite a ways, haven't we? I don't want to lose the work we've done because of some strange doctor."

Realizing that he was slipping up, he tried to lessen the damage, "I understand. You won't find me donning my old mask and costume on his account."

Young's expression softened and she nodded, "That's good. Now, how are you going to avoid him? He can access you outside of our meetings, can he not?"

Crane shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, his expression still neutral and voice even, "Yes, I suppose he can. If he tries, I'll just get myself put in solitary. That way you'll get a call, informing you that I can't come to our session, and then you can come and release me from solitary. That way you'll know as soon as he tries to make contact."

Young nodded again, "That sounds like a plan…," her voice changed back to the mothering tone from before, "don't do anything stupid to get yourself put there though. Don't pick fights with Joker or the others…"

Jonathan repressed a smirk, "Don't worry. I'm on good behavior, remember?"

Jonathan was cracking up on the inside. This was almost to much for him to take. His doctor was falling for his plan all to well…at the rate they were going he would have another tally in the success column within the next couple months.