Katie Randall sat on her knees in her living room in complete and utter terror. Her parents lay dead on both sides of her, with gunshot wounds to their foreheads, blood soaking the white carpet around them.

Today Katie was supposed to celebrate her ninth birthday party, but she had awakened to an early morning cackle from an unfamiliar voice.

The Joker's voice.

She ran downstairs to see her parents shout at her to runaway, but Katie ran to them instead. When she had reached them, the Joker shot them both in their head with a .357 Magnum.

Now he stood by the wall, looking into his hand.

"You know, Katie", The Joker said as he failed flipping a quarter for the third time. "Normally some other whack-job would leave his decisions to a coin…"

The Joker leaned against wall of her living room where her family's photos covered the wall. The wedding picture of her parents was lying on the ground as the glass from the frame was spread across the floor in front of her. The Joker finally gave up and tossed that insufferable quarter at the body of Katie's mother, clanging against the shattered glasses frame that was a victim of the same bullet that killed her..

"But why let some piece of metal decide someone's fate…"

The Joker drew his gun and fired a bullet that shot past Katie, hitting the leg of her father. She screamed as blood splattered on her face.

"…When lead does the trick perfectly?"

Katie's cries were drowned out by the Joker's maniacal laughter. He holstered his gun underneath his jacket as he approached her. The Joker knelt down to her as she covered her eyes, his demonic smile inches from her face.

"Don't take this personally, kiddo. I'm on a quest for knowledge. You do know what knowledge is, right Katie?"

Katie sobbed and began to slowly hyperventilate

"Good", The Joker said in a patronizing tone. "Because I have a hypothesis about a certain Dork Knight, and I sure am curious…"

The Joker leaned forward, putting his face next to her ear and whispered with a voice that would haunt her as long as she lived.

"Now be a good little guinea pig and make mommy and daddy proud…"

Her name was Katie Randall.

Nine years ago, her parents were killed in her home by the Joker, on her ninth birthday. Two days ago, she was fingered by former members of the gang The LoBoys for multiple counts of murder. The majority of the victims turned out to be members of the LoBoys themselves.

Nowadays, she's referred to as Katie Blade, every one of her victims killed by a knife.

From what's been told, she cries openly after every murder she commits. As though she came out of a trance to realize the horror she had committed each time. Her victims usually turn out to have rap sheets themselves; none of them were random innocents.

She targeted criminals, making her a vigilante.

Gordon pulled her file after identifying her, her history shouting at us that her actions were almost bound to happen. After her parents were killed, she was sent to live with her aunt. Her aunt was growing more and more worried about Katie detaching herself from reality as time went on. Immediately, her aunt placed her in a special care facility that helps traumatized children. Katie was there from the ages of ten to thirteen, when she finally ran away.

Right now, I'm standing behind a one way window, watching and listening to her sedated conversation with Dr. Jeremiah Arkham. She wasn't sedated by the orderlies or anyone else for that matter, it just how she's responding to her situation.

Katie is in a gown provided by the asylum, twirling a small piece of string with her hands, which are bound, while Dr. Arkham continues to talk to her.

"It's disturbing", I hear Gordon say next to me. "An eighteen year old girl being linked to all of those murders, it's like…"

"Not linked, Jim" I say. "She was fingered and she confessed. She is a murderer."

I correct Jim as he sighs to himself. He knows that there rarely is a moment of grey when it comes to me and murderers. However, the judge saw it fit to declare Katie insane and sent her to Arkham. What worries me is that knowing that there is little to no chance of rehabilitating her.

I know how she truly feels deep within herself.

It never goes away.

"Let's just hope that they managed to keep her away from him", I offer to Jim.

"I saw to that personally", he answered. "Since he's escaped, it should be a little easier getting her settled in."

From the speaker, I hear Jeremiah continue to talk to her.

"Katie, what happened after you ran away from the home?"

I see Katie continue to twist and spin the piece of string as her face shows the mental struggle of piecing it all together again.

"I…ran away", she started. "I went to see a friend, and she let me stay with her."

"Where did you friend live?"

"She lived with her friends, she…ran away too."

I couldn't help but notice the adolescent tone she had taken on. Katie has obviously endured large amounts of emotional trauma since her parents' murder. Every life she has taken obviously weigh down on her, as though the ghosts of her victims followed her everywhere she went.

"They were all different ages, but I was one of the oldest."

"You were one of the oldest at only thirteen?"

"Yes."

I hear Gordon's mix of a groan/sigh after she says that. I almost add one of my own.

"My friend's name was Jenny", Katie continued. "We stayed at a house by the old steel mill on the south side.

"Crack Ridge", she says at the same time I silently mouth the name. "There were six of us, and we were allowed to stay at the house if we made enough crack to keep up with Big Tony's demands."

"Big Tony..?" Jeremiah asked her.

"He owned the house, but it was really a lab."

Gordon whispers to me again.

"Big Tony was found dead three years ago in that same house, killed by multiple stab wounds."

I nod.

"What happened when you didn't make enough for Big Tony?" Jeremiah asked.

Katie stared away at that piece of string some more before she barely answered.

"Then…there would be less of us living in the house. Two of us went missing over three years…Jenny was gone."

I watch her carefully as she tugs at the string a little harder. Recalling the disappearance of her friend seems to have been a major catalyst for her current condition. I look to Gordon who seems to be listening with good intent.

I know deep down he feels for her, a major reason for this her being a victim of the Joker.

"After a while, another girl came to live with us", Katie continued. "Her name was Vicki…and she was different."

"Different?" Jeremiah asked as he wrote on his tablet.

"She taught me and the other girls how to defend ourselves with knives", Katie said. "Big Tony liked her, and he made her sleep with him after a few weeks. She liked it at first, but she didn't say much of anything else. She kept teaching us how to use knives and anything else we can find if we were ever in trouble, I was learning pretty fast."

I watch her hands more carefully. If she was trained in any technique, it should show in her mannerisms. If her focus was using knives, her hands more than likely will fidget in particular patterns in the current state she is in.

"I don't know why", Katie said. "But I was getting…sicker and I couldn't remember much. But…but I kept seeing his face."

"Who..?" Jeremiah asked. "Whose face did you see?"

The string in Katie's hand found its way around her forefingers and was pulled tightly. She lazily looked back at Arkham with an empty and mortifying smile on her face.

"…The Joker."

It wasn't hard to see Gordon's silent stare into nothingness as he heard the name. If you didn't know, it looked as though he were looking through the glass at Arkham and Katie, but I know his mind is thinking back to all of the pain the Joker had caused him.

His daughter's legs.

His wife's life.

I know all of this, it's been routine over the years. He has every right to feel the way he does, yet he is not alone.

Jason…

"Big Tony killed her, because she tried to kill him first" Katie continued. "Then he tried coming at us, that's when I…"

Katie stops talking and motions with her tied-together hands in a downward, stabbing motion. Her blue eyes are as wide open as they could be with the image of Big Tony obviously in front of her again.

"Then I joined the LoBoys…but they were bad. I took care of some of them for you."

Katie smiled as though she were waiting for a pat on the head.

I see Gordon reach for his radio as it and the receiver in my cowl buzz on. We hear the reports of the Joker being spotted just three miles outside of Arkham Asylum; he's in a car chase with the police.

Katie will have to wait till later.

Gordon heads for the front exit where his car and another squad car await him. I parked behind the asylum in a ditch that is well hidden. I usually park there when I come here, no need to draw any extra attention.

After going through all of the corridors of the asylum, dodging curses in my name from the majority of the inmates who are still capable of putting sentences together, I reach the back exit.

As I open the door, something that feels like a cinderblock slams against the side of my head. I hit the ground in a daze, the cowl protecting me somewhat. The digital signal my lenses provide is nothing but static now, it switches off when such a situation arises.

I hear his laugh.

"You know, Batsy", he says. "It's ironic that you and I both use this exit when we both don't want to be seen. Even more ironic when it's you getting caught instead of me…"

He laughs again as I look up. A wooden mallet the size of a half keg rests over his shoulders. He kneels down next to me, his hot breath showing in the early winter air.

"Poor little Katie…" the bastard started. "Shame what happened to her folks, don't you think Batsy?"

I don't do or say anything. His smile stretches as his hoarse giggle comes through his teeth.

"She really did show a nice mean streak, I have to admit. I was rather surprised when she didn't begin doing her turkey carving at an earlier age. But oh well, youth these days, you know? Total lack of drive…"

He looks at me more, realizing that my silent tone won't change until I gather myself. I hear him sigh as he stands up, I watch his every move.

"Well, I guess it's time for me to turn in", he says staring at, then looking away from the watch he doesn't have on his wrist. "It's getting a little nip and I'd like to curl up in my room with a warm blanket and a good book…"

He drops his mallet next to my head, would have crushed it if it landed on me. He begins to open the door going into the asylum.

I try to say something this time.

"What…are you…doing?"

He stops and looks back with that smile.

"What do you think?" he says in his innocent high voice.. "The cost of living is insane. My loan applications kept coming up short and I can't very well sleep on the streets. And don't get me started on renting…whew."

He lowers his voice for his next line.

"We're not all millionaires, you know..."

He turns away from me as he laughs his way into Arkham, his voice fading away as the door shuts behind him.

I finish returning Jonathan Crane to Arkham Asylum when I make an effort to check on Katie Randall. Dr. Arkham says she's making good progress with her rehabilitation, despite my initial feelings. He says that Katie has come out of her shell after five months, even making a few friends with and helping out other patients.

Her six month review is coming up, Dr. Arkham says there's a good chance she can finish her rehabilitation in another month and no longer be a danger to society or herself.

That I don't believe, but I still intend on keeping an eye out for her.

"She's doing better than anyone expected", I hear Dr. Arkham behind me as I look into her cell. "Katie has conquered a lot of her demons during her time here. She's earned a second chance at life."

I say nothing.

If Katie could see herself, she would be shocked she actually fell asleep. Tomorrow is her big day, the day when she finds out if she can reenter the world, to earn a second chance. She has rehabbed herself with the help of the staff of Arkham Asylum, something that the asylum was not very successful with in previous years.

This makes Katie a survivor.

"Wakey, wakey…"

Katie is pulled from her deep sleep by a shake on her shoulder. She wonders if she overslept and one of the orderlies is waking her up. She quickly jumped up, her eyelids having trouble revealing her unfocused eyes. Knowing the room like the back of her hand, she shuffled over to her closet to begin getting dressed. She didn't care that the orderly could see her; she's done this hundreds of times before

"I'm so sorry", she says. "I just couldn't sleep and…"

"Oh I don't think that will be a problem, Katie."

She slows at the familiar voice, but it wasn't one she had heard recently.

"You've made mommy and daddy so proud", the voice said again. "You've done a lot of horrible things, but it wasn't your fault. No, no…you were merely acting on thoughts that were not your own, but thoughts of someone who wanted revenge…"

The low, calm tone of that familiar voice slowly and hauntingly echoed in her cell. Katie's eyes began to focus as she regained control of her eyelids. She turned from the closet to see him sitting on her bed in his Arkham clothing, playing with a knife.

"Am I right?" the Joker asked.

She sees the knife in his hands as he stands up. After doing his bad impression of a musketeer slashing and stabbing the cardinal's evil minions, the Joker placed the knife on the bed and backed away from it.

His smile and the knife are the only things Katie can see now.

"I'm very proud of you Katie", he says. "You've basically proven a point that I had already known. Heh, I don't think I really needed you actually. But oh well, it was fun."

His giggle began to wipe away six hard months of rehabilitation from Katie. She never forgot how to use a knife, she still considered herself well prepared had she needed to defend herself in a life or death situation. Katie knew all she needed to do was move over to that knife and pick it up.

Everything after that was academic.

She quickly moved over and swiped up the knife. She turned to his still smiling face and thrust the knife into his midsection.

However, to her surprise, the sound of flesh being penetrated was replaced by metal clanging on metal. Katie's eyes shot open as her knife was know bent and no longer effective.

The Joker shook his head and clicked his tongue in disappointment.

"Katie, Katie, Katie…" he said as he whipped out a knife from his right arm's long sleeve. "Try it like this…"

He brought up his hand a slashed her throat from right to left. Katie's blood-filled gargling and wheezing filled the room as the Joker wiped off the blood that sprayed from her onto him. She fell to her knees, trying to preserve her own life. Katie slumped to the ground as her life began to slip away.

She looked up to see the Joker do his fencing moves again.

"All for one, one for all, every lunatic for himself!"

He stopped shadow-dueling as he turned to Katie's body on the ground. He placed the blood stained knife in her hands that finally slumped to the ground. The few seconds of her life was spent hearing that horrifying voice whispering in her ear one last time.

"Say hi to mommy and daddy for me."