Jonathan soon continued his fear experiments that he had started back in Gotham. He set up a lab in the basement of the asylum, similar to the one he had in Arkham, and he started developing a new and improved fear hallucinogen that would be twice as powerful as the last. Though he hated being Scarecrow again, he was glad the now he was able to be Jonathan and Scarecrow without Scarecrow taking over, as it had when he had fought Batman.
Layla agreed to face her fears, and help Jonathan at the same time by being the first to test his hallucinogen. The first time she inhaled the fear gas she coughed and gagged, then fell to the ground whimpering and hiding her face. Jonathan did not make it her fear worse by putting on his mask, he just stood closely by and observed that the room itself seemed to be enough to scare her, probably because she was claustrophobic. He administered the antidote after a minute or so. He knew he could wait longer before the toxin did permanent damage, but he could not stand seeing her so upset.
Layla knew the more she confronted her fear the stronger she would be against it, so every few days they went through the same routine. She was right. Every time she began to hallucinate that the walls were closing in, and ever time she was a little less scared. At one point she asked Jonathan why he had restarted his fear experiments. He had never thought of it before. He could have stopped all of it and forgotten about the old Dr. Crane when they moved to Willowfalls, as he had when he moved from Gotham City. He could have easily forgotten all about that part of his life, but when he began working at the asylum something in him instinctively wanted to continue where he had left off.
As he pondered Layla's question he realized it was all for revenge. Batman had ruined his plan and, though he thought he had forgotten about it, he wanted to ruin Batman. Sub-consciously he had never forgotten the plan to return to Gotham unexpectedly, but he needed a flawless plan before he could return. He soon realized that despite all of his work on forgetting all of this there was still a part of him that loved fear, a sinister side the craved power and now vengeance.
He decided the first step in his plan would be to rule the asylum he currently worked at. To accomplish this would be to let Dr. Johnson, the current head of the asylum, be a test subject for his hallucinogen. The hallucinogen, like the one he had made before, would cause irreparable damage, and Dr. Johnson would have to become a patient in his own asylum. Of course there is a shortage of psychology doctors in Willowfalls, so Dr. Crane would have to take over for poor Dr. Johnson. Layla, who worked at the asylum as a secretary when she was not at school, agreed to help him in his plan since she was his sidekick.
Jonathan explained that he would normally test the drug on his patients, but he needed a sane test subject to find out if the new fear toxin really did permanent damage. The plan was too risky without knowing for sure if the toxin would do its job. Layla was glad to help. She told him she would find someone, then she put on her Sparrow mask and walked out.
Luckily the first person she came across was short and skinny, most likely very easy to overpower. Unfortunately the unsuspecting person was also a cop. Sparrow did not give the officer a chance to fight back. She caught the victim off guard and got the advantage. She noticed the officer had dropped something, and she looked around to see what it was. She found it and studied it carefully, and realized that it was a taser gun. She smirked and shot the tied victim. The cop twitched violently at the shock. She then remembered her job, and quickly got back to Jonathan's lab after putting the taser in her pocket.
He already had his Scarecrow mask on when they arrived, and as they entered he threw his sidekick a breathing mask, then sprayed the toxin in the victim's face. The side effects were exactly the same as his last fear gas, and the police officer had to be admitted to the asylum. Jonathan was impressed at Layla's ironic skills in kidnapping, and thought that Scarecrow was lucky to have a sidekick like Sparrow.
