Rebecca reacted instantly; but she wasn't fast enough.

The Joker threw a knife he'd been playing with in his hands at her at the same time that she raised her pistol at him. Rebecca cried out as the knife sliced her hand and she dropped her gun instinctively as a burning pain exploded. Her right hand cupped her left, heedless of the blood dripping down from the wound; and in those few seconds that it took for her to regain control of herself, the Joker swooped on her.

"Haha! My favourite Sergeant!" The Joker cackled as he dragged her further into the hospital room by her head and all but threw her against Harvey's cot. "Miss Dawes!"

"What are you doing here?" Rebecca spat, forcing herself to focus on the Joker and not the throbbing of her hand. She hadn't gotten a look at it yet but she sincerely hoped that it was a flesh wound and not anything that might have damaged the muscles. Judging from the pain that had threatened to blind her, though, she was holding very little hope.

The Joker smiled wildly in response and spread his hands out, the gun dangling deceivingly loosely from his right forefinger drawing Rebecca's attention briefly before she returned her gaze to the madman in front of her.

"The better question, Miss Dawes," he elongated her name, drawing it out in his strangely accented voice before almost clicking his tongue at the end. "Why... are you... here?"

"Don't play stupid, I know you're far cleverer than that." Rebecca retorted angrily. "You were the one who ordered someone to kill Reese or you'd blow up the hospital."

"Yes, but that doesn't explain why you're here." The Joker answered with a smile that only made his dark eyes, circled with black paint that stood out violently against the white caked onto the rest of his face, look even crazier than ever before. "Why are you in this room in this hospital at this time when you were relieved of your duty today?"

"There is no reprieve when a madman threatens to send up a building that is primarily dedicated to saving lives up in flames." Rebecca answered rather dryly given her dire circumstances. After all, all the Joker had to do was point and shoot and she'd be dead; but at the same time, Rebecca was slowly starting to think that that wasn't the Joker's goal at all. Or, at the very least, that he had no intentions of killing her just yet.

"Har har, do you hear yourself yapping away with your snippy comments that avoid answering the question?" The Joker asked and Rebecca's temper flared.

"I don't have to answer anything from the man who murdered my sister." She hissed.

He cocked a brow.

"Did I?" He turned the question back around. "That doesn't seem like a fair accusation: I was in Gordon's little cage the entire time and you were watching. I couldn't possibly have killed Rachel."

"You gave the order and you were the one who mixed up the address on purpose to stop us from saving Rachel in time!" Rebecca snarled but the Joker shook his head.

"No, no, you see, I'm just an agent of chaos."

The Joker leant down so he was bent with his arms on his knees as he stared down at Rebecca with those eyes that seemed permanently filled with swirling flames. Flames that would burn down the world if they could… and still not be satisfied.

"I stir things up, ruffle feathers, and then I let people make the choice. The Batman chose to believe what I told him just as your Gordon chose to believe in corrupt men and women who chose to kidnap your sister."

He smacked his lips a little as he continued to stare at her with those burning eyes.

"Because you're all schemers. You scheme and you plot and you plan, because you just can't accept the fact that you can't stop the inevitable. Me, I just go with it. I let all those, those plans and those rules be thrown away and I let chaos decide. Because chaos is fair."

The Joker's eyes lifted off Rebecca for the first time and fixed onto the man lying on the bed behind her.

"Isn't that right, Harvey?"

"Do you honestly think we'll believe the insanity coming out of your mouth?" Rebecca demanded, pushing herself off the ground and ignoring the throbbing in her hand as she jostled it. "You're a ruthless killer, nothing more. Maybe you were a man once but now, you're just a monster."

"Oh, I'd say Mr. Dent here disagrees." The Joker replied with a thoughtful rub of his chin.

Rebecca scoffed. "Of course he doesn't."

There was a beat of silence and Rebecca felt her blood run cold.

"Harvey?"

She turned slowly to face her sister's ex-fiance, looking the man in the face for the first time since she'd arrived. Until that point, her attention had been completely on the Joker. Harvey had been alive when she entered and that was all she had needed; as long as he was still alive, there was hope. But now, she had the sinking feeling in her stomach that perhaps she was wrong. There was something worse than death, something she feared had already befallen Harvey as he stared right at her with baleful, wild eyes.

"Harvey?" Rebecca repeated, this time in a whisper. Her horror was clear on her face as she stared at the man whose terrible, burnt, skeletal left side was not the reason she no longer recognized him. "You can't believe this crazy talk."

"Why not?" Harvey asked in a deceptively calm tone laced with an insanity that had Rebecca's heart racing because she recognized it all too well. "He has a point."

"No, he doesn't." Rebecca shook her head, aware the Joker was watching them and unwilling to give him the satisfaction that he had won. Because he couldn't have. He just couldn't.

"He's twisting your emotions, Harvey, and you mustn't let him. You can't fall, not you-"

"Why?!" Harvey suddenly shrieked at her, making Rebecca jump. "Why me, hm?! Why when it was me that lost everything, everything, because of you lot!"

"How can you say that?" Rebecca demanded, her temper rising as her fear made her stomach feel like lead. "Have you forgotten that I lost my sister, the only family I had left? Don't act like you're the only one hurting here, Harvey, because you're not!"

Harvey's mad eyes glared at her and Rebecca softened her tone.

"But it's because we're hurting that we must be stronger than anyone else. Rachel would never have wanted-"

With a roar of anger, Harvey suddenly raised his hand. Rebecca just had time to register the fact that he had a gun before he fired at her. She shrieked in surprise as the bullet just missed, hitting the bed table to Rebecca's right; but she barely noticed the sound of wood shattering as Harvey - who had not been restrained to his bed as she had thought - rose up and got in her face as he shouted with spittle flying through his ruined mouth.

"Rachel's dead! Dead because of you, you and Gordon's incompetence and your corrupted team! Who's to say you weren't in on it, hm? That you weren't in on the plan that took Rachel from me?"

"Rachel was my sister." Rebecca hissed back, her tone going icy and her gaze frigid in her anger at Harvey's accusation even if her mind was racing as she wondered how Harvey had gotten out of his restraints and how he had gained possession of a firearm. The answer that was most obvious did nothing to calm her.

"Don't cross me, Harvey. Not me. I loved her for far longer than you did-"

"But not as much as you love the Batman."

Both Rebecca and Harvey turned to look at the Joker. However, the madman's dark eyes were solely on Rebecca as he continued in a low voice, "You love him, don't you? Hm?"

"What if I do?" Rebecca asked evenly, though her heart hammered. "He's a hero - he deserves to be respected."

"Oh, har har."

The Joker laughed mockingly before his face became serious so quickly it - more than his words - terrified Rebecca.

"I'm sure it was respect that you showed him when you slept in his bed."

How did he know? Rebecca showed as little reaction as possible but she knew in that instant that the Joker somehow knew Rebecca had spent the night with the man behind the mask. There was something in those mad eyes that spoke volumes and she knew in her heart that he knew even if he didn't know who exactly was behind the Batman. Just as she knew instinctively that the Joker knew nothing had happened. But he had still purposefully twisted his words to make it seem like it had.

Keeping her voice even, Rebecca responded coldly, "And here I thought you couldn't get any crazier."

"And here you are again avoiding the truth." The Joker returned before he looked at Harvey. "What do you say, Harvey? You think she really loved Rachel as much as you?"

"Harvey," Rebecca interrupted but even she could hear how desperate she sounded. Because she was desperate - desperate to keep the Joker from using her to further drag Harvey down. Desperate to make Harvey see sense. Desperate not to see the horrific truth that was slowly panning out before her.

"Harvey, he's trying to trick you, you can't fall for his lies-"

"I am no liar, Harvey." The Joker interjected, no hint of a smile on his face as he gazed at Harvey seriously - almost sincerely. "You know that, right? All I did was pull on a couple tails and everyone went crazy. But I did not lie."

"He's playing you, Harvey!" Rebecca cried, fear seeping into every word as she watched the way Harvey stared at the Joker as if her were a man in a trance.

This couldn't be happening. Harvey was supposed to be incorruptible, a knight in white shining armour… the hero that Gotham needed. He couldn't fall, not like this, not now…

Not when I need to know that good will always win over evil.

"Why're you listening to him? He's everything you fought so hard against, everything we all worked so hard to stop because we wanted to make Gotham a better place. You can't honestly believe him, he's a murderer-"

"And you're a liar."

Rebecca flinched at Harvey's words but he had turned to face her with a chillingly cold expression on his destroyed face.

"You know who the Batman is, don't you?" Harvey asked, his voice as dark as the look in his eyes.

Rebecca swallowed hard.

"I don't-"

"Don't LIE!" Harvey roared, raising his gun and pointing it right at Rebecca.

She froze, staring at Harvey in shock as the insanity brewed in his eyes the same way they stirred in the Joker.

"Harvey..." Rebecca whispered. "Harvey, please… please, don't do this. If you blame me, if killing me is what will make you come back to your senses, then I won't stop you. But please, please, don't turn into the monster this man is trying to make you be. Please, don't forget everything that you stood for. Don't smear Rachel's memory by doing that, please, I beg you."

Harvey stared at her for a long moment, but Rebecca despaired as she saw no hint of the madness letting up. It was like watching a sickness spread through a patient's body; she could almost see the depth of the madness's reach in Harvey's mind. And anything she said seemed to have as much effect as an antibiotic on a virus.

"I won't kill you." Harvey declared abruptly as he pushed himself off the bed. "Not right now."

"Harvey-"

"One chance." Harvey shakily took a step away from her and the Joker.

"What?" Rebecca asked, stunned, while a slow smile spread across the Joker's face as he watched them with the satisfaction of a cat that had eaten the canary.

"One chance. Just for Rachel. Because, like you said... you're still her sister."

"A chance with the Joker is basically a death warrant." Rebecca spat, unable to hide the fear in her trembling voice as she realized Harvey was leaving her in the Joker's mercy.

But Harvey just looked back at her without emotion.

"It's still a better chance than what Rachel had."

With that, he turned away again and headed for the door. But not before Rebecca got a glimpse of the look on his face as he did.

"Where are you going?" Rebecca cried, the terror of being trapped with the Joker momentarily overshadowed by a different fear. Harvey didn't respond and Rebecca's heart dropped in her chest as she watched the man her sister had loved, the man they had all placed their bets on, leave with a murderous look upon his disfigured face.

"Harvey? Harvey!"

But Harvey didn't look back as he exited the hospital room, his right hand gripping his gun so tightly his knuckles were as white as the glimpses of his bones visible under the burnt and scarred skin on his left side.

"Harvey!" Rebecca screamed just before the door swung shut behind Harvey. Leaving her alone with the Joker.

Gordon arrived not ten minutes after the hospital was blown to mere rubble, coming onto the scene just as the firemen began to spray extinguishers onto the flaming remains of what had been Gotham's largest public hospital. That was their job and not his first priority however, as Gordon made clear within the first few minutes of his arrival.

"You must know how many were inside." He insisted in exasperation as he strode beside one his men while they tried to explain what had happened. "You've got patient lists, roll calls-"

"Sir, sir," his man tried to implore him to remain calm to little avail. "Right now, we're showing 50 missing. One bus."

He gestured to where the line of school buses that they had secured to get the hospital patients away from the bomb site, had been.

"All these other buses were heading off to other hospitals. My guess is we missed one."

"Yeah, well what's your guess about where Harvey Dent is?" Gordon shot back. The cop remained silent, so Gordon continued.

"Keep looking. And keep it to yourself. Anybody asks, we got him out."

The cop nodded and turned away to follow his orders while Gordon walked away with Ramirez right beside him.

"Get me the mayor's office on the line. We're gonna need the National Guard." Gordon informed her in a low voice and Ramirez nodded before she also walked swiftly away.

Gordon took the moment to glance around at the wreckage site; so far, they had been unable to get into the ruins to check if there were any bodies. Gordon somehow doubted that Harvey would be among any of the dead. Indeed, he had no doubts that the Joker would have something special planned for the DA. But…

"Becky… where are you?" Gordon muttered worriedly. "Please, wherever you are, just be alive… please, don't let anything have happened to you as well."

At Wayne Enterprises, Lucius Fox strode grimly down to the R&D department. His secretary had reported that security had flagged a break in… and Lucius thought he knew who it was.

However, he was still in for a surprise when he made it into the lab and Lucius frowned as he walked slowly toward the wall of screens set up on the far side of the lab. Each screen was about the size of a tablet pc and they were stacked so tightly together that they almost merged into one seamless wall. But most astonishing of all, every single screen kept flashing through several images of people and their surroundings in 3D grey-scale. And Lucius knew the images were live.

As Lucius came to a stop before the enormous monstrosity, a black shadow appeared from behind the screens.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Bruce, still in his full armour and mask, inquired.

"Beautiful." Lucius intoned monotonously. "Unethical. Dangerous."

Bruce stepped out of the shadows and walked slowly toward Lucius who couldn't quite tear his eyes away from the screens as he accused, "You've turned every cell phone in Gotham into a microphone."

"And a high-frequency generator-receiver." Bruce added impassively.

"You took my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city." Lucius said slowly. "With half the city feeding you sonar, you can image all of Gotham."

Lucius slowly shook his head. "This is wrong."

"I've got to find this man, Lucius."

Lucius turned to Bruce incredulously.

"At what cost?" The CEO of Wayne Enterprise asked.

"The database is null-key encrypted. It can only be accessed by one person." Bruce answered meaningfully. Lucius shook his head again.

"Look, I understand you're desperate - I saw on the news that Rebecca Dawes was one of the people missing and presumed dead after the explosion at Gotham General."

"She's not dead."

"But she could be soon - isn't that what you're afraid of?" Lucius countered. Bruce turned his head away while Lucius continued in a softer but no less warning tone.

"And you're not thinking straight because of that. I get that you want to save her, that you want to stop the crazy son of a bitch that's wrecking havoc in our city, but this," he gestured at the screens, "this is too much power for one person."

"That's why I gave it to you."

Lucius stared at Bruce's admission and the billionaire turned back to face his CEO. His face was almost unreadable behind his mask but Lucius thought he detected a degree of pleading in the younger man's eyes - a request to be understood.

"Only you can use it."

Lucius looked around at the screens again before he shook his head. "Spying on 30 million people isn't part of my job description."

Bruce simply strolled to the side and Lucius followed warily just as Bruce played a clip of the Joker's voice.

"This is an audio sample." Bruce explained as Lucius glanced over the machine's controls warily. "If he talks within range of any phone in the city you can triangulate his position."

Lucius exhaled sharply before he turned to Bruce and he agreed reluctantly, "I'll help you this one time because I know what's at stake. But consider this my resignation."

Lucius leveled a stern look at his employer as he warned, "As long as this machine is at Wayne Enterprises, I won't be."

Bruce was unmoved; indeed, he didn't even look surprised. Still, Lucius was no happier when Bruce revealed quietly, "When you're finished, type in your name."

With that, the Batman strode away. Lucius watched him go briefly before he stared at the screens once again and he sighed.

"If it weren't for the fact that I knew it wasn't just because of you he built this, Rebecca..."