(I planned on posting this chapter on May 18th, but this turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated and even had to turn it into a Two-Parter, so I'm sorry for the delay! But it's here! The big confrontation! It's super long, possibly the longest chapter I've posted to date, but I hope it will make up for the long absence.

It's Amber's birthday! Unfortunately, the surprises in store for her don't make for a very happy one. And one villain makes a reappearance with the offer to help…)

[Songs Mentioned and Suggested for Chapter 29; because of how long this chapter is, there's also a lot of music to go with it.]

'All It Takes Is One Bad Day' by Lolita Ritmanisfrom The Killing Joke film (listen for the intro, when Gretchen goes out to her car, and when the announcement over the loudspeakers starts)

'Panic Room' by Au/Ra (I feel like this song is the general theme for this chapter.)

'My Family' by KAROL G, Migos, Rock Mafia, and Snoop Dogg (Amelia's theme music for this chapter)

'Help' by The Beatles (the theme song for the story bits involving Tommy, Caleb, and Jervis)

~ 'Wow Wow Wow' (sung by the Duchess in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Richard Hartley composed a version of the song for the 1999 TV movie Alice in Wonderland with the wonderful Martin Short as the Mad Hatter. Incidentally, Martin Short is also who I've mentally cast as Jervis Tetch in this story.)

'Darkside' by Lindsey Stirling (listen just as the Joker, Amber, Nigma, Katlyn and Katherine are leaving the cafeteria. It can also be listened to for Joan, Gatsby, and Dr. Arkham's parts of the story, as well as for Gretchen and Mark's storyline for the chapter.)

'Short Skirt / Long Jacket' by Cake (theme song for the story bits involving Katherine, Nigma, and Katlyn)

'Don't Be Suspicious' (This song is from a scene in the series finale of Parks and Rec. I know the episode aired in 2015 and this chapter takes place in 2013, but the little ditty is so perfect for Amelia and sounds so much like something she'd come up with on the spot that I couldn't resist using it. Plus, my friend Amy, the actual inspiration for Amelia Rose, begged me to use it. What's a gal to do?)

'Turn the Lights Off' by Tally Hall (Amelia's second theme music; specifically, for when she's scurrying around the air ducts and when she ends up being stuck with the Joker in the hallway)

'Sedated' by Hozier (listen when the Joker and Amber are in the hallway and its revealed that it's Amber's birthday)

~ 'Love Is Madness' by Twenty Seconds to Mars (feat. Halsey) (I'm pretty sure you'll know when to listen to this song after the above-mentioned scene happens)

'Another One Bites the Dust' by Queen (This song is the surprise villain's theme music for this chapter.)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

House Arrest

May 18th, 2013

Saturday Evening

"Mr. Bolton!" Summer Gleeson and her entourage jogged towards him; microphones extended. "Any comments about your dismissal and the charges of extreme behavior?" Camera's flashed, more microphones were shoved at his face.

"This city is an open wound begging to be stitched," Bolton replied in a detached voice. Then, without another word, Lyle Bolton walked towards the parking lot, got in his car, and drove away.

The image changed from Bolton's receding car to Summer Gleeson, airing live on Gotham Insider. "Since that day one week ago, the former head of Arkham security Lyle Bolton has been unavailable for further comment. Next up on Gotham Insider; in 2011, the popular magazine Gotham Underground published a gutsy poll pitting the Clown Prince of Crime against the Prince of Puzzles. This year, Underground is at it again with the Villainous Vixen of Vines – Poison Ivy and the Maiden of Mischief – Harley Quinn. The poll for this particular article? Which femme fatale has the most style? You chose, Gotham!"

A fist clenched within a black leather glove as the owner resisted the urge to ram it into the insipid reporter's face on the TV screen. "Look at the way these monsters are turned into celebrities and icons." He stood from his chair and slowly approached the TV. "It all starts with the permissive, liberal media." He laid his hand on top of the TV. "Which is why you're the first on my list." With a hard shove, the TV toppled over and crashed to the floor; the picture winking out as cracks spread over the screen. The fist clenched once more. "And I'm savin' the most responsible of them all for last. I told her all she had to do was wait."

"Achoo!"

"Bless you, child!"

Tommy thanked Amelia weakly as he wiped his poor red nose with a tissue. "How come you didn't blow glitter on him when you blessed 'im?" Dent grumbled as he aggressively yanked another tissue free from the Kleenex box set between him and Caleb.

"Cause Tommy's not a grump-grump like you. You needed the glitter."

Dent bared his teeth, ready to give Amelia what-for when he felt a sneeze coming on. Angling his face downward and away from the others, he directed his sneeze into the tissue and felt a bit surprised when hot-pink glitter poofed out in all directions from the motion. He hadn't realized just how much she'd doused him with.

Said girl was currently attending to the three sick men. Crane would have considered feigning illness if it weren't for the fact that he was currently trying to figure out how on earth Amelia had gotten her hands on a nurse's dress uniform and hat. It obviously wasn't hers. It was far too big. And it didn't appear to be one of the asylum uniforms either.

Apparently, the orderlies had yet to notice the outfit since no one had come to confront her about wearing something over her prison uniform. The bright orange material could clearly be seen beneath the white and the gaps that the large clothes created on her small frame.

Caleb laid his head on the cafeteria table with a tired sigh. "Aaaw," Katherine cooed. "Caleb's so out of it he couldn't even bring himself to laugh at the glitter cloud."

"Caleb sleepy."

"I bet they got sick from Nurse Amber," Katherine muttered to Nigma.

"I doubt their colds came from her, kitten. It's been a couple of weeks since she was ill. If she were to blame, they would have been exhibiting their symptoms within a couple of days after our visit to her apartment."

At that moment, Caleb released a sneeze so loud and powerful that it knocked him out of his seat. Amelia suddenly appeared at his side and began to bark orders. "We need chicken soup; stat!"

"What are you; a nurse?" Dent sniffled.

Amelia glared. "No, I'm a hunter – stop mocking me."

"You have a nursing outfit on," he pointed out. It looked kind of familiar. For some reason, red hair kept popping into his head to be paired with the dress.

"I'm not a nurse!"

"You're wearing a funny hat."

"Shut up! I got it from the Joker's personal effects box in the asylum's storage room!"

All heads turned to the Joker. The Joker lifted a finger as if to put their thoughts on pause. "There was a reason."

Dent's mouth fell open. "Is that the same dress you wore when you blew up the hospital?!"

"Aw, Dent, you remembered what I was wearing!" the Joker cooed.

"I was wondering why it fit so big," came Amber's voice from behind the group.

"Ah, Nurse Amber!" The Riddler greeted. "Happy –," a hand suddenly clamped onto his mouth.

"Shh! Remember what we discussed yesterday!" Katherine hurriedly whispered. "We need to see how long it takes the Joker to realize it's Amber's birthday."

Nigma removed his girlfriend's hand from his face. "But, kitten, how is he to know in the first place?"

"The man knew where she lived! I have yet to figure out how he knew that. So, if he knows her address, then he's had access to her birthdate, right?"

"Mmmh, not necessarily. Not every document that lists a person's address will also list their birthdate."

Katherine's right eye twitched. "…Stop. Ruining. My shipping plans!"

Amelia grew bored of playing nurse and began to bury herself into the large dress. She slipped her arms and head back into the center and sat with her knees to her chin so that she resembled a turtle withdrawing into its shell. She remained that way for several seconds, occasionally muttering, "Where is it?"

Amber felt prompted to peer down the neck opening and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"The Russian circus, I think it's still in here!" Her head suddenly popped back out as she fixed her eyes on the Joker and poked the chest area from the inside. "What did you do; did you pad your chest? Cause you have bigger hoo-ha-has than I do. You're not even female and you have bigger ones than I do?! That's not normal! Bolton has bigger ones than everybody and that's not normal!"

"Bigger wha…" The Joker looked down at himself and gestured wildly. "It's a chest!"

Amelia gave him a tolerant smile as she sing-songed under her breath, "If it makes you feel better. You have man-boobs…You have moobs."

"…What?"

"Moobs."

Amber, not really thinking about it, spoke up, "Trust me, his chest doesn't look that way."

"Oh? So, you know what he looks like shirtless, do you?" Katherine asked innocently.

It occurred to Amber how it sounded and rushed to rectify her statement. "Gah! I had to be present for one of his health checkups… with a nurse who had – he only took off his shirt for a moment!"

Amelia peered closely at her. "Your cheeks are turning red."

"Yeah, yeah, they are. Um, cause it's extremely hot in here –,"

"Do you have a cold?"

Amber seized the escape unknowingly offered to her. "Yes! Yes, I'm still suffering from a cold. Yes."

"Told you," Katherine hissed at Nigma.

"I could get you some soup!" Amelia chirped.

"Yes! Do that – do that now." As Amelia skipped merrily to the kitchen, Amber noticed the stares hadn't gone away. "Uh, you know what? I will go with you to make sure you get the right soup." She hurried after the younger woman, her face beat red and feeling incredibly small.

"So," Harley began once Amber was out of earshot. Her voice came out in a very clipped manner. "She saw you without your shirt on, puddin'?"

The Joker, recognizing that tone of voice, hastily stood from his seat and began to back away. "I'm gonna go with Amber to make sure she gets the right soup."

"I believe Amelia can help her with that," Crane reminded him.

"Work with me here, Johnny!" the Joker hissed, pointedly.

"…Ah," Crane sounded when the situation clicked in his brain. "Yes, I suppose that would be best, yes."

"Can't keep them waiting," the Joker called over his shoulder, already half-way across the cafeteria.

"It never fails to amaze me just how fast that man can move," Nigma remarked.

"Phft," Harley sounded. "You should see 'im when he forgets our anniversary."

"Joker, I am perfectly capable of finding the soup with Amelia!" Amber insisted, refusing to budge from blocking the kitchen door. With her attention on the Joker, Amelia had scampered off, but Amber knew she'd find the girl digging through the pudding cups, so it didn't exactly worry her.

"Look, peaches, I know that. 'kay? We're both in agreement." The Joker's hands grasped Amber's arms as he shook her ever so slightly to emphasize his words. "Just don't send me back there just yet!"

Amber huffed. They were both in the same boat. A jealous Harley Quinn was a scary Harley Quinn. And neither she nor the Joker were wanting to face her until they were sure the woman had gotten distracted by something else.

"Alright, fine," Amber relented, standing back so he could get by.

The Joker clicked his tongue as he gave a rakish wink. "Thanks, peaches," he said as he passed. Amber suddenly felt a tad bit warm. But it was the kitchen. It was bound to be warm due to the stoves and dishwashers. That was a good explanation. …Right?

"Hey, uuuuh, Ambs?" the Joker called.

Amber shook herself into the present. "What?" she responded.

"The little firecracker's trying to squirrel away all the chocolate puddings."

"Squealer!" Amelia's voice shouted.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Amber mumbled, walking towards the sound of their voices.

After she finally managed to wrangle Amelia away from the pudding stash, enough time had passed that Amber and the Joker figured it would be safe to return to the group and hope that something had come along to distract Harley. They'd just left the kitchen when Amelia spotted Dr. Whistler entering the cafeteria.

"Hi-ya, doc!" Amelia greeted her psychologist. "Look! I got pudding!"

Dr. Whistler covered her mouth as she gave a great yawn then nodded and gave a forced smile. "That's nice, Miss Rose. Chocolate, right? Your favorite."

"Nah, I got a vanilla one. That's Crane's favorite."

The Joker studied his nails as he proceeded to make kissy noises. A second pudding cup was suddenly launched at his head and hit its target. "Ouch! You little –!"

"You two head on back to the table," Amber intervened. Her gaze was focused on studying Gretchen's haggard appearance. She placed a hand on the Joker's arm without thinking. "I need to talk to Dr. Whistler for a minute."

The Joker glanced at her hand for a moment, looked between her and the doctor, then gave an indifferent shrug. "Sure. Just don't take too long, sweetheart. Wouldn't want us to grow bored, would ya?"

"Behave," Amber warned and separated herself from him to approach Gretchen. She waited until she was sure he and Amelia were out of earshot. "Are you okay?" she asked the doctor.

"Ja." The glazed look in her eye said otherwise.

"Okay," Amber said after a brief pause. "Try that again, but this time make it believable."

Gretchen smiled tiredly. "It's meine own fault. I barely got any sleep last nacht."

"Any particular reason?"

"Vell…" Gretchen glanced around. "I found die television show das you told me about und figured I'd vatch it last nacht." Amber noticed the woman's German accent was even thicker when she was exhausted. "Jason had the nacht off und –,"

"Who's Jason?"

"Mein Ehemann."

Amber's eyebrows rose. "You're married?"

Gretchen also lifted an eyebrow. "Does das shock you?"

"No, sorry!" Amber hurried to apologize. "No, no it doesn't. It's just that…" She motioned to Gretchen's ringless hand.

"Ah," Gretchen sounded in understanding. "Ja. I prefer not to vear meine ring vhen I'm at vork. Some of meine patients you see…"

Amber nodded. "I get it. You want to protect him."

Gretchen nodded. "Though, Mr. Nigma knew almost immediately. Das man's almost like Sherlock Holmes. He noticed the tan line on meine finger und put it together."

"Yep. Sounds like Edward. Now, about the show…"

"Oh! Ja." Another yawn prevented her from speaking for a moment. "I apologize if meine accent's a bit –,"

"Don't apologize. You should hear how slurred my speech is when someone rouses me from a deep sleep."

Gretchen smiled gratefully. "Anyvay…Jason und I decided ve'd vatch die show together. I thought, 'three episodes, ja? Then to bed ve go.'" Gretchen shook her head. "You veren't kidding. It's a very addictive show. Ve finished die first season last nacht!"

"Good Lord!" Amber exclaimed.

"The good news is das I now have an understanding of vhat Miss Rose believes to be her reality. Now ve can get somevhere." Another yawn forced its way out of her.

"Ooor, maybe you should go home and get some sleep? I'm sure Dr. Arkham will understand if you tell him it was for research purposes."

Gretchen cracked a mischievous grin. "Vell…it vas for at least die first four episodes. After das; ve vere hooked."

"Maybe don't mention that part when you're talking to Arkham, yeah?"

Gretchen laughed. "Ja." When she yawned once more, she gave a resigned sigh. "I think I might have to take your advice, meine freundin."

"Good, cause you look like you're about to fall on your face."

"Mmmh. Take care, Amber."

"You too."

As Amber watched the woman leave, she thought about Gretchen's decision to not wear her wedding ring while at the asylum. It made her think about her own purity ring and her Claddagh ring. True, they weren't the same as a wedding ring, but they still provided insight into her private life.

It was too late to stop wearing them. Her charges knew her staple jewelry; the cartouche necklace, the purity ring and the Claddagh. She wore them every day. If she stopped, they'd bring it up. Or at least, the Joker would.

He's the one who knew what the Claddagh ring meant. He was also the one who nearly flipped out when she forgot to replace the purity ring on her finger after washing paint from her hands during a craft therapy session. In fact, the whole gang had nearly torn Bernard apart when he revealed he had her purity ring in his pocket after their fiasco of a date.

She wondered how things would have turned out if she'd been conscious about wearing the symbolically tied jewelry to her workplace from the beginning. She'd been wearing them for so long (except for the Claddagh ring, which was a more recent acquirement) that it never occurred to her to think about them in the first place. She'd gotten her purity ring when she was fourteen and never took it off. Ever. It was as much a part of her hand as a fingernail.

If things had gone differently… If I hadn't built a relationship with my charges…These rings could have been used against me somehow.

"Peaches!"

Amber gave a start and turned her attention to the tables occupied by her charges. The Joker appeared to be attempting to keep Crane in-between him and Amelia. Amber rolled her eyes and walked over.

Gretchen stifled a yawn as she trudged across the parking lot towards her vehicle. Unlocking the door, she gracelessly plopped into the driver's seat and sat there for several seconds, trying to muster the energy to close the car door. "Okay," she mumbled. "Eins, zwei, drei." Her hand quickly lifted and grasped the door handle, pulling it to, then slumped back to her side like dead weight once it was shut. That was it. Energy spent. No more.

Maybe I should call Jason to come pick me up…or a cab. She didn't relish the idea of taking a power nap in her car. Gretchen could only fall asleep when she felt safe and the asylum parking lot was not her idea of safe. Taxi or Jason? She decided to call Jason first and see if he was available to pick her up. If not, then he'd at least know she was taking a cab home.

Picking up her phone, Gretchen dialed her husband's number and waited for him to answer. Her eyes lazed over to the parking lot's entrance and exit gate. One way in, one way out with a security gate that was nothing to scoff at. It ran the whole perimeter of the asylum grounds.

Three large delivery vans were just pulling into the lot when Jason answered her call. "Gretchen?"

"Der schatz, I'm too exhausted to stay at vork, but I can't keep meine eyes open to drive home. Could you –," the call suddenly dropped as the vans passed her car. "Was?" Gretchen tried again, but her phone was showing that she had no signal when only seconds ago she'd had full bars. Her eyes looked up towards the sky. Clear skies.

Gretchen felt something niggling at the back of her mind. The suddenness of the dropped call. How it happened exactly when the vans drove by. She searched for the vehicles and found them heading for the drive that would lead to the asylum's back loading dock. As the last one disappeared around the corner of the building, her phone's signal returned. Jason had tried to call her back.

The niggling wouldn't go away. Climbing out of the car, Gretchen quickly hurried towards the drive.

"What's up?" Amber asked the group once she arrived at their table; already her eyes were halfway finished scanning everyone to check for anything wrong or out-of-place.

The Joker stabbed a finger in Amelia's direction. "The kid's going off on a tangent again and she keeps trying to grab my face to study it." A small hand reached around Crane towards the Joker and the clown smacked at it with his spoon. "Stop it!"

Amelia drew back her hand with a yelp and rubbed at the stinging red spot. "Sorry, Mr. Dracula."

"Oh, not this again," Ivy groaned from across the table.

"I thought you came to the conclusion that the Joker wasn't a vampire," Amber remined Amelia.

"Yes, yes, but –," her mis-matched eyes went to the Joker again. "You look like a vampire that I tried to kill one time – his name was Dracula – yes, the original; yes, I know – I know the whole story. People say that he didn't exist or that he did exist but under a different name or that maybe he didn't exist at all – well you know what – I tried to stake him and you wanna know what? He. Was. A. Fanboy! Some guy was dressed up like him. I got in trouble. It was a Con! You know what happens at Cons? People dress up like monsters! I didn't realize that was a thing! I didn't even know what a Con was until I showed up and there were thousands of them and that's how I ended up here. Did ya'll know that that's how I got here? I thought one of them was Batman –,"

Caleb's eyes went wide as he readied to launch into his usual episode, but it was snuffed out by a sudden sneezing frenzy. Amelia went on, uninterrupted. "I tried to stake him too because I figure, if a guy's running around dressed in a Batman suit, he cannot be good, right? Right? But it was sooo not him. He was way too fat for that suit. That was another thing; why do girls assume that just because somebody in a book wore it, she should! I mean, you know how many butt-cheeks I saw?! There were a lot of butt-cheeks! It was frightening, and I didn't like it, so I'm okay with being here 'cause there are no butt-cheeks."

Dent released a mournful sigh. "Unfortunately." Ivy and Harley gave him reproachful glares. "Eeerm…uh. Achoo?"

Amelia's focus on the Joker returned much to his chagrin. "You're so darn pale. I bet your butt glows in the dark." Crane choked on his water and Harley's mouth dropped in shock. "You, sir, should not skinny dip; ever. Sharks would literally come after you and your shiny white butt."

The Joker's patience was hanging by a thread judging by the way his hands were clenching and unclenching on the table. "You do realize it's only my face that's white because I paint it that way, right?

"Mmmh," Amber sounded, thinking back to the last time she'd seen his face bare of paint. "You're still pretty pale."

The Joker pointed a finger at her. "Snow calling the cream white."

Dr. Arkham was just finishing his notes about his latest session with Victor Zsasz when his cell phone rang. "Arkham," he answered absently.

"Sir!" came a hushed, but audibly stressed, German accent.

"Gretchen?"

"Ja. I think the asylum is under attack!"

"What?"

"There are men here in uniforms I do not recognize. They have veapons und signal jammers. They're breaking in through the loading dock –,"

The line went dead.

Amber opened her mouth to make a retort when the cafeteria was plunged into darkness. Screams rang out and guards barked orders about remaining seated and calm. The emergency lights clicked on, casting everything in a red glow. Suddenly the intercoms let out a high-pitched whine that silenced everyone. "Miscreants of Arkham Asylum," a rough, masculine voice addressed through the speakers, "your time of carefree internment is at an end."

"I know that voice…" the Joker muttered lowly.

"What is going on?" a few doctors and orderlies asked each other. Aaron Cash attempted to use his radio to contact the security base but found it unresponsive.

"You scum got off easy on account of the insanity plea. But we all know that most of you are fully aware of the extent of your crimes! But that's not why I've returned after being unjustly thrown to the curb for doing my job. No. You monsters are not why I'm here.

"The time has come to cleanse Gotham of the real criminals. The ones who make it possible for you to escape the walls meant to keep you in. The ones who don't think it's an issue that you're able to return to the city and terrorize its citizens. I'm here to capture and punish Dr. Jeremiah Arkham and Nurse Amber Johnson for the crime of endangering the safety of Gotham City's citizens by allowing leniency to the dangerous monsters in Arkham Asylum."

Amber felt like the air had been knocked out of her when she heard her name spoken with such contempt over the speakers. She flinched when she sensed a presence step closer to her back only to discover it was the Joker. His eyes never left the speakers and his arms remained at his sides, but the back of his knuckles lightly bumped against her as if to say, "I'm right here."

"Anyone who's attempting to call the police will find that they can't. My men have placed signal jammers all over the building. We're also in large numbers. People who believe as I do; that the criminals in Arkham deserve a harsher punishment. That they deserve to be locked up for all eternity without light, without rest, without hope.

"So, any staff who want to play the hero, don't bother. My men will deal with you as if you were a criminal. Cause that's what you'll be if you attempt to harbor the doctor and nurse. And one final word to my intended prisoners; don't run. Stay where you are. My men are coming for you as I speak."

Amber wasn't aware she'd begun to sway until she heard Nigma's voice hastily order, "Grab her." He was already rising from the table to reach her. The Joker's hands griped Amber by the arms and eased her onto a seat. The others began to gather around, their bodies shielding Amber from sight as they talked in low voices.

"It's Bolton, isn't it?" Amber asked.

"Good ol' Lyle always knew how to bear a grudge," the Joker replied.

A shudder worked its way down her spine. "Oh jeez…"

"Amber?" a worried male voice broke in among them. In the red glow of the emergency lights, it would have been difficult for her to recognize Aaron Cash as he approached them, except for the tell-tale glint of his metal hook. Cash looked around him at the other patients not in Amber's group. "We need to move you somewhere safe." He reached for her and immediately the Joker's hand clamped onto the man's wrist.

"Joker!" Amber yelped, rising to pull him off. The Joker's other arm lifted to block her.

"Wanna keep your one functioning hand? Keep it off her. Got it?"

Cash winced at the crushing pressure that showed no sign of letting up until he answered. "Got it," he growled through gritted teeth.

"Good man." The Joker released him but looked ready to tackle Cash at the slightest movement towards Amber. "We'll be looking after our nurse ourselves."

That brought a look of surprise from Cash. "You mean you're going to help her?"

"Course we are, Cash-man," Harley assured, tossing him a wink and a thumb up. "We've got her back."

"You do?"

"Yeah, we do?" Harvey repeated. An elbow rammed into his side. "Ouch! Uh, yeah. I guess we do."

Cash caught Amber's eye. He didn't have to say anything. She could see the question in his eyes. Do you trust them? Amber thought a moment.

Edward: calling the groups attention to her near collapse and practically jumping over the table to catch her.

The Joker: standing close to her side since Bolton's voice came over the speakers and threatening to tear Cash's hand off if he grabbed for her again.

The others surrounding her like a shield.

Amber summoned as much confidence as she possessed into her gaze as she gave Cash a subtle nod. Yes.

Cash released a slow breath. "Okay. Any thoughts, people?"

Amelia wriggled her way to the center and scooted up next to Amber. "I have a thought. We need to blind the ogre."

"… 'Blind the ogre'?" Amber repeated slowly, as if she weren't quite sure she heard Amelia right.

"Yes. He has cameras on us in here, right?"

"Riiight."

"Let's break 'em. If we break them, then we can hide. We can also find him, we can hunt him – I can track him, I know what he smells like."

Amber started to shake her head. "Amelia, that is…" It dawned on her what Amelia was saying. "What did you say about the cameras?"

Amelia grinned. "Break them. Blind him. He can't see us; we can find him."

Cash lifted his eyebrows. "…That is…actually…smart."

"Also, I'm small enough that I can fit into the air duct. I can get to him."

"That's great, Amelia," Amber said distractedly, her mind formulating a plan.

"So, we get to track him?" Amelia asked excitedly.

"Maaaybe. Just – stay for now."

But Amelia was like a dog with a bone. "Track?"

"Stay."

"Can I track?"

"Maybe. We'll go over the idea."

"Can we blind the ogre first?"

"Just stay! Sit!"

Amelia plopped onto the floor and pouted while Amber motioned for everyone to get closer. "Guys, I think Amelia might have been on to something. But here's the thing. I'm no devious genius, so I need you to do the devious thinking for me."

Nigma grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Let's get started, shall we?"

In the darkness of his office, Dr. Arkham bumped his head against the underside of his desk for the third time and finally decided he'd had enough hiding. He wasn't just going to sit there and wait for those men to come and fetch him for their master. If they wanted him, they'd have to work hard to find him!

A soft knock at his office door made him jump and bump his head a fourth time. "Go away!" he yelped. The sound of the door opening had him scrambling out from under the desk to peer fearfully over the top. Why hadn't he thought to lock that door?

The beam of a flashlight swiveled around in a searching manner. "Jeremiah?" whispered a familiar voice.

"Joan?"

"And Gatsby!" came another voice, his cheerful tone clashing with the tense atmosphere.

Arkham sighed in relief. "Oh, thank God. Come in, come in!" He frantically waved them inside. Joan and Gatsby hurried in, locked the door behind them, then crouched behind the desk with Arkham. Joan clicked off the flashlight and tucked it into her doctor's coat pocket.

"Have you seen Amber?" Arkham asked.

"No," she answered. "But her group was in the cafeteria for dinner, so she should be in there with them."

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear," Gatsby moaned, hands at his cheeks as he shook his head. "What if the patients try to use her as leverage?"

Arkham had worried the same thing. "We can only hope Amber's own charges' fondness for her will protect her."

"At least one in particular," Joan whispered, exchanging a glance with Gatsby. Due to the lack of light, it went unnoticed by Dr. Arkham.

"We have to move from this spot. It's the first place they'll look for me."

"Any suggestions?" Gatsby asked.

"You don't hide," Joan said suddenly.

"What?"

"Sir, hiding is just prolonging the inevitable. What we need to do is call for help."

"But the jammers," Gatsby reminded her, only to have her wave away his words.

"I know, I heard. Most low-powered jammers have a radius of about thirty to seventy feet, right? But a high powered one could extend for almost a mile."

Gatsby shrugged. "How should I know? And how do you know for that matter?"

"Edward Nigma is one of Gretchen's patients. She was telling me the other day about some tech talk she and Nigma had discussed in one of their sessions. One of his heists had involved a signal jammer."

"Okay, so what's your point?"

"Bolton said that signal jammers were placed 'all over the building'. If he had a high-powered jammer, then he'd only need one. So, he must be using low-powered signal jammers, which means that there may be little pockets that the radius of the jammers may miss."

"Which means we could call for the police," Dr. Arkham realized.

Joan nodded. "We can't go wandering around blindly, so we need to pull a blueprint of the building and try to estimate the coverage of a signal jammer placed in ideal locations such as the front desk, the visitation room, and any other place that has access to phones, computers or Wi-Fi modems."

"Got a copy of the blueprints?" Gatsby asked Arkham.

Arkham crawled to one end of his desk and rummaged around in the lower drawer. "Here." He pulled out a rolled-up scroll.

"Okay, let's head for the storage closet on the second hall. Make sure to avoid being seen by the cameras," Joan cautioned.

"Roger, roger," Gatsby acknowledged with a nod.

"Alright; does everyone know what their mission is?" Amber asked.

"Caleb, Tommy, and I will distract Bolton's men while all of you carry out your missions," Jervis answered.

"The three of us," Ivy continued, motioning towards her, Harley, and Dent, "will reclaim the asylum's security base."

"Make that the four of us," Cash chimed in. "There's no tellin' what Bolton's men may have coded our security systems to do. You'll need me to fix it so we can use it to our advantage."

Harley laughed and launched herself at Cash who caught her in his arms out of surprise. She slung an arm around his neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Aw, ya big softie! You just wanna make sure I make it in one piece, don't ya?"

Cash couldn't help but let his lips quirk upward in a brief, amused smile. "Sure, Miss Quinn. Sure."

"Amelia and I –," Crane began.

"Get to blind the ogre!" Amelia interrupted, her voice sounding on the verge of crazed excitement.

"Katherine and I are to make our way to the roof and turn on the asylum's bat-signal." Nigma shook his head and gave a dry chuckle. "Never thought I'd be doing that."

"I'm going with you two," Katlyn pipped up.

"Uh, heck no, you're not," Katherine responded immediately.

"Yes, I am."

"No, you're not."

"Katherine," Katlyn said, suddenly sounding serious. "This could be a life-or-death situation. Would you really deny me the chance to take up my minion duties one more time?"

Katherine stared long and hard at the shorter young woman until she felt herself wavering. "Darn you."

"And while all of you do that, I'm taking Amber out of here," the Joker informed everyone in a low tone.

Amber frowned. "What?"

The Joker's brown eyes flicked over to her. "I'm getting you out of here."

"That's not part of the plan."

"It is now."

"No."

"Ambs, Bolton isn't someone you underestimate. The only way we can put him at a disadvantage is to remove you from the home playing field. Take you somewhere he either doesn't know or is unfamiliar with. We may be able to slow him down with our 'plans', but the man knows this place almost as well as if it were his own home."

"He's right," Nigma spoke up only to immediately wince.

"Left a bad taste in your mouth, didn't it?" the Joker asked, smirking.

"That it did," Nigma acquiesced, his face still screwed up in aversion. "Nurse Amber, you're what Bolton's after. And so long as you're in this asylum, the odds are that he'll succeed in capturing you."

"I hate to admit it myself, but they're right," Cash said. "I would have tried to get you out myself, but…" Cash turned an irritated gaze on the Joker. "Mr. Joker here has escaped more times than we can count. Even while Bolton was the Head of Security. So, he must know ways out of here that Bolton ain't aware of. He's your best shot for getting you out of here."

The Joker placed both hands over his heart. "I felt the love as you said that."

Cash's answering glare was powerful enough to level a building, but the Joker simply grinned back at him before returning his attention to Amber. "I know a safe place to keep you at until Batsy does his annoying thing of showing up and kicking 'Dolt-on's' face in."

"You mean being a hero," Cash said pointedly.

"Assault, heroics; same thing. Anyway!" The Joker bent down, hands on his knees, to be eye level with Amber. "This whole operation doesn't so much as rev its engine unless you agree to leave the asylum with me, peaches."

Amber looked past the Joker to Cash. "Is there any other option?"

"…We have absolutely no way of contacting anyone outside of the asylum, we have no idea how many men Bolton brought with him, or how many guards here were still loyal to him. Bolton's got the high-ground, missy. This plan's the best chance we got for now."

Amber sighed heavily and ran a hand through her hair. After a moment of consideration, she met the Joker's eyes. "Promise me you won't kill anyone while I'm with you."

The Joker grinned and extended his hand. "Deal." Amber gripped his hand to shake but was suddenly pulled out of her seat and pressed to his side. "Let the good times roll!" He turned to Amelia and bowed at the waist. "Take it away, firecracker."

"Yaaaaaaas!" Amelia darted over to Crane and climbed up his body so quickly that Crane didn't have time to realize what was happening until she was perched atop his shoulders. She pointed at the camera closest to their table. "Gothisway, gothisway, gothisway! Camera, camera, camera, camera!"

The Joker let out a wild cackle as Crane, unable to argue over Amelia's gibbering, carried her to the camera. Once she was close enough, Amelia grasped the camera on both sides and leaned in closely to the lens. "Hey, Bolton. Remember what I said about me tracking monsters?" A chilling smile spread across her face as she stared into the camera, then gave a sharp pull and tore the camera from the ceiling. It dropped to the ground near Crane's feet and he swallowed the knot in his throat.

"That was…a bit alluring."

"More cameras to kill, Crane! Let's move!"

Gretchen dropped into a crouch behind a car when she noticed a shadow move inside the guard tower to the left of the gates. After her call with Dr. Arkham had been cut off, she retraced her steps back to the parking lot, hoping she could still slip out and get help. But it didn't appear that that would be an option. The prone body of a man wearing the correct Arkham Security uniform was lying at the base of the tower while another man stood watch within. Even from where she crouched in hiding, Gretchen could see the heavy firing machinery the false guard was sporting. There was probably a fake guard in each guard tower stationed along the wall.

A hand suddenly covered Gretchen's mouth as she was pulled back into a chest. "Dr. Whistler," a voice hissed as she started to struggle. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

Gretchen ceased her movement and craned her neck to see the speaker. "Mark?" her muffled voice asked.

The hand removed itself from her mouth. "Yeah. I got here for my shift about ten minutes ago. I was getting out of my car when I saw that dude up there shoot the guard and push his body out of the tower! I tried to call the police but my phone's not working."

"There's signal jammers on die grounds. Someone's taken over die asylum," Gretchen told him.

Mark appeared greatly puzzled. "Why would anyone in their right mind want to do that?"

"I don't know. But ve need to find a vay to get those gates clear und opened so ve can get help."

"…Have you seen how big those guns are?"

"Ja."

"Really? Cause I think you might have somehow overlooked it. Because no one could say that and make it sound like there was an actual chance of us overpowering those Terminators up there with the equally huge guns."

"Ve have to try."

Mark ran a hand over his face and sighed. "We're gonna die. But okay. Let's try."

"Zuerst, ve need to come up vith a distraction…"

"Gaaaaaah!" Amelia roared as she finished tearing the last security camera in the cafeteria. "Take that, ogre! How do you like them onions, huh!"

"Alright, boys," the Joker said, turning to Jervis, Tommy, and Caleb. "You're up."

Tommy saluted him. "I won't let you down, sir!"

"Yeah, you will."

"Yeah, I will," Tommy agreed, his posture slouching a bit in disappointment.

"But go out there and make me proud anyway!" the Joker ordered with a slap to his back.

"Yes, sir!"

Just as the three men had left the cafeteria, the lights were suddenly thrown back on, temporarily blinding everyone. The speakers squawked and Bolton's voice returned. "To the little sewer rat that thought it was a good idea to disable the cameras in the cafeteria..."

Amelia tapped Crane's head and she leaned down so he could see her. She pointed at her chest and beamed. "That's me."

"I'm not exactly pleased he's comparing you to a sewer rat," Crane mumbled, then lowered her to the floor. Rolling his shoulders a bit, he trained his icy stare on the speakers.

"You've only delayed the inevitable, rat. And succeeded in irritating me. So, congrats," he added with sarcastic glee, "You've just been added to my list of prisoners to make their life hell when I get my hands on them."

"Hmmm. The ogre has been angered," Amelia mused. Her eyes followed the seam of the ceiling and walls until they came to rest on the air vent just over their table. "Hmmm. Ah!"

Once again, Crane was subjected to being scaled like a tree by a very energetic squirrel. Sitting atop his shoulders, Amelia's hands grasped Crane by the sides of the head and turned it towards the table. "Crane, go over to the duct. Come this way – no, this way!"

"Don't mess up my hair!" Crane snapped.

"I'm not touching your hair – it's very lovely hair – I will not touch the hair – just go this way!"

"What are you two doing?" Amber asked as Crane stood on the table and leaned with his back to the wall. Amelia whipped out a screwdriver and began to loosen the screws from the vent. "Where did you get that!?"

"Keep it secret; keep it safe," Amelia replied over her shoulder.

"What's the firecracker up to now?" the Joker asked as he joined Amber's side. "I thought she was just supposed to take down the cameras?"

"The ogre can't know which cameras to protect if he doesn't see me coming. Air ducts will keep me hidden so I can do a sneaky pounce-pounce."

"'Pounce-pounce'?" Amber repeated dubiously.

"Like an angry bunny-rabbit," Amelia confirmed.

Amber looked to the Joker and Cash. "'Though this be madness, yet there is method in't'."

"Huh?" Cash responded.

"Shakespeare's Hamlet," the Joker said. He closed his eyes, head tilting back ever so slightly. "Act II, Scene II, Line 205."

Amber's brows rose in amazement. The Joker…knew Shakespeare…and could cite the exact lines?! She only knew one line's exact location code and she had a meme to thank for that! "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

The Joker wiggled his brows with a smirk on his lips.

"Got it!" Amelia cried, tossing the vent aside. "I'm going in!"

Amber dashed towards the table. "Wait – wait, Amelia!" But it was too late, the girl's feet had disappeared inside of the duct. "Dang it! Now how are we supposed to keep track of which cameras she's hit."

"Crane!" Amelia's head popped out from the opening, taking Amber by surprise so much that she nearly fell off the table, but managed to regain her balance in time to jump back instead. "Crane, are you coming or not? You got the freaky good memory of the asylum's layout."

Crane grimaced. "I can't claim to know such knowledge about the air duct system, my dear. Besides, I'm not as small as you –,"

"Well, you're all she's got at the moment," Amber interrupted him, a bit sharp in her tone. "And you're skinny as a flagpole, so there shouldn't be any reason why you can't crawl around in there with her."

"What if it turns out to be a labyrinth up there?"

"You can leave a trail with those sunflower seeds ya keep in your pocket for your girlfriend," Dent suggested.

"Stop assuming I always carry sunflowers seeds for Amelia!"

"Sunflower seeds?" Amelia chirped hopefully from the air duct opening. Crane froze, refusing to look at her. "Seeds?" she repeated. All eyes were on them. Amelia slid an arm out from the duct and poked the top of Crane's head. "Seeds?" Without taking his eyes off his feet, Crane slipped a hand into his pocket and drew out a tiny packet of sunflower seeds, raising it high enough for Amelia to grab. She gave a happy chirp then ducked back into the air duct.

"Not one word from any of you," Crane growled, then snapped his fingers at Dent to give him a leg up to the air duct. Dent kept his lips pressed in a thin line to refrain from bursting into laughter as he threaded his fingers together to provide Crane with a foothold. Crane placed his foot in Dent's hands and the ex-district attorney heaved the thin man up. Crane clambered into the duct and popped his head out to look back at the group. "Any suggestions of how to keep in contact?"

Cash finally put away his radio after another failed attempt to hail anyone. "I'm afraid not."

Crane aimed a heavy-lidded stare at the man as he sardonically replied, "Interesting choice of words." He disappeared into the duct with Amelia.

Tommy, Caleb, and Jervis kept their backs pressed against the wall as they listened to the two guards talking around the corner. "Gotham would be better off if this place, and all the patients inside it, was blown to bits. Ka-boom! Right?"

Perhaps it was the familial connection between them that told Jervis to look at his cousin. Or maybe it was the fact that nothing had gone wrong yet and Jervis knew that a complication was due. Whatever it was, Jervis turned his head away from the guard's voices and found Tommy's nose twitching in the tell-tale sign of a sneeze about to arrive. Jervis quickly pinched Tommy's nose until Tommy gave him a thumb up.

"Achoo!"

The voices around the corner went quiet. The Tetchs stared at Caleb as he wiped at his nose with the sleeve of his uniform. "Caleb sorry," he apologized.

"Oh bother," Jervis sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some flat pieces of metal that were fashioned to look like playing cards, courtesy of the Joker just before leaving the cafeteria. "'The time has come'!" Jervis declared, jumping out in full view of Bolton's men, and brandishing the metal cards. The light glinted menacingly off the sharp edges. "'Caloo Calay'!"

"Say what?" one guard asked, head tilting to the side in confusion.

Tommy and Caleb let out battle cries and charged forward. They didn't have deadly playing cards for weapons, but the bottles of pepper they'd swiped from the kitchen were about to prove to be forces to be reckoned with.

"Are these guys serious?" the second guard asked his partner. He received a shrug in answer.

"Duck!" the first guard shouted as twos card sliced through the air at them. They crouched low and heard the metallic shink as the cards embedded themselves in the wall behind them. Tommy and Caleb managed to overtake the guards while they were distracted and sent clouds of pepper directly into their faces. They coughed and hacked, inadvertently drawing the pepper further into their noses and windpipes and setting them into sneezing frenzies.

Their guns were wrested away from them by Jervis and Tommy. The Mad Hatter danced about the guards in a circle, laughing and singing gleefully.

"Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes;
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases!"

For the song's chorus of "Wow! Wow! Wow!" the Mad Hatter repeatedly delivered a swift jab with the butt of the gun to the solar plexus of both guards, sending them to their knees

"I speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!"

The chorus was repeated along with the raining blows to emphasize each "Wow!" The Mad Hatter finished his dance with a flourishing spin then kicked one guard in the head and struck the other with the gun. Both guards went out like lights. Jervis glared darkly at them. "You shan't take our Alice away, gentlemen. We simply can't allow it." He snapped his fingers at Tommy and Caleb. "Bind them together and find a closet to lock them in. Be sure to remove any form of communication they may have on them."

Tommy folded his arms over his chest. "I know you did not just snap at me, cousin."

The Mad Hatter instantly melted away and Jervis cringed into himself. "Oops! Dear me! Sorry, Tommy," he apologized with a sheepish smile. "Lost my head there for a moment."

Tommy smiled in return and patted him on the back. "All good. Caleb, help me carry these guys into that closet over there."

Caleb snickered as he gripped one guard by the ankles and pulled him along the floor. "Guards go night-night."

"We gotta get you two moving now," Cash said, eyes darting from the cafeteria doors to the other patients. He was glad the other asylum guards stationed in the room had managed to keep them seated for the time being. It didn't escape his attention though that there were more patients than security.

"No, you go on ahead with Harley and the others," the Joker said.

"No way," Cash argued, shaking his head. The other guards had their hands full with the rest of the patients. If he were to leave Amber's side, there wasn't another officer nearby or available to come to her aid.

"Cash, look, listen," the Joker began, licking his lips before continuing, "We need as maaany distractions as possible," he gestured towards the cafeteria doors with one hand, "to go ahead of us to lessen the chances of Bolton tracking Amber's movements and figuring out that we intend to get her out of the asylum." He reached over and gently pulled Amber along by her wrist so that she was standing between him and Cash with her back to the Joker. The clown rested his chin on top of her head, hands on her shoulders, and flashed Cash a quick grin. "Tick-tock, Cash."

Cash had kept a close eye on Amber during the brief exchange, searching for the slightest sign of alarm. She hadn't so much as flinch at the Joker's touch or proximity. Like the Joker, she stood staring at him, waiting for his response.

Cash didn't want to admit that the Joker's reasoning had some merit to it. With so many of them out and about in the asylum to draw off the other guards and dividing Bolton's attention, Amber stood a better chance of escaping. But the thought of leaving Amber alone in the cafeteria …Cash didn't like to think what could happened. The patients mobbing, fighting to get to Amber to use her as a bargaining chip with Bolton. The Rogues would be her only defense against the crush of crazed patients. Although, the Joker alone would make them pause.

Upon his first day in the asylum, he'd quickly established his violent and dangerous reputation for the residents who may not have seen or heard about the destruction the Joker had rendered upon Gotham when he first arrived on the scene. Any new arrivals who thought they were tough enough to take a shot at the Joker swiftly learned their mistake or ended up dead. Cash saw first-hand the wide berth most patients gave the Joker. They feared him.

She's safer with him than with me, Cash realized with a start. "Alright. But Nigma and his girls leave at the same time as you. Not before."

"Fine by me," the Joker agreed with a shrug.

Katlyn cast a smug grin towards Katherine. "'Nigma and his girls,'" she repeated.

"You're not affiliated with him!" Katherine snapped pettily.

"Let's go," Ivy announced, motioning for Cash to join her and the others at the cafeteria doors.

Cash moved to join them but turned back and fixed the Joker with a hard glare. "I know you don't give two craps about any human life besides yer own, but you take care of this one," he pointed firmly at Amber, still being held in place by the Joker. "You protect this one as if she was you. Or I swear I'll make your time in Arkham such a livin' hell that whatever Bolton's done to you in the past will look like a walk in the park. You hear me?"

"Cash, let's go!" Dent urged impatiently. But Cash had no intention of budging until he got an answer in the positive from the Clown Prince of Crime.

The two men stared each other down. Instead of using words, the Joker maintained their eye contact as he shifted his arms to encircle the upper half of Amber's body and nuzzled his nose into her hair. Cash detected a slight stiffening of Amber's posture, but nothing else. He'd have to take the Joker's nonverbal response as answer enough. Cash turned on his heel and jogged away to join his 'team'.

Harley lingered a moment in the doorway. Her gaze captured by the way the Joker's arms were draped in a deceivingly lazy manner around Amber's shoulders. But she'd seen the Joker in action long enough to recognize it for what it really was. The moment someone got too close to Amber, those arms would either tighten around her or push her away to safety. The ugly monster clawing in Harley's heart felt the need to remind her that the Joker had only ever used that same embrace to push her away from him.

"Harley, come on, girl!" Ivy called up ahead.

"Comin', Red!"

"Ready, peaches?" the Joker asked, leading her towards the doors about two minutes after Cash and the others had left. Nigma, Katherine and Katlyn followed close behind. Katlyn had raided the kitchens and sported a make-shift bandolier that was weighed down with a variety of condiments and seasonings that would have made the Condiment King himself weep in appreciation.

"Hamlet, Act III, Scene III, line eighty-seven."

The Joker's brow puckered as he stared curiously at her until a slow smile replaced it. "…A simple 'no' would have worked."

"Nah. Showing off's better." Thank you, meme.

"Tsk. You've been hanging around Nigma too much."

She knew he could see right through her attempts at looking brave but was grateful that he chose to play along. He grabbed her hand, threw a quick glance over his shoulder to check that Nigma was ready, and then they were running.

"Could you two slow down!" Katlyn gasped, trotting to keep up while struggling to keep her bandolier of weaponized condiments from slipping off her shoulder.

"There's no time to slow down, Katlyn," Nigma reminded her.

"And we're not even going that fast," Katherine told her. "You're just ridiculously short."

"Or you're both freakishly tall," Katlyn huffed. She counted how many steps she could manage in the time it took Nigma and Katherine to complete one. She calculated an average of 3.5 steps within Katherine's stride and four whole steps within the Riddler's. It was official. Katlyn was beginning to resent those with long legs. Maybe she would strike it out alone and become her own villain. The Munchkin! Striking fear into the hearts of long-legged freaks! Anyone above six-feet tall beware! Katlyn released a little gremlin-like chuckle at the thought.

"Through here," Nigma instructed, holding open a door. Katherine and Katlyn darted inside only to stop dead in their tracks. Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. It twisted up and up and up and laughed in their faces just as they'd once laughed at the suggestion of keeping to consistent routine of exercise.

"Onward and up, ladies," Nigma said, passing by them and beginning to climb the steps.

"Pass," Katherine said.

Nigma paused. "What?"

"Hard pass."

"But –,"

"You said nothing about climbing the stairway to heaven!" Katherine accused.

"Kitten, how did you think we'd reach the roof? By taking the elevator?"

"No! I'm not stupid! I knew the elevators would be under Bolton's surveillance!"

Katlyn refrained from saying anything. Otherwise she might give it away that she totally had been expecting to take the elevator up to the roof.

"Then what's the problem, love?" Nigma asked, a bit of exasperation peeking through in his tone.

"The problem is that for the past four months, I haven't been working out on the treadmill!"

"What are you talking about? Of course, you have!"

"Nope."

"I've seen you –,"

"I let you think you saw me exercising."

Nigma sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Explain."

"I only went along to group gym time so I could watch you work out! I'm a sucker for those lean muscles of yours, Eddie!"

"And the times I saw you running on the treadmill?"

"Were when I saw you beginning to look my way, so I'd run for like, ten seconds and then stop when you weren't looking anymore."

Katlyn tsked and shook her head. "Shameful."

"Oh, like you have room to talk! You did the exact same thing!"

"Yeah – well – I at least ran for fifteen seconds!"

"Ladies!" Nigma snapped. The bickering ceased.

Lifting his gaze towards the stairs spiraling above him, Nigma ran through an assortment of scenarios and ideas that could possibly result in reducing the number of steps they had to climb or avoid it all together. But with limited resources, none of the scenarios were likely to be possible.

"If only I had my cane. Such a helpful little gadget in times like this." He sighed. "I'm afraid you ladies will have no choice but to climb."

Katherine crossed her arms and scoffed. "There is no way –,"

"Anything you say, Mr. Riddler," Katlyn piped up, walking towards the stairs and Nigma. She tossed a smug, cheeky smirk over her shoulder at Katherine.

Katherine puffed up her chest. "No way I'm letting you move in on my man," Katherine muttered under her breath. She quickly passed Katlyn and Nigma on the stairs. "Let's get to it, Eddie! C'mon! Feel the burn! No pain, no gain!"

"'Skinny as a flagpole,' she said, 'it'll be easy for you,' she said," Crane muttered as he lay on his stomach, waiting to catch his breath. "Well, skinny I may be, Nurse Amber, but I am also very tall and there's a lot of me that has to be dragged through these ducts!"

"What about ducks?" Amelia pipped up, suddenly facing him.

Crane flinched back in surprise. "How on earth did you manage to turn around in this small space?"

"Don't ask silly questions. What about the ducks?"

"Ducts," Crane repeated, enunciating the subtle sound difference.

"Oh…No quack quacks?"

Crane felt the corner of his mouth twitched upward. "I'm afraid not, my dear."

"Darn."

Crane glanced behind him to try getting his bearings and visualize where they might be. When he faced forward again, Amelia was once again turned in the opposite direction and already crawling ahead. "How!?" Crane all but screeched.

"Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious," Amelia sang to herself. "C'mon, slow-poke!" she called.

"My dear, wait! You don't know where you're going!"

"Onward; to adventure!"

"There's a turn we need to take up ahead, wait for me –,"

"Adventuuuuuuure!" And then she was gone. Disappeared around a turn that Crane wasn't even sure was the correct one.

"…. Oh crap."

"This is it," Katherine gasped. "I can feel Death's icy grasp! I'm done for!"

Nigma paused, took a few breaths, and said, "If you've got enough air to talk in such a dramatic fashion, I doubt you're in any danger of dying, kitten."

"How can you be so cruel to me! I'm dying I tell you!"

Katlyn, having awhile back given up climbing the stairs on two legs and opting to crawl instead, attempted to pull herself over the prostrate body of Katherine. Katherine, suddenly finding that there was more life in her than she previously believed, began to bat Katlyn away, forcing the shorter girl to retreat a couple of steps. "I will punt-kick you, do you hear me?" Katherine threatened.

"There's the switchback for the next floor," Nigma pointed out, "We can take a brief break there instead of sprawling on the stairs."

Katherine craned her neck to look where he pointed. "Too far," she grunted as she returned her neck to its proper position and allowed her body to sag even more upon the stairs.

"You can't possibly be comfortable like that?"

"You're right. I'm probably not. But it's amazing just how numb the body becomes when you've reached a certain point of exhaustion." Katherine glanced down at herself. "See? My spine is currently getting stabbed by the edge of this step and I can't feel a thing." She tossed him a delirious grin. "Paradise."

Nigma had to admit. Sitting down sounded better than walking a few more steps, but he was inwardly cringing at the spinal damage that Katherine was no doubt inflicting upon herself. He'd force himself to go a little further. "Come along, kitten. Crawl if you must, but I advise you not to remain lying like that. Katlyn just might decide to brave your threat of being punt-kicked and try to walk over you."

Katherine's head popped up to level a glare at Katlyn, who did appear to be considering it. Baring her teeth at the shorter girl, Katherine heaved herself into a sitting position and then flipped around to crawl the rest of the way on her hands and knees. Nigma was already sitting at the top of the steps, waiting for her. "Shall I invent a cheer to egg you on?" he asked, a teasing smirk curling his lips, chin resting atop his interlaced fingers and looking every bit the Riddler as he could without wearing the green suit. Katherine couldn't even bring herself to be annoyed at his tease. He looked hot sitting like that.

Unfortunately, Katherine didn't get much of a rest. A dull thud was heard from the door at Nigma's back. He twisted round to give it a questioning look. That was about all he could spare before the door burst open and one of Bolton's men charged through. He collided with Nigma and it was clear his intention was to force the man over the stair railing. There was no freakin' way Katherine was going to sit by and allow some Paul Blart to send her Riddler plummeting to his death!

She stood up and felt her legs go, "Nah, we're good," before giving our beneath her. No more skipping out on leg day at the gym, she told herself. She grabbed hold of the railing to attempt pulling herself up, which alerted 'Paul Blart' to her presence. Slinging Nigma against the door with enough force to knock the air from his lungs, 'Paul Blart' swung around and aimed the barrel of his gun at Katherine.

"No!" Nigma tried to scream, but all that escaped him were wheezes as he tried to regain his breath.

It was just the sort of scene that Katherine sometimes daydreamed about. The kind where her life was in danger and Eddie would save the day. But he was properly winded and too disoriented to even sit up. So, he did the only thing he could do. He flung out his hand and grabbed the man's foot as he was stepping towards Katherine. It set 'Paul Blart' off-balance and he squeezed the trigger sooner than planned. Katherine flinched as she felt the bullet whiz past her.

With a surge of adrenaline, Nigma hauled himself up, grabbed hold of the back of the man's bulletproof vest and dragged him away from Katherine. In no time at all, he was flipping the man over the rails and listening to the terrified screams of a man rapidly approaching his death, followed sudden silence.

"That was kinda hot," Katherine remarked weakly. Nigma straightened in surprise, having temporarily forgotten she was there with him. He'd been so focused on the screams…

"Katherine!" He dropped to his knees in front of her and began to examine her for any signs of blood. "Kitten, are you alright? Were you hit?"

"N-no. I don't think so. Still feel a little numb though."

"Hey guys…" Both heads turned to see Katlyn sitting on the switchback with them, holding a hand to her chest. A hand that was coated in red. "He was a lousy shot." Her upper body began to tilt over.

"Katlyn!" Katherine quickly scrambled away from Nigma and caught Katlyn before her head hit the concrete.

"It's – it's getting dark. Katherine?"

"I'm here."

"I'm – I'm sorry I've been a horrible minion."

Katherine shook her head. "No, you've been a great minion! The best a boss could ask for! Sure, you may have been acting like a little brat lately, but bygones, right?"

Katlyn gave a cough and smiled. "Right. Bygones. Then you should know…I started horrible rumors behind your back."

"That doesn't mat – wait, you did what now?"

"I know I've done nothing lately to endear myself to you –,"

"Go back just a sec, what rumors?"

"– but I hope you can find it within your heart to grant me this last request."

"You're really gonna ignore the questions, huh? Alright, fine. I'll overlook it cause you're dying and all. What request?"

"A kiss…"

"Oh! Uh, well, Katlyn, I'm, uh, flattered but –,"

"…from Mr. Nigma."

"… Oh, hell no!"

Nigma's eyebrows rose. "You'd deny a dying woman's last wish?"

Katherine's head snapped in his direction. "Wrong, I'm denying a dying woman's cheeky last wish when she knows good and well that you're taken!"

"But it's her last wish –,"

"Last wishes are no excuse for kissing another girl's man! How are you so okay with kissing her?!"

"Kitten –,"

"Come up with something else, Katlyn!"

"It's my one wish."

"Bull crap! You and I spent an entire week coming up with a list of wishes! Yours was longer than mine!"

Katlyn's small body began to shiver. "I'm – I'm so cold." She held out her hand. "Mr. Nigma?"

Katherine pulled Katlyn closer by the shirt. "Back off – ouch! What the –?" She pulled back her right hand and examined what appeared to be a tiny cut on her palm. Beads of blood welled up on the skin. "How did you cut me?"

"Can we focus on the fact that I'm bleeding a heck of a lot more than you, Katherine! I'm at death's door and you're focusing on a tiny little glass cut!"

"Glass?" Katherine repeated. Katlyn sucked in her lips as if she's said too much. "Why'd you say glass?" Katherine adjusted her grip on Katlyn's shirt collar and head the tinkling of glass hit the ground. She looked to see tiny shards of it collected around the pockets of the bandolier and Katlyn's collar. "Wait a second…"

On closer inspection, Katherine noticed something odd about the blood coating Katlyn's chest and her hand. The texture and the smell weren't right. She swiped up a red glob on her finger from Katlyn's wrist and brought it to her nose for a sniff. Her brows furrowed. "Is this ketchup?"

Katlyn froze. "…"

Looking at Katlyn's bandolier, Katherine noticed one condiment was missing. "Did the bullet hit a bottle of ketchup and you decided to milk it?!"

"…"

"You freakin' piece of scum! I was almost willing to let you be my minion again if you survived this! I petition to throw her from the railing!"

As the two young women continued to argue, Nigma couldn't help but smile and shake his head in relief. "Alright, break it up, you two! We've still got a mission to accomplish. Oi, Kitten! Retract your claws! No hair pulling! Ladies! Katherine, stop trying to throw her over the railing!"

"Down this hall," the Joker alerted Amber. She felt the muscles of his hand flex against the small of her back as he guided her through the change of direction. He'd taken her through parts of the asylum that Amber, despite having worked in the building for nearly two years, had never been in. She'd known Arkham was large, but good lord!

"Hold up," the Joker whispered, staring ahead at the hall's intersection. "You hear that?"

Amber listened. A door closed. She shot the Joker a look. He grabbed hold of her arm and began to drag her to an alcove that was occupied by a snack and a drink vending machines along with a trashcan. The machines were set up against the side walls and protruded from them far enough that they could provide her and the Joker coverage to hide behind them.

Once inside the alcove, the Joker slung Amber to one side of the wall while he dived behind the opposite machine. She pressed her back to the white bricks and held her breath as the echo of footsteps became audible. She anxiously looked across to the Joker. He smirked and held a finger to his lips. It made him look terrifying.

The footsteps passed their alcove and the Joker edged around the vending machine and slunk to the wall's corner to peer out and see if the coast was clear. He turned to face her. "All good."

Amber sighed with relief and slumped to the floor. "My heart is pounding and my whole body feels like that weird sensation you get when your leg falls asleep. Is that normal?"

The Joker glanced both ways of the hall then entered the alcove again and returned to his spot on the opposite side of the wall from her. He slid down to a seated position, his knees up with his arms balancing on top of them. "It's the adrenaline. Makes everything feel tingly. Feeling jittery?"

"Yeah," Amber admitted. "Like I've got too much energy and don't know what to do with it."

The Joker cracked a smile. "I find that causing mass mayhem usually does the trick of burning the excess off."

Amber's green eyes narrowed as she eyed him. "I can't tell if that was genuine advice or a joke."

"Both."

"Of course."

"We can't stick around much longer."

"I know." Amber released another sigh, rubbed at her temples, then shook her head and gave a tired chuff of laughter.

"What is it?" the Joker asked.

Amber's smile held a touch of sadness to it, but she forced herself to sound cheerful as she answered, "It's just…When I woke up this morning, my only concern was, 'what can I do today to celebrate my birthday without feeling like a social outcast?'"

The Joker perked up. "It's your birthday?"

"…Yeah." She slouched further against the wall, eyes on her shoes. A wry grin appeared. "Gonna be rather tough to top this one."

"Peaches, you should have said something! We could have planned a real shindig for ya!"

Amber gave him a pointed look. "Exactly."

The Joker scoffed, a hand over his heart. "I happen to be great at parties."

Amber squinched her eyes at him, a doubtful, close-lipped smile on her face. "Mmmh. I think there's a lot of people who'd disagree."

"There aaalways is." He licked his lips, tapped his fingers against his bouncing knees, then took a long look at Amber. "How old are you now?"

"Fifty," she replied in mock seriousness.

The Joker whistled. "You look good."

"I know, right?"

"What's your secret?"

"The Fountain of Youth."

"I knew it! Ya gotta tell me where it is."

"Oh, I can't possibly tell you that. Then you'd tell your friends, and they'd tell their friends, and before you know it you've got everyone staying forever young and overpopulation will occur."

"That a fact?"

"It is."

"Bummer."

"Agreed."

"Well, I guess I'll just waste away while you stay young and beautiful."

Amber felt her heart skip a beat at that last word. He thought she was beautiful? It doesn't matter if he finds you attractive! He's the Joker, remember?

"You got awful quite."

She gave a slight start and scrambled to cover for her lapse into silence. "Sorry, just thinking this isn't how most girls celebrate their twenty-third birthday."

The Joker's brow furrowed. "Come again?"

"I said, 'this isn't how most girls celebrate their birthday'."

The Joker shook his head and made a 'rewind' gesture. "No, no, no, no, no. You said 'twenty-third'." He stared hard at her as if he were angry that she left it out. "You're twenty-three?"

Amber nodded a bit warily. The playful mood between them had suddenly changed and she wasn't sure yet what had taken its place or why. But what she was growing increasingly aware of was how still the Joker had become.

"…You can't be that young."

"I get that a lot," she admitted.

People were always guessing her to be in her late twenties or early thirties, not solely based on her looks, but from the way she conducted herself. She'd always acted older than her peers. She was the responsible one, the mature one with a silly side, the one they would go to for advice. "An old soul," was often said to describe her.

"I thought you were – you were twenty-eight, twenty-nine – heck, maybe even thirty."

Why did the Joker seem so distressed about her age? "It's no big deal that you thought I was older," she assured him.

"They put a kid in charge of the most dangerous criminal in Gotham – a kid!" He grabbed at his hair, bent at the waist, then began to rock back and forth a bit. It unsettled her to see him do such a thing because she'd never seen him do something like it. Other patients, yes; those who were so far gone in their mental instability that they couldn't tell you what day of the week it was. But the Joker, though categorized as insane, seemed to lack that trait that kept him from being roped in with his fellow inmates. It's what made the court want to tear out their hair when he was on trial. Was the Joker really insane? Because despite how mentally disturbed and unstable his actions tended to be, there was still an underlining sense of … stability.

"You're just a kid…" the Joker repeated once more, his face hidden from Amber's view behind the faded green curtain of his hair.

"Why are you so bugged about this?"

Her words prompted the Joker to suddenly move. One moment he was sitting at the opposite wall from her, the next he was crouching directly in front of Amber. His face within inches of her own. "Because those idiots put a little girl in charge of me!" the Joker growled. His hands grabbed hold of her arms and squeezed tightly. "They always did this! They never trusted me to look after anything. They thought a little girl could do a better job than me!"

A memory had been drudged up. A sensitive subject that she'd unknowingly trod upon. She didn't know who 'they' were, or who the 'little girl' from his past was, but Amber wasn't curious enough to delve deeper into the matter at this time. Not when there was nothing to hold him back.

"Do you know how old I am?" the Joker suddenly asked.

Amber nervously wet her lips as she kept his gaze. "N-no. No one's really sure."

"Oooh, but they have a guess, right?" His nose brushed against hers in a deceitfully gentle manner, but his dark eyes betrayed the storm brewing inside him. "There's at least a ten-year difference between us, sweetheart."

"Do you know how old I am? …There's at least a ten-year difference…"

Something about his choice of words nagged at her.

"Do you know how old I am? …There's at least a ten-year difference…There's at least a ten-year…There's at least a …There's at least…at least…at least…"

He knew her age, so why use an estimate to compare the age gape between them? Unless… "You don't know how old you are." The Joker went deathly still. There was a flicker in his eyes that told her everything she needed to know. "…Edward's not the only one with lost memories, is he?"

The twitch of a jaw muscle followed by a snarl was the only warning Amber had before she found herself pinned to the wall, an unrelenting grasp on her chin. All she could see were his eyes …and they were burning. "Do not change the subject, peaches!" She tried to pry his hand from her jaw. He snatched it away and held it tightly in his other hand. "Some little girl tells me what to do and I'm supposed to just roll over and take it? I. Think. Not-ah!"

Amber remained silent, though she could have screamed if she wanted. He knew it too. But the people her screams would have alerted weren't the ones who would help her. It wasn't just that though.

During her time in the asylum, she'd developed a bond of some sort with each of her charges. They knew they could count on her. Trust her. But the connection that had formed between her and the Joker was different somehow. She still couldn't put a label to it, but she was aware that something existed. Something possessive, twisted, amicable and sometimes, even a bit reassuring. This very moment had put that connection in a precarious position.

The Joker observed her face for a moment then released her hand in order to run his fingers through her hair. "I've found myself thinking about you more often, Amber. Thinking about aaall the things I'd looove to do to you…How I'd make you scream…" Amber squeezed her eyes shut as if to block whatever forms of torture he was no doubt about to describe inflicting on her. His lips brushed against her ear as his voice lowered into an intimate whisper. "How I'd be your first…"

Amber's eyes flew open. Call her crazy, but that didn't exactly sound like a man talking about torturing her. He still had her caged in with his body, lips so close to her ear that they continuously brushed the skin. "…aaall the things we'd do together…" The hand at her chin was removed only to settle along the back of her skull, pulling her closer to his face. He pressed his nose to her neck and breathed in deeply. The tantalizing aroma of Amber Romance filled his nostrils.A shudder racked his body as a primal moan exhaled against her skin. His hands clenched her hair and wrist. "I bet you taste just as good…"

Amber's mouth felt incredibly dry. "…Joker."

Once again, her voice triggered a swift change of movement from him. She was now lying on her back with him straddling her. His head hovered mere inches from her face. "Stay down!" he growled. The ferocity in his tone elicited a jolt of fear from Amber that didn't go unnoticed. Wave upon wave of emotions were fliting upon his face, unable to settle on a particular one.

Looking into her eyes, the Joker could plainly see the main emotion Amber was feeling. Fear. He'd never seen her look at him with such naked fear before. He didn't like it. Not. One. Bit.

Gritting his teeth, he squeezed his eyes shut against the sight and leaned down until his forehead touched hers. He could feel her shaking. "Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh," he murmured. His next words were spoken in a strained, hoarse voice. "…If you know what's good for ya, peaches…just stay down and gimmie a minute….'kay?" He felt her nod. Drawing in an unsteady breath, he released a shaky laugh. "Good girl."

His lips brushed against hers when he spoke, causing Amber to shudder. He felt her body tremble and it set off aaall the pleasurable tingles he'd wanted to avoid. His hand went to her hair, running strands through his fingers again. He'd been in close proximity to Amber before, but never like this. Never this intimate. Not even that time they were trapped in a closet together, or when she'd stopped him from entering her bedroom. Their faces had been close, yes. But this…this was so much more.

He soaked it in. The feel of her beneath him…and it still doesn't seem close enough. The tightening of his pants told him the kind of closeness he craved and judging by the slight flinch from Amber, she figured out his thoughts. "Ssshhh… Don't move, peaches. Don't move." He really could not stress just how much she needed to not move right now. It was the only thing keeping him from taking things further.

Opening his eyes, he lifted his head to look at her. It proved to be a big mistake. Amber was biting her bottom lip. That little habit she did when she was nervous. The Joker shut his eyes, but it was far too late. He opened them with a groan and settled himself fully on top of her, his hands sliding along her waist and her neck. "I tooold you that habit was going to get you into trouble someday." He leaned in towards her lips.

Amber couldn't figure out what was more startling: The Joker about to kiss her, or the fact that her eyes were closing in anticipation?

Wrong, wrong, wrong! This is wrong! He's the freakin' Joker!

Yeah, and I could possibly die tonight, on my birthday, without ever being kissed!

What was that word kids were using these days? Oh yeah. YOLO!

Just as their lips were achingly close to touching, a hail of gunfire rang out from the next hall over. Both froze and looked in the direction of the noise. Another round of fire sounded. "Time to go," the Joker grunted, jumping to his feet, and pulled Amber up with him.

Amber's head whirled in a mixture of the sudden change of position and the almost kiss between them. She was really going to let him kiss her! And he admitted to having fantasies about her! How the heck was she supposed to handle him as one of her charges after this?!

You confident that there's going to be an 'after' after tonight? She prayed there would be.

The Joker's fingers threaded with hers as he clasped her hand and didn't let go as he led them in the opposite direction of the gunfire. "Bless you, child!" cried a familiar voice from the hallway.

Amber grasped the Joker's arm. "Wait!" To her surprise, he slowed. "Listen…" The Joker cocked his head to the side, wetting his lips.

"Bless you too!"

"Are you kidding me?" he asked himself.

A cloud of glitter exploded from the entrance of the hall, belching forth a tiny figure who paused long enough to pull the pin of a grenade and launch it back the way she'd come. "And bless you in particular, sir!" She leapt for cover just in time as another poof of glitter blasted from the hall and the cries of men soon followed.

"How the heck am I supposed to look manly covered in this stuff?!"

"I'll never be able to get this out of my uniform."

"I'm going to be finding glitter in my apartment for months, aren't I?"

"It's like an STD! Once it's on you, you can't get rid of it!"

"I have glitter herpes!"

"Let's get here!"

"Yeah!"

The sound of bullets resumed as several pairs of heavy boots pounded on the floor. "Uh-oh." Amelia hopped up from her crouch and hurried along the hall. She finally noticed the Joker and Amber watching her with bewildered expressions on their faces. "Guns, guns, guns, guns, guns! Those are not monsters – I repeat; those are not monsters! They're big, big, big bad men with big, big, big bad guns! Run!"

"Where's Crane?" the Joker demanded.

"He got lost in the air ducts!" She veered off from them, heading for the alcove where the Joker and Amber had taken shelter what seemed like forever ago. Amelia grabbed the trashcan next to the drink machine and dragged it out into the open and pushed it against the far wall, directly beneath an airduct. Muttering and gibbering to herself, she quickly pried open the vent with the help of a crowbar she'd had strapped to her back, and then scrambled inside.

"Oh crap," the Joker mumbled. Amber looked away from the vent to see what made the Joker speak up. Bolton's men had spotted them.

"Isn't that the chick we're after?"

The Joker stepped in front of Amber and waved his hand in the air. "This is not the chick you're looking for."

"Really?" Amber scoffed incredulously behind him.

"Shush, peaches, I think it's working."

One guard nudged another. "Radio Bolton and let him know we found her."

The Joker sighed. "Or not." Guns cocked loudly as the group of guards advanced towards them. The Joker stood at the ready, as if he were waiting for something, but all the while the men drew closer. The Joker pursed his lips. "Hmmm." He looked towards the vent. "You plan on doing whatever it is you're planning to do soon?"

The very audible sound of "Phffffft!" reverberated within the air duct as a stream of gold glitter spewed from the vent, effectively dousing the guards, and obstructing their vision.

"My eyes! Glitter herpes got in my eyes!"

The Joker let out a wild cackle of laughter as the guards fumbled around, misfiring their weapons at each other, some wounding, some fatal. Amber pressed her face into the Joker's back so she wouldn't see. He stiffened; laughter cut short. He twisted round to look at her, as if he suddenly remembered she was there. He glanced back at the guards as if debating with himself, then made a decision. He grabbed hold of Amber's hand and took off running down the hall. "C'mon, firecracker!" he hollered over his shoulder. "Let's get going!"

Amelia climbed out from the vent, baring a bit of a resemblance to the girl from The Ring as she did her feet were touching the floor again, she whipped out another grenade and held it high above her head. "Glitterboooomb!" Amelia screeched.

"Not another one!" cried a guard trying to crawl away. Amelia gave her little gremlin cackle as she pulled the pin and hurled it at them. It exploded in an array of colors, absolutely coating the men in glitter, and effectively rendering them temporarily blind. Seeing that her work was done, Amelia hurried after the Joker and Amber.

The commotion brought others on their tail and the sudden appearance of Amelia with her entourage had caught the Joker off-guard. As a result, he'd taken a wrong turn from the path he'd meant to take in order to get Amber safely out of the asylum. Now, with Bolton's men at their heels, the Joker couldn't retrace his steps to the correct turn. He'd have to find another way. Only thing was, that route had been the quickest way out and time was of the essence for Amber.

"'Caloo Calay'!"

"What the –?" Amber yelped as the Joker caught her up into his arms and leapt aside, barely avoiding the metallic cards that shinged past them and hurtled towards Bolton's men. A few embedded into the tactical gear they wore, one managed to sink into a man's throat.

"The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back."

"Jerviiiis!" the Joker crowed. "My man! How are those cards working out for ya?"

The Mad Hatter tipped his hat to him and Amber as Tommy and Caleb appeared at his side. Blood was splattered across the man's normally pristine face and hat. "Quite well, quite well. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a jabberwocky head to deliver to Her Majesty."

"…Riiiight. Well, we won't keep you."

Amber observed Jervis Tetch as he approached the dead man on the floor while Caleb and Tommy went to subdue the remaining two guards. She'd never really seen Jervis when he was 'the Mad Hatter'. He was always a very pleasant and polite sort of guy. He had his quirks, yes. But you didn't get thrown into Arkham Asylum for being quirky.

The Mad Hatter knelt beside the corpse and brandished a gleaming metal card over its neck. As if in a trance, he recited the last stanza of the poem he'd spoken a moment ago.

"He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back."

"Come on, Ambs, let's go."

She was only too glad to follow the Joker's lead. Before leaving, the Joker turned back to the trio and called out, "You're makin' me proud, Tommy-boy!"

Tommy broke off in the middle of hitting a guard with his own baton and saluted. "Thank you, sir!"

"Carry on!"

"Yes, sir!" Tommy cried and renewed his attack on the guard with more enthusiasm.

Nerves were highly strung as Joan, Gatsby, and Dr. Arkham searched for any spots that fell short of Bolton's signal jammers' radiuses. They had many close calls of being discovered by Bolton's lackeys and would have to lie in wait until the coast was clear again. But finally – finally – Gatsby stumbled upon a spot and nearly squealed in excitement at the sight of full bars on his phone. He signaled for Joan and Dr. Arkham to join him and kept a look-out as Dr. Arkham put in a call to Commissioner Gordon. If he got hold of the Commissioner, then Gordon could turn on the precinct's bat-signal and send the Dark Knight to their rescue.

But the phone kept ringing and ringing and went to Gordon's voicemail. Arkham hung up with a hiss of frustration. "He didn't answer?" Joan asked, surprised.

"Got his voicemail. I'll call the police –,"

"Someone's coming!" Gatsby whispered urgently. They hurried down the hall until they came to a bathroom and dashed inside. They prayed they hadn't just lost their chance to call for help.

The man standing next to the bat-signal was the last person he ever expected to see standing there. To be honest, Batman was surprised that time Harvey Dent had been the one he met on the roof some time back because the Dark Knight had only ever met Gordon on the roof whenever the signal was activated. Like the commissioner had unofficially become its keeper. So, to see anyone else on the roof was a bit unusual. But to see him standing next to the signal, with no Gordon in sight, alerted Batman that something had gone very wrong. And he had a strong suspicion of what it was.

"Bullock?" Batman's raspy voice broke through the night's silence.

Detective Harvey Bullock whirled around, nearly dropping the cigarette between his fingers, and glowered at him. "Yeah, it's me. An' don' go thinkin' nuttin' of it neither. I still think you should be locked-up in the looney bin, but somethin's happened to the Commish. He's missing."

Batman's mouth thinned into a grim line. He'd been on his way to the precinct to warn Gordon to be wary. It started with Summer Gleeson. She been snatched off the streets before his own eyes after finishing an exclusive interview with Bruce Wayne at a stylish restaurant. They were just leaving, he'd seen Summer to her car and was heading for his own when a van came out of nowhere and the back double doors swung open and men in masks and body armor leapt out and grabbed Summer. They were gone within seconds.

Bruce almost missed the envelope stuck beneath the windshield wiper of Summer's vehicle. Inside was a typed message explaining that Miss Gleeson would be locked-up on account of her crimes against the city and its' citizens.

Then that afternoon, Mayor Hill was taken from his own home. An envelope was discovered on the kitchen table. The message inside was the same as the one left on Summer's car. Gordon had called Batman to the scene and they found an item that didn't fit with the rest of the mayor's home. It was a complex, high-tech lock with its serial number scratched off. One designed to send out a radio, magnetic signal that would automatically lock any doors within a designated radius. From what they could figure, the mayor had been locked inside his own home.

Batman took the device back to his base and ran it through his scanners to reconstruct the damaged serial number. When it came through, he ran the numbers and managed to track down the security company that made it. By hacking into their files, he discovered that Lyle Bolton had once worked there, long before he came to be employed with Wayne Enterprises. The company reported that several pieces of equipment went missing. A few weeks later, Bolton turned in his two-week's notice.

Knowing that it was Bolton they were dealing with, Batman quickly pieced together what was going on. Revenge for being dismissed from Arkham Asylum and publicly humiliated on the media.

"Where was the last place Gordon was seen?" Batman asked Bullock.

Bullock expelled a column of smoke before answering. "He left about two hours ago to go home. Then I get a call from Barbara 'bout twenty minutes ago, askin' fer 'im. Said she couldn't reach 'im on his phone and wanted ta know if he'd left the precinct yet. I told 'er yeah. That he shoulda been kissin' 'er 'hello' by now. An' then I goes to look in the parking lot. His cah's still there! Then I see this stuck beneath the windshield wiper."

Bullock pulled an envelope from his pocket. "I already read it. It's a load of hooey! Gordon's a straight lace – ain't like half the cops an' officials in this city. What the heck is this all about?"

"It's Lyle Bolton. He's got a vendetta against those who were responsible for his dismissal from Arkham." Batman turned to go.

"Hey, where you goin'?"

"To the asylum. There's two people there who are in danger."

Bullock looked as though he were tasting something awful as he asked, "Ya need backup?"

"Maybe. Keep some men at the ready if I call. I need to know what I'm facing first."

Bullock snuffed out his cigarette against the side of the bat-signal, watching as the tiny flickering embers died out. "An' how am I gonna know if you need backup?" He lifted his gaze and found he was addressing empty air. He scowled. "Yeah, I can see how that'd get annoying."

They managed to avoid any further run-ins with Bolton's lackeys, but Amber wasn't so sure she was any better off with the Joker after his snap in the alcove. Luckily with Amelia there she wasn't alone with him and could be distracted from thinking about how she'd been willing to let him kiss her. *sigh* I really need to get out more…

The Joker slowed his pace and looked both ways at another intersection. He didn't seem to be in a hurry to lead them down either path. "Um…Joker?"

"Hm?"

"What's the holdup?"

"Aaaaaaah…" He shifted around to look her face to face. "Look, see, here's the thing." He pointed at Amelia. "Firecracker over there kinda screwed up our escape route."

"What?"

"See, we were supposed to take a turn down one of the halls that all those guards were near, but in all the scrambling, I got turned around and, uh, well, now we're improvising."

"Oh perfect," Amber mumbled. Cause if there was one thing she didn't need right now; it was someone like the Joker 'improvising'. Things tended to get bloody when that happened.

"I need you and the kid to stay here for a sec."

Amber grabbed hold of his arm as he took a step away. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Gotta scout ahead, peaches. It'll be a jiffy." Amber's fingers tightened their grip on him without thinking. He looked down at her hand holding onto him so tightly and then at the barely concealed worry on her face. He smirked and lowered his voice so Amelia wouldn't overhear. "I'll be back for you, peaches."

Amber released his arm as she felt her heart nearly stutter to a stop. The Joker took advantage of her momentary mental shut-down and scurried away down the hall. Amber blinked and shook herself out of her stupor. "Get a gripe, girl!" she chastised herself.

"Ya know if you keep talking to yourself, they'll think you're crazy around here," Amelia informed her.

"Thanks for the advice," Amber muttered absentmindedly. She turned and felt the color drain from her face at the sight of Bolton looming behind Amelia.

"What is it – oof!" Bolton backhanded the smaller girl with so much force that it sent Amelia flying away and she collided hard with the wall. Her body fell to the ground and she didn't move.

Amber turned to run. "Jok –!" Everything suddenly went black.

"I knew this thing would come in handy someday," Mark said as he reached into the trunk of his car and extracted one of two paintball guns.

Gretchen looked at it apprehensively, her doubt and second thoughts growing. There were watch towers all along the gates and possibly housed two snipers in each. And then there was only her and Mark on a half-cocked idea to make visibility difficult for the snipers by blasting paint balls at the windows. How would they manage to pull that off before they were spotted by snipers from another tower? "Dies isn't going to vork," she finally admitted.

"Quitting already, doc?" a playful and cocky male voice asked from behind them. Mark and Gretchen whirled around and felt their blood run cold at the sight of Victor Zsasz grinning at them. "Just when the party's getting good?" Over his blood-stained uniform he wore a double-gun harness and a deadly-looking knife strapped to his thigh. Blood spotted his hairless scalp and face which made his white-toothed grin appear maniacal. The short sleeves of his uniform displayed the numerous tally-marks that littered his skin.

If Gretchen or Mark has any questions about how Zsasz managed to get ahold of those weapons, they were answered by the sight of the freshly carved set of marks on his forearm, still leaking a bit of blood. Mark aimed the barrel of his paint gun at Victor's chest. "Stay back," he yelped.

Victor's dark eyes lowered to the gun as a look of utter boredom and disappointment replaced his grin. "Really?" he huffed. Quick as lightning, his hands snatched the weapon out of Mark's grasp and let it rest casually on his shoulder. Mark looked like a child whose favorite toy had been taken away from him and a whimper was heard as he made pitiful grabby hands at it.

"You want it back?" Victor asked, using a tone adults often took on when speaking with unruly toddlers. Mark nodded. "Then listen to my proposal and we'll be just fine." He beamed. "Okay?" He looked back at Gretchen. "Long time no see, Gretch."

Before he was Dr. Arkham's patient, he'd been Dr. Sarah Cassidy's patient. Gretchen and Sarah had been good friends and colleges. Unfortunately, Zsasz developed a fixation on Dr. Cassidy and even attempted to murder her after escaping from the asylum but was stopped by Batman. After that, Dr. Cassidy took an extended leave and Zsasz was transferred to Dr. Whistler's care. She tried her hardest to make some sort of progress with him, but eventually had to give up when all Zsasz would talk about in their sessions involved Sarah or asking Gretchen if she'd heard anything from her. He was assigned to Dr. Arkham temporarily until a better solution could be found.

Gretchen took a steadying breath before speaking. "Vhat do you vant, Victor?" she asked sharply.

"Um, ouch. Mr. Freeze has got nothing on that cold shoulder of yours, doc. Here I am about to offer you some assistance and this is how you treat me?"

"Vhat?"

That mischievous grin reappeared on Victor's face. "Now I got your attention, huh?"

"Vhy vould you –?"

"Let's just saaay," he tilted his gaze up, as if the words had appeared there, "that I was given word from certain people that my services were required in the city and that I'd need to be out of the box on a certain day. And then let's say that some gung-ho warden decided to throw a wrench in my plans to escape by upsetting the established security protocols that I based my plan on and can no longer use it because it all got wonky." His grin became a bit strained. "Ain't that something?"

Gretchen and Mark said nothing.

"Anyway," Victor went on, "I figure it would benefit the both of us. You help me – I help you – you turn a blind eye when I make my escape and I don't shoot you on the spot," in a blink he had a gun removed from his holster and aimed at Gretchen. "Sound fair?"

"Not exactly," Gretchen ground out between clenched teeth. "Letting you go means you'll be free to –,"

"Provide my services to the highest bidder," Zsasz smoothly interrupted and clicked his mouth. "It's not like I'm some psycho killer –,"

Mark opened his mouth and suddenly found the barrel of a gun pressed against his nose. "Got something you want to say?" Victor asked, head cocked to the side. Mark shook his head. "As I was saying…I'm not like the Joker; okay, Gretch? I don't just kill for fun. I mean, I certainly have fun when I do it. I enjoy it. Boy, howdy do I enjoy it! But I like to get paid when I off someone too. So, what do you say, doc? Help me, help you."

Gretchen closed her eyes and sighed. "Vhat do you have in mind?"

Victor un-cocked his gun and removed it from Mark's nose with an excited grin. "Alright. So, where's the nearest ladder or fire escape to the roof?"

"Enough bickering, you two!" Nigma admonished as he pushed open the heavy metal door to the roof. They'd made it without any further mishaps, but that could change at any minute if Katherine and Katlyn didn't get their act together and focus on the task at hand. "Be sure to stay low to the ground. I'm sure Bolton's placed some snipers of his own in the guard towers."

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to actually get shot, would we, Katlyn?"

"You're hilarious, Katherine," Katlyn deadpanned. "Been taking lessons from the Joker?"

Katherine's face flushed scarlet. "You little –!"

"Ladies!" Nigma hissed, grabbing Katherine's arm just in time to stop her from lunging at Katlyn. He'd managed to prevent his kitten from throwing her former partner-in-crime over the stair railing, but that wouldn't do him any good if she managed to toss Katlyn from the roof, now would it? "We are so bloody close to our goal! Would you really jeopardize it now with this petty nonsense?"

Katherine scoffed, looking affronted. "Glad to know you think some hussy trying to steal a kiss from my man and cause trouble in our relationship is 'petty nonsense', Eddie."

"That's not what I – Get down!"

All three dropped to their stomachs as the beam of a search light floated over their heads and passed along. Edward lifted his face and surveyed the area, taking note of the distance between them and the bat-signal, how much coverage they had, the pace and timing of the search light, etc.

"Alright," he said after a moment of strategizing, unaware of the poking and kicking going on out of his line of sight. It ceased the instant he spoke up. "We'll have to army crawl our way to the signal."

Katherine sighed. "I better come out of this with thighs and abs of steal when we're through."

"That's the ticket, kitten," Nigma whispered encouragingly. "Let's move."

They shimmied along on their bellies, grateful that no one was watching them because they knew they looked ridiculous. Katherine's only consolation was that she had a great view of Edward's butt and that she was tall enough that her feet always threatened to kick Katlyn's chin if she got any closer. Upon reaching the signal platform, Nigma gestured that they gather behind it, where they could sit up without being seen or caught by the search light.

"Once we turn on this signal, we'll have to run as quickly as we can back to the door," Nigma informed them.

"How come?" Katlyn asked.

"Because we could be hit by real bullets," Katherine snapped.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"None of that again!" Nigma hissed, struggling to keep his voice low. He honestly adored Katherine and her ferocious loyalty to him, but this was not the time for it. "Katherine is right though. Bolton's snipers won't hesitate to question the appearance of the bat-signal, they'll start shooting the moment they recognize what it is. This light will practically make us a target, so we must move swiftly –,"

"Do you think this is the switch to turn it on?" Katlyn's voice interrupted and suddenly the roof was bathed in light as the bat-signal illuminated the night sky. "…Oops."

"RUN!" Nigma yelled, scrambling to his feet, and roughly pulling Katherine up with him.

Katherine expected to hear the hail of gunfire any second so when an explosion followed by a metallic crash resounded in the air, she squeezed her eyes tight and flinched, already feeling the ghost pains of bullets riddling her body. But they never came. Oh, they could hear the guns firing, but not so much as a ricochet came in their direction. Nigma paused and Katherine opened her eyes. Katlyn inched towards the roof ledge and peered down. "Whoooa," she gasped.

"What?" Katherine asked, detaching herself from the Riddler's grasp and hurrying over to see for herself. Nigma joined her and all three gaped in surprise at the sight of the asylum gates lying in a mangled mess on the ground. Suddenly the Batmobile careened over the ruined gates and into the parking lot as bullets rained down upon it. In all the excitement, the bat-signal wasn't even noticed by the snipers.

He'd come so quickly. The signal couldn't have been on for longer than five seconds. Katherine turned her bewildered gaze on to the signal then back to the monstrous, black tank of a vehicle racing about the lot. "…It's not a bat-signal…it's a summoning device!"

"You think he buys his toys from some secret vigilant store or a black-market dealer? 'Cause I would trade an arm and a leg to get my hands on the rocket launcher he used on those gates."

The trio stiffened at the sound of the new voice and turned their heads to their right. Victor Zsasz stood with one leg propped on the roof ledge, elbow on knee, as his body leaned forward to view the scene on the ground. "Well, not mine. Somebody else's." Noticing he had their attention, Victor waved at them. "Hi-ho," he greeted.

"Zsasz," the Riddler acknowledged.

"Hey, Ed. Sup? Great night for a prison break, right? Now if you'll excuse me." He lowered his leg from the ledge and hefted a bazooka gun onto his shoulder.

"Is that a bazooka!" Katherine exclaimed.

Victor looked over at her, a bit impressed. "Yeah. Got it from the van these guys came in on and thought, 'Hot diggety, it must be my birthday!'" He nudged a small crate at his feet. "Care to help me reload, lady?" He tossed her flirtatious wink.

"Heck yeah!"

Nigma blinked and suddenly his girlfriend was by Victor's side and opening the crate of small rockets. "Erm…"

"Okie-dokie; let's boogie." Victor lined his shot with one of the guard towers, readied his stance, and pulled the trigger. The rocket took off and was soon followed by an explosion of flame. The sound of gunfire went quiet for a moment as Bolton's men tried to figure out what just happened. Victor let out a whoop and shifted to aim at the next tower. "Load 'er up, baby!" Katherine quickly reloaded the bazooka and stepped back, fingers in her ears.

As the next tower exploded, Nigma watched Victor and Katherine with an odd look on his face. With each reload, Victor would stare at Katherine a bit longer and give her a cheeky grin. "…I don't like this."

Gretchen held the paint gun tightly to her chest as she waited for Zsasz signal. Across the parking lot, Mark also waited. They were to provide distractions and cause confusion while Victor fired on the towers. They were to fire two paint balls at the windows facing the rooftop and quickly move on to the next tower.

It caught them off guard when a rocket was suddenly launched at the asylum gates from the outside. Then the Batmobile roared through and all hell broke loose. Mark was too far for her to confer with about this new situation and she wasn't going to risk further upsetting the plan by going to him and possibly missing her cue, so Gretchen stayed put and waited. It wasn't very long after Batman's appearance that the first tower exploded.

Gretchen and Mark jumped up from their hiding places among the cars and fired off their two shots at their targets and then ducked down behind the vehicles to move on. Between the paintball splatters on the windows, the exploding towers, and the Batmobile firing off shots of its own, Gretchen figured they might actually stand a chance of surviving the night.

(Phew! Well, we've reached the end of the chapter. Dang, that was long! Any thoughts as to the interactions between the Joker and Amber?

By the way, a note about Victor Zsasz's character reappearance; if you noticed he acts differently in this chapter than from when I first wrote him in a previous chapter, that's because I'm reshaping him to be based off Anthony Carrigan's amazing performance in the TV show Gotham. If I get a good response, I may have him appear more frequently in upcoming chapters.

I'm also updating my earlier chapters [I'll possibly go up to chapter 15, so far chapters 1-3 have been updated] because my writing style and skills at writing humor has changed and improved over the years since I first started posting this story nearly ten years ago. There are also some details I'd like to add that will tie-in with current plots and make any foreshadowing more present. So worry not; any changes made will not be major.

Until next time, Dear Readers…)