Disclaimer: I do not own the Joker, etc.

PrOLOGUe

She was almost in a dead run by the time she reached the station doors. The police had finally done it...they had captured him. The most notorious criminal Gotham had ever known was behind bars, and its most revered advocate for peace and justice had gone missing. Harvey Dent – Gotham City's own 'White Knight' – had vanished shortly after he was apprehended and taken into custody. Nothing had been verified, but everybody knew exactly who was behind Dent's mysterious disappearance.

In a way, the esteemed D.A. had brought it on himself. After calling a press conference to reveal the true identity of the Batman, Dent had claimed that he himself was the masked vigilante in an admirable, albeit poorly conceived, plan to bring down a dangerous villain who had already taken the lives of countless victims. The scheme had paid off in the end, but it seemed as though the gambit may have cost Dent his own life in the process. Hopefully, Natalie prayed, she would receive some more encouraging news once she met with Gordon inside. Not only did she consider Harvey Dent to be an honorable man, but she also knew that the city couldn't afford to lose him. He was changing things for the better, and that was just what they needed. They needed a leader with his morals and unrelenting dedication.

Racing up the police department steps, Natalie Harrison cursed to herself under her breath when one of her heels slipped on the pavement and she nearly toppled over. She hastily continued on her way and burst through the front doors. Not surprisingly, there wasn't an officer in sight when she entered the station. The majority of Gotham's police force was out cleaning up the streets after the assault on Dent's armored truck and the convoy that had been escorting him through the city. The remaining officers were undoubtedly keeping an ever–watchful eye on their infamous captive. Wisely, Natalie thought, as he had been successfully eluding them for far too long.

She knew precisely where to go, and wasted no time in getting there. As one of the most reputable analysts of human behavior in Gotham City, she had been asked by Gordon himself to attend the interrogation – much to her surprise. However, she suspected she knew the logic behind his invitation.

Though she had never sought fame or prestige in her work, this was undeniably the highest profile case that Gotham had ever seen. It was even bigger than Maroni and his thugs, and their shady dealings had made national headlines on more than one occasion. But this was different...this was the Joker.

Once she found the right door, Natalie rushed into the observation room, where she found Gordon watching their prisoner alongside several other officers. She recognized one of them as being Detective Ramirez, but the other faces were unfamiliar. It was strange to see Gordon standing there, alive and well, after he had so recently been thought dead after attempting to save the Mayor from assassination.

Understandably, their eyes never left the interrogation room as Natalie quietly joined them. Her breath caught in her throat when she gazed through the one–way mirror...they were both there. Like some legendary figures who had stepped out of mythology and into reality, they sat across from each other with only a small, metallic table separating them.

The Batman.

The Joker.

Seeing the Batman was like beholding a fictional super–hero that had been dreamt up and brought to life – strong and fearless. The Joker, on the other hand, was something completely different. The sight of him nearly made her take an involuntary step back. Seeing him in the flesh wasn't like reading about him in the papers. To actually see the paint up close, the scars carved into his face...the calm, yet wild glint in his unreadable eyes. The image of the maddened clown was truly terrifying.

She was so captivated and shaken by the sight of the two icons, one symbolizing the epitome of good while the other represented inexorable evil, that it took her a moment to realize that they were engaged in deep discussion. The caped crusader known to most of Gotham as their savior sat still and silent while the madman sitting across from him spoke in a firm, maybe even somewhat sympathetic, voice:

"To them you're just a freak...like me," he stated, almost pitying the masked guardian sitting in front of him. "They need you right now. But as soon as they don't, they'll cast you out – like a leper. Their morals, their code...it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble."

Natalie intently watched on as the Joker continued with his reasoning – leaning in closer to stare an increasingly impatient Batman in the eye.

"They're only as good as the world allows them to be. You'll see, I'll show you...when the chips are down, these civilized people...they'll eat each other."

Arching an intrigued brow, Natalie studied the smug sociopath as he lazily sank back in his chair and flashed his interrogator a grin.

"See, I'm not a monster...I'm just ahead of the curve."

Natalie gasped when Batman unexpectedly leapt up from his chair and pulled the Joker onto the table by the collar of his shirt. Like Detective Ramirez, she turned to Gordon for a reaction, but he merely raised his hand to keep the surrounding officers in place.

"He's in control," he assured them.

Not quite believing his show of confidence, Natalie returned her attention to the interrogation room. The Joker was now pinned to the wall – seemingly unconcerned by the situation.

"The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules," he taunted. "And tonight you're going to break your one rule..."

"I'm considering it," the Batman growled, leaning in closer to the Joker's sadistic face.

"There are just minutes left, so you'll have to play my little game if you want to save...one of them."

The Joker was clearly relishing the shock and confusion that his prodding provoked in the man looming over him.

"Them?"

"For a while I thought you really were Dent, the way you threw yourself after her..."

This time there were no reassuring words. Natalie quickly moved out of the way as Gordon and the officers accompanying him dashed away. Inside the interrogation room, Batman yanked a chair up from the floor and strode toward the door, jamming it under the handle to prevent Gordon's entry. Delighted, the Joker called out to him as he returned to 'persuade' him:

"Look at you go!"

Natalie could only watch on as the enraged vigilante proceeded to pummel the Joker with powerful, unmerciful strikes with his gloved fists. She couldn't make out the words being exchanged between the two over the commotion – only the sound of the Joker's gleeful laughter as each blow was landed, repeatedly knocking him to the floor.

"Where are they?!"

Watching the scene unfold before her eyes, Natalie now felt almost as frightened by the Batman as she had by the Joker only moments before. Once calm and composed, the masked hero now seemed like a man possessed and consumed by anger. She didn't know what had set him off, but the Joker had evidently hit a nerve. By his display of pure, unbridled rage, she made a mental note to never cross him if she could help it. She did not intend to ever find herself in those shoes. That would be a grave mistake, obviously.

"Get that door open!" she heard Gordon shout out in the hallway.

Finally, the Joker's savage beating came to an abrupt end when he spat an address – his teeth covered in fresh blood.

"He's at 250 52nd Boulevard," he said before quirking a brow as he tried to remember the second address. If he truly couldn't remember, or he was simply feigning forgetfulness to agitate his assailant to the point of insanity, Natalie couldn't be sure. Why anybody would willingly and intentionally subject themselves to such pain was also beyond her comprehension. "And she...she's on Avenue X at Cicero."

Natalie glanced around at the group of officers and detectives that had been left behind. Gordon had taken Detective Ramirez and numerous others along to find and save Harvey Dent, and Gotham's Assistant D.A., Rachel Dawes. According to the Joker, both had been taken hostage and the police had a very limited time–frame to rescue them before...

Not wanting to even imagine what ill fate awaited them if they were not found in time, Natalie pushed the disturbing thought from her mind and turned back to the man who had introduced himself as Detective Murphy. Along with several other high–ranking officers, he was left in charge to oversee their prisoners and watch over their biggest threat: the Joker. He could not be allowed to escape under any circumstance, no matter how dire.

"I was recently hired at Arkham," Natalie explained to the anxious detective. Like many of his colleagues, he hadn't stopped pacing since Gordon had departed. "I've been assigned to take the Joker."

Fully aware that the notion of discussing something as trivial as her job during such a serious dilemma was preposterous, Natalie could only hope that the conversation would provide the apprehensive detective with a momentary distraction. She hadn't, however, thought it through. Her line of work, the very reason why she suspected she had been summoned by Gordon in the first place, was a sensitive issue in this case.

Detective Murphy furrowed a brow. "Take him?"

"As, uum..." Natalie uncomfortably cleared her throat, knowing that most of the cops in Gotham City would have liked nothing more than to see their newly acquired captive strapped to the electric chair and fried for the countless officers murdered during his devastation. "As my patient..."

Detective Murphy frowned, but refrained from replying – much to Natalie's relief.

That relief vanished an instant later when two figures suddenly burst into the room. Frozen with fear, Natalie could only stand and watch as the officer that had been left alone with the Joker was led into the room with a blade pressed against his throat. Behind him, seemingly undaunted by the magnitude of his predicament or the guns pointed in his direction, the Joker hastily surveyed the room. How he managed to get his hands on a knife, Natalie could only guess.

He mockingly cocked his head to the side as if straining to listen – giving the false impression that he couldn't hear as the frantic officers shouted and barked orders. Natalie could tell that he was teasing them, and clearly enjoying every second of it.

"It's my own damn fault!" his hostage exclaimed. "Just shoot him!"

"What do you want?" Detective Murphy asked, ignoring the demand and keeping his pistol trained straight ahead.

The Joker's response came as a surprise not only to Natalie, but to everybody else in the room as well. "I just want my phone call..."

Natalie felt as if the tension in the air was so thick that it would suffocate her if it didn't pass soon. The excruciating moment of silence lingered on until Murphy eventually retrieved his cell phone and reluctantly tossed it across the room. Catching the phone without releasing his hold on his hostage, the Joker flipped it open and quickly dialed a number on the keypad.

The next thing Natalie knew she was sprawled out on the ground – a flash of light and debris throwing her painfully to the floor. Her eyes stinging from a thick cloud of smoke, she attempted to lift her head, but stopped when a sharp, blinding pain shot down her neck. Tears rolling down her cheeks, she trembled as her entire body began to throb and ache. She could barely make out the desk beside her as the haze of smoke and several loose sheets of paper drifted down from the ceiling, and engulfed her slender frame. Grimacing and gagging, she could picture the blood running out of her ears as they rang – deafening her to all else around her clammy, quivering body.

Once she began to come to her senses, she strained to lift her head a second time, but immediately froze when she spotted a dark silhouette through the haze. Petrified with fear, she watched on as it sauntered through the room at a leisurely pace. As her hearing started to return to her, she could make out a voice casually humming a song. She realized that the silhouette was the Joker just as he emerged from the smoke – glancing around, and somehow reminding her of a kid in a candy store. Fortunately, he didn't seem to notice her presence as he ambled out of the room and made his way toward the stations' holding cells.

Natalie held on for a moment longer before her vision blurred completely and she slipped into unconsciousness...