A/n: Hopefully this'll finally be the start of the end. Be wary, dear readers. Enjoy and review!

Tuesday, 8th of May

12:09am

"Cailan,"

The girl froze at the voice in the alley; it didn't help she didn't recognize it. Turning uneasily she took a step backwards, closer to the street. If she screamed, Alfred was at least there to call…someone.

"Hello?"

She shivered at the laughter and backed again towards the street.

"I wouldn't go that way. See, if you make a run for it, we're gonna have to kill that driver of yours." Patches said as she stepped forward from the shadows.

Cailan continued to back up; there were more people than just Alfred out front. He wouldn't die. However, Cailan continued backing up right up until she hit something soft and solid. Cursing mentally she felt hands grip her upper arms and push her angrily forward, into Patches. The girl was no less harsh and gave Cali a rough shove back into the gripping hands.

"Go ahead and kill me and get it over with," she said, pulling out of Baal's grasp and jerking around to face him.

The voices that now surrounded her erupted into laughter.

"Kill you?" Patches roared. "Hah! She really ain't too bright, guess looks ain't everything. We's ain't gonna kill ya,"

"Then what do you want?" she demanded, trying not to tremble and wishing she'd taken Kaldur up on his offer to meet her after rehearsal let out.

"Heh, why, we found your friend?" Baal said, grabbing her wrist hard and literally throwing her into a darkened corner.

Cailan felt her body collide with another and picked herself up, scrambling to look at whoever she'd fallen on, petrified that she'd see the worst. She froze when she did. Far from her darkest fears, she was surprised.

"J-Jake?" she stuttered, unable to stop herself from reaching out towards him.

His eyes flashed open and he snarled, lunging for her. She gasped and pulled away; Baal swung around and punched Jake, toppling him into the wall. Cailan looked closer at her previous boyfriend. His skin was thin and stretched, yellowed as if he hadn't seen the sun properly in ages. His eyes were shadowed with levels of purple, his teeth broken and greyed, his breath foul. He was thin, as if he hadn't eaten. And his eyes…his eyes were wild, like a maddened beast.

"What did you do to him?"

"Hahah! Us? He did it to himself. Product X. It's what he gets for testing what he was supposed to sell." Baal grinned down at her, his own breath not any better than Jake's.

"If you think I'll sell it you're even dumber than you look," she said, unable to look away from Jake.

He was slithering around, muttering and making inarticulate sounds. His eyes darted back and forth, wildly, his lips were chapped and continually moving, spittle dripping down to his dirty clothes. His hands clawed and picked at anything close to him.

"That's not what we want either, actually." Baal crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Then what the hell do you want?" Cailan's voice rose as she glared at him.

He snarled and grabbed her throat, slamming her into the wall.

"Baal!" Patches cried, grapping his arm; he reluctantly tore it from his prey's throat. "Don't talk to him like that you hussy little bitch."

The girl-clown struck Cailan—though not nearly as hard as Baal could have.

"Hussy is a noun, not adjective." Cailan rubbed her cheek, unable to stop herself; she'd never acted superior to anyone, yet here she was, trying to get in any slight she could against her attackers.

Was it because they were in fact rather stupid or because it was some primal thought of survival?

Whatever it was, it caused Baal to laugh, taking Patches' attention off of Cailan for the moment.

"We want you to answer a question for us," Baal said through his chuckling; Cailan's brow furrowed deeply.

What are they playing at?

"We need to know just how far you're willing to go to protect your friends," Baal said.

She starred at him. What 'friends' was he talking about?

"See, if you give us their names right now, we'll let you go. And, t'top it off, we'll give you back this pathetic worm. Who knows, the doctors might be able to do something with him," Patches said, hands on her hips.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Cailan said, fighting the little thought she had gleaned.

"This ain't the time to act stupid," Baal growled, entwining his hand into her hair and pulling hard at the back of her head. "Jack!"

The figure of Cailan's nightmares emerged, his pumpkin-face marred with scars and dents, his flickering eyes set in a constant glare, his mouth a grotesquery of a sneer. In his hand was fire, spitting vengefully. Cailan tried to draw as far away as she could; Baal only laughed in her ear, not letting her move an inch.

"See, what's gonna happen is this. You either tell us your hero-friend's names, of you watch your boyfriend go up in flames,"

Cailan's mind was protesting the word 'boyfriend' before she had a chance to comprehend what Baal had just threatened.

"…what?"

"Heh. Thought that might get your attention. Your friends, those obnoxious little hero-wannabe's, the miniature-crime-fighters, the sidekicks—tell us their names."

"Or," Patches smirked, getting in her face "Watch your old f***-buddy burn to death."

"That's not fair! You can't threaten his life for information I don't have!" she pleaded, getting frantic.

If she wasn't careful, Jake's life would be on her hands; but to save him, she'd have to—

No.

"Don't act stupid," Baal pulled her up to her feet. "Remember when we crashed that prick Wayne's party? We know that those heroes were awfully protective of you,"

"Hah, that's what you're going on?" She shivered, hardly daring to hope. "The world's heroes saved me, so I must know their secret identities? Just like how you guys keep coming after me, so I must really know who you and the Joker are?"

"She's lying!" Patches screeched, egging on Jack to set the crazy boy on fire.

"No! Of course they protected me! I-I'm Bruce Wayne's protégé! H-He spent thousands on my dance schooling so he could invest money into the ballet for a profit…" she tried, spinning some story. The Joker had attacked Wayne enterprises on more than one occasion for a sliver of the vast profit that it had made over the past sixty years since Bruce's father had first started the company.

At that moment Cailan's cell started ringing softly; letting go of her hair he tore her jacket digging through her pockets for the device as he pushed her into Jack's death-grip. Cailan felt sick. She could sense the bloodlust enveloping her in his grasp. Baal finally found the cell and he smashed it on the ground, stomping it again for good measure.

"Ms. Leal?" Alfred called from a short distance away; she prayed he didn't come closer.

There was silence for a long while before Patches finally peered around the corner. "Clear," she said, her eyes shifting back to look at Cailan.

"Baal, what are we gonna do?" she asked. "Uncle Joker ain't gonna be happy if she doesn't know anything,"

"Shut up!" the leader roared. "She knows something."

Cailan tried to hold his gaze, to keep her eyes widened and scared. She did know something, and she was terrified that Baal could see that in her eyes. If he did…Jake was dead. Baal looked at her for what seemed like forever, his red rimmed eyes glowering down at her.

The Joker would not be pleased if he didn't come back with the information he was supposed to be getting. Baal could lose his life for this…among other valuable things. He would be subject to torture before his unavoidable death.

"Cailan," he husked out, his eye narrowing with calculation. "You've got one last chance to give them up before you begin to regret existence."

"I can't tell you what I don't know," she whispered, close to tears; her pulse was speeding because she knew in her gut what was coming.

"…tell anyone what happened," Baal whispered, leaning in close so the other's of his party couldn't hear. "And I'll do things to you that would make any man sick to his stomach to be with you again,"

Baal straightened and looked her over one last time before he told Jack to let her go. Jack pushed her away into the wall next to the door she'd exited not long ago.

"Give her a warning, Jack," Baal said, stepping back into the shadows. "And remember, Cailan. Not a word."

Jack tossed his hand carelessly towards Jake as Cailan screamed. Jake was on fire in seconds, though at first his crazed mind didn't acknowledge it. He was quite engulfed in flames before he started shrieking and squirming, writhing under the heat. He twisted, his voice screaming into the night. Cailan watched, horror struck as he frothed on the ground. Finally getting sense into her brain—perhaps it was the smell of burning flesh—she grabbed her torn jacket and threw it over the boy. She started screaming for help, trying to pat him down and get the flames out. She screamed for someone to call the police, an ambulance.

…

2:36am

"Ms. Leal, this is Commissioner Gordon, he's here to speak with you about…what happened." Alfred said, looking softly to the girl.

Cailan lifted her green eyes, clouded with shock, up to the Commissioner's face. She blinked heavily, as if she was unable to see him at first.

"I know you've already been over this with the other officers, but I need you to talk with me, if you could, about what happened," he said as gently as he could.

He watched the girl draw in a shaking breath. "Uhm, I knew Jake from school…" she started, her hands trembling; she had soot smears and grime darkening her face, but it made her eyes illuminate all the more in the florescent lights of the hospital ."w-we…we went out for a little bit…"

"Yes; I have it here that he…ran away, some months ago? Is that right?" she nodded, unable to choke out an answer. "And…not too long after that, you stopped going to school?"

"I was old enough to drop out. I informed the school I wasn't interested in continuing on." Her lines sounded rehearsed, even to her; Dick had taken care of the paper work so that she wouldn't have to talk to the cops.

"Yes, I'm just trying to get the facts in order Ms. Leal." Gordon said, knowing full well that she was with Wayne and that Wayne…well, whether or not she knew about Wayne was none of his business. "Now, did you see Jake at all between the time you left school and when Mr. Wayne took you in?"

Cailan paused, long enough for Gordon to know that she had. What should she say? She wasn't supposed to mention the clowns—and why not? Was she scared of what Baal would do to her? Yes. She was terrified. She didn't want anything to jeopardize Kaldur wanting her, no matter how selfish and conceited that was. But…weren't her friends, her family in danger?

"Y-yes…yes I did see him." She finally admitted. She swallowed hard. "H-He was…was…" she shivered uncontrollably and let out a shaky breath.

"Jake was running with a bunch of jokers; he was s-selling their new product…Product X? He…got addicted to it…"

Gordon kept taking notes. "Wait, how do you know about product X?" he motioned for Alfred to leave.

"…I told you…Jake was selling it for them." She said to Gordon's furrowed brow.

"Ms. Leal, product X hasn't gone on the market as an illegal drug… we've confiscated contaminated candies with that; it isn't a drug, is a poison."

He looked at her dirty face, her torn dance tights and her disheveled hair. She was tired and scared, and he wasn't helping that.

"Can you tell me what happened tonight?"

She drew her lips tight, like a child refusing to eat something that tasted bad.

"Ms. Leal…the story you gave the other officers is that you walked out and your…friend just set himself on fire. Is that how you want it to get put into the report?"

She retreated into her mind. Her life had been like this since she'd run away. And her life stayed this way because she had continued to run…was still running away. Running, like a frightened little child, afraid of the dark.

"Ms. Leal?"

Hadn't Kaldur…hadn't anything changed?

"No. That's not what happened…"

"You can trust me," Gordon said, leaning in, softening his gaze on the girl.

"…it was…some of Joker's kids…"

…

5:23am

"Please don't say a word…" Cailan begged, holding Dick by the shoulders.

"Are you kidding me?" he tried to pull away with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Dick…please?"

"…look the League already knows about it by now—"

"Yeah…I know but it…doesn't have to reach the others exactly the way it went down…right?" she knew she was sounding ridiculous; there was hardly a chance that the League would leave out any of the details. That is, if the League wanted to employ their 'covert' team.

"Cailan, I can't lie to my team," he said, shaking his head.

"And…I'm not asking you to, not really," she winced, feeling totally lame. "I just…don't…"

"You don't want Kaldur to freak."

"Basically."

"He's a lot more level-headed than that Cailan," There was a little smile on his face, trying to be reassuring.

"…you sure?"

…

Wednesday 9th of May

6:00pm

"This changes everything." Batman growled from the Space Tower.

"Did they tell her what they wanted?" Flash asked, crossing his arms.

"Gordon said it had something to do with the poison Joker's goons have been selling on the streets," the bat mused, looking at the screen that had the police files.

"Why was Gordon the one called for this?" Diana asked, looking from the screen to Bruce.

"Because Cailan Leal is under Bruce Wayne's financial aid, the crime was attempted murder of a minor, assault of a minor, and, best of all, Gotham's worst has his hand in it." Superman said, coming down from the control center.

"I don't see why things need to change," Hawk Woman said, resuming her attention elsewhere.

"You don't think it's a coincidence that Joker's kids just happened to set a student of Gotham Academy on fire, who just happened to know Cailan, who just happens to know about…our kids," Flash said, shrugging.

"Of course you say it that way and it's going to sound conspiratorial." Green Lantern rolled his eyes.

"It's too close," Batman said.

…

"You and I need to talk."

Cailan stopped and looked around; Kaldur had gotten the attention of only a few other dancers. "Uh…c-can this wait, Kal? I—"

Kaldur turned and walked out of the auditorium; Cailan grimaced. Even if Dick had tried, it was inevitable that Kaldur was going to find out at some point. She felt her heart start doing summersaults in her chest. Was he going to yell at her, scold her, break up with her? Was she going to be shipped off somewhere, unable to talk with any of them again? Inching out into the hallway she peered at him from behind.

Kaldur was positively seething.

Tentitivly she tiptoed out, gently placing her fingers lightly on top of his shoulder. Kaldur practically flinched away from her touch. Biting her lip she stepped back.

"What happened?" he asked and, though she didn't really know it, had a hard time keeping his temper doing so.

"They…" she bit her lip again and took a step back from him, buying time.

Well, she'd gone this far with it.

"…said something about the money that Jake had blown through by taking their drugs. It wasn't ever about me…"

He sighed and turned around. He could decide what added to his anger: the fact that he was ninety-nine percent sure she was lying to him or the fact that she looked so upset and worried.

"You will be lucky if they do not move you someplace, Cailan." He looked away from her again. "You did not even tell Richard until he found out from Mr. Wayne."

"Kal—"

"Should I not have been the first you called? If not Mr. Wayne himself, or Richard, not me either?"

She swallowed hard, shifting uneasily. He wasn't buying her story.

"Alfred wasn't fast enough. I—I panicked when they…when Jake…I was scared and started screaming. Someone else called the police before Alfred could. He…couldn't tell Mr. Wayne until later, when things had calmed down."

"Why would they go to you over what Jake had or had not done?" he drove hard at the crux of the issue, not giving his anger time to subside before he started questioning her.

"I…he was my boyfriend before…all this happened…"

She watched Kaldur's eyes close, almost like he was in pain, or just realizing something he'd been hiding from himself. His hands were in fists and his muscles were taught.

"He probably mentioned me at some point…maybe blaming me for the missing drugs or—"

"Product X is poison." He interrupted her calmly.

"…right. The missing poison. Besides…you were there the first time, remember? When you rescued me?"

"Do not—" he cut himself off and turned away, leaning his hands against the wall and avoiding all sight of her. "Do not play it this way Cailan. Do not con me."

There was a long pause; it was long enough that Kaldur knew that part if not all of her story was a lie. It was long enough that Cailan had time to debate in her head what her next course of action was. She wanted to stay; she'd found a family here. She wanted to continue being a part of the Gotham Ballet Troupe, to put on the performance at the end of May. She wanted to experience a time of selfishness where she didn't have to scrounge to take care of a little kid or be grown up and do everything for herself. She didn't want to have to shoulder burdens and responsibilities all on her own for things she had done or had seen or knew. She wanted those moments on the beach, playing in the water, having her father teach her how to dance—the childhood moments that'd been stolen from her in that car crash.

"That's cruel Kaldur." Her voice was hollow. "I'm not conning anyone."