Happy Halloween everybody! I thought this would be a good treat for all you guys. I'm sure you'll enjoy this chapter just as much as I did writing it. Thank you all for the continued support you've shown me, and have a fun night of thrills, chills, and spoils tonight. Mwuhahahahaha!

Becky looked up from her vigil on the couch as Crane ascended the stairs, avoiding her gaze. He didn't know what he would do now. He could still see the bruises he had left on her neck where he had choked her, and he couldn't face the hurt and concerned expression on her face, knowing that it was his actions that caused her so much pain.

He went towards her, his feet shuffling along before slowly, carefully, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. "I'm sorry," he whispered in her ear.

Becky's eyes widened, not expecting Jonathan's sudden burst of affection. She knew he was anything but a touchy-feely person. He barely touched her skin most of the time, mostly giving a small tap or so when she needed to adjust her stance or a light brush of his hand on her shoulder. Slowly, she slid her arms around him, enjoying the euphoric feeling. "I know," she whispered back.

He soon pulled away, seemingly retreating into himself for a moment, before finally daring to speak. "Becky…we need to talk."

She nodded. "Yeah. We kinda do."

She gestured for him to take a seat next to her as he sat down, cross-legged, on the couch.

Crane gulped a little, nervously ringing his hands. "Becky…what I am about to tell you is something I haven't shared with anyone."

"Wait…is it about this Scarebeast thing that Croc was talking about?" she asked, her eyes glowing with curiosity.

He sighed. "Yes."

She snorted. "It's no big deal. I mean, it's probably just some threat to make me scared, not like that's going to stop me. I mean, what's it supposed to be? Just some guy in a bear suit going 'Blaaargh!'?" She asked, laughing.

She stopped when she saw Crane's eyes glaring at her. "Sorry," she murmured, sitting back down.

"Look, Becky, if this were anything else, I would be laughing with you. But this is serious, and not something that you should underestimate. It will kill you if you're not careful."

"Okay, I get that. But what exactly is it? Is it just a guy in a suit or is it some monster or what?"

Jonathan sighed. This was going to be hard. There was a reason he hadn't told anybody about this problem that he had, and that was because he hardly knew about the beast himself. During the time he was the Scarebeast, he didn't remember anything about the incident. The only way he knew that he was such a thing was because of blurry video footage of his transformation, as well as waking up half-naked in a wrecked building.

When he finally spoke, his voice was in a hushed whisper. "The Scarebeast is….a…a thing that haunts my nightmares, and many like myself. It's a hulking abomination, a beast full of anger and rage and hunger for the fears of others."

Becky's eyes widened. The Scarecrow was one of the most feared men in Gotham, and with as much exposure as he's had with fear toxin in his line of work, fears were something that he didn't usually feel, let alone express. But this fear…she could practically feel it radiate from him, like that of a vulnerable deer about to be run over by a car. His pupils were dilated and his whole body was shaking. It was quite freaky.

"But…when did this thing appear? I mean, it must have been fairly recent event, based on the fact that none of the reports said anything about who it might be or what exactly it is," Becky asked, thinking back to her previous reports she had written for college on the Rogues and about why they did the things they do. Nowhere did she see anything mentioning a Scarebeast, or who could have unleashed such a beast.

Jonathan smiled sadly. "That's because most of the footage is either destroyed or in the hands of crime lords like the Penguin. Either way, the public is unaware of just what it is. Some people think that it's just a hoax or some mass hysteria that took Gotham by storm."

She raised an eyebrow. "Then how do you know this thing is real?"

"Because I've seen the destruction with my own eyes, Becky. And although I don't remember much of what happened during those incidents, bits and pieces of details have sometimes came back, but most of it is gone. But from those pieces…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up! Are you saying that you're the Scarebeast?" Becky exclaimed, completely shocked.

Scarecrow looked down, nodding his head solemnly.

She balked. "But… that's impossible. I mean, I know you're really scary and they'd probably run before trying to get a picture, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that they've never, in your ten years as a Rogue, gotten a picture of you. That's just ridiculous."

Crane shook his head. "That's because you'd barely recognize the Scarebeast as myself. That thing was huge, Becky, from what I could tell, and breathes out large amounts of fear gas, lethal enough to kill at least a hundred men, if not more. Not to mention the gas itself is opaque and creates a smokescreen for the creature, making it hard to hit and almost impossible to bring down."

"Well, there's got to be a way to stop it. You were like this before, right? So that means that you reverted back somehow," Becky replied, desperate for just a little light of hope in this scenario.

"I…I don't know," he said, rubbing his head. The stress of such a threat was eating at his mind, and he couldn't stop his imagination concocting horrible scenarios of destruction and death. All he could see was Gotham surrounded in flames, a shadow of its former self as its buildings fell one by one before a massive, clawed hand.

"Well, who designed the project? Maybe we can force them to give us a cure for your condition and stop this madness!"

"You already know her. Hush was the one who told you the name of the witch who cursed me," Jonathan growled, his eyes flashing briefly at the thought of the woman. She would not get away with that travesty again.

Becky's eyes narrowed in rage as she recalled what Hush had said nearly a month ago. "Linda Friitawa," she spat, as if she had tasted a toxic poison. Disgust and rage filled her as she recalled the terrible nightmares that she had seen him have, his arms flailing and his screams echoing across the spacious warehouse as he struggled against an invisible enemy. To know that this rat of a woman did something terrible enough to her Jonathan to keep him having reoccurring nightmares sickened her, and it took all of her willpower to not think about flying out the door and killing her, Scarebeast or not.

Crane nodded.

"Then we'll go up against her and force her to create a cure for you!" Becky exclaimed, desperate for something she could do, some way she could stop this disaster from happening.

"No. We can't do that either, not unless we wanted to get ourselves killed or experimented on. She's allied with Black Mask, and has hundreds of henchmen under her command. If we tried to force our way in, it would be a disaster."

"Then….then we'll just run away from here, far from Gotham, where she can't follow us," Becky replied desperately, feeling like she was running out of options. Crane didn't know how to revert back to normal when he became the Scarebeast, they couldn't confront Friitawa or her forces without being riddled with bullets, and even now, running away felt like a dim hope.

Jonathan shook his head. "Then she'll make a new one, and make sure that Gotham would be destroyed, along with any city or town we try to run to."

Becky's shoulders slumped as she sighed. "So, what? Do we just wait for the inevitable to happen?"

"Unfortunately," he muttered, his shoulders slumped. He didn't know what they could do to stop this from happening. Everything he could try would fail against her plan. He couldn't sneak in, as she could be anywhere in Gotham, and breaking in too many places would be a good way for him to get caught. He had absolutely no idea where he could find the Riddler, and he was absolutely not risking Becky's life if she caught him.

Becky felt close to tears. She felt scared and powerless, as if someone had sprayed her with fear gas, and no matter what she could do, nothing would stop Friitawa from destroying everything she held dear. She looked at Jonathan. She could feel his stress and frustration at the situation, and she wished she could do something to stop it. She hated seeing him in such stress or fear. Ever since that night, she hurt whenever she saw him like this, cornered and afraid. It made her want to reach out and hug him, to try to comfort him as best she could.

It felt odd that in two months, they had gone from being the greatest of enemies to the greatest of friends. She felt that she could trust him with her secrets, and she rarely felt that way with anybody. His touch calmed her and helped her, whereas others left her feeling vulnerable. He protected her from the other Rogues, and was even willing to defy the Joker to make sure she wasn't harmed.

She knew if she had these thoughts even a year ago, she would immediately push them away and deny them. But now…she accepted them.

He had shown that she meant more to him than anybody else, and that touched her. Nobody had ever shown this much kindness to her, this much thoughtfulness, in her entire life. Her father never got her a kitten for a Christmas present, her friends never stood up for her when someone bigger than them was bullying her, and certainly no one would look at her and not even notice her crippled leg unless she pointed it out.

And this kindness….this…love…was coming from one of the most feared Rogues of Gotham City, maybe even the world, and one who was believed to be unlovable, unlikeable, and certainly one of the most unredeemable people in the entire universe.

She didn't know which side she was supposed to be on. On one hand, she felt honor-bound by her promise to protect the people of Gotham by making sure that people like the Joker and Scarecrow were locked away. But on the other hand, she had her friendship with the rogues and with Jonathan to consider. Among many of what the world considered freaks and outcastes, she had been accepted into their society and treated with the respect that wasn't shown to her in college.

And, even though she tried to deny it, she loved the life of a Rogue. She loved the excitement and danger of it, the challenge it took to elude Batman's tricks and traps, and the adrenaline that running across the city with the one you trust most could bring.

And to have that all end… to have the city she had sworn to protect destroyed and the one she, dare she say it, loved the most enslaved to someone that would only use him filled her to the brim with anger. She didn't care what the odds were. Justice needed to be done, and justice would get done, one way or another. She refused to believe that they were trapped. Her spirit wouldn't even think of that.

"No…" she muttered, her eyes blazing with anger and determination as she left her perch on the seat and began to storm towards the door.

"No what?" Jonathan asked, looking up from his thoughts. "Becky, where are you going?"

"I'm going to stop this madness before it goes out of control."

"What? Are you insane?" Jonathan yelled, immediately blocking her path. "You'll get yourself killed!"

"Better me than the millions of other people in this city," Becky argued, her eyes flaring with determination.

"No! Don't ever talk like that!" Crane snapped angrily, incensed at the idea. He would not lose her, not ever again. He feared that if he lost her this time, she would never come back to him.

"Well then, what can we do? Because it looks like that we have no other option," she snapped back, her hands gripping her cane tightly.

"No! There must be another option! There has to be!" Crane yelled, desperate for some way to keep her from getting killed.

"Why do you even care?" Becky snarled.

"BECAUSE I CAN'T LOSE YOU!" Crane roared, his hands grasping onto her shoulders

"What?" she asked softly, shocked by his outburst.

He pulled her into his embrace, holding her tightly to him as he started to cry. "I…I can't lose you….I can't…." he murmured, tears running down his face.

His reaction shocked Becky. She had never once seen or heard him cry, nor seen him in this much emotional distress. It broke her heart to see him this way, and she had no idea what to do. No one had ever said anything like that to her since she could remember. And for it to come from the Scarecrow, the man she had once despised, was mind-blowing. Did he actually…? No, I can't get my hopes up. I mean, this is the man that had almost broken me. He could just be stressed, and needing to vent. No one has ever said those things to me, and actually meant them. My father would only say that to me so he could earn my forgiveness when he hurt me. Those bullies only said that to me so that they could control me. What actually makes me think that he wouldn't do that same?

But as she looked at how small and vulnerable he was, holding onto her like she was a piece of driftwood in an ocean full of agony, she knew that he would never do those things to her. He had proven to her time and again that he wouldn't hurt her. So why was she having such a hard time trusting him now?

"Why can't you lose me?" she asked.

Crane took in a deep breath, before pulling away from her. "Because if I lost you, Becky, there would be nothing to stop me from destroying Gotham and shutting myself away entirely. The Scarebeast runs off feelings of extreme anger and fear. That's why I've been trying to close myself off from others around me. After what Friitawa did, after all that I've been through, I didn't want to feel those emotions anymore. So I locked them away, deep inside of myself, turning to my research in fear to distract myself. Until you came."

"But what does losing me have to do with the Scarebeast?"

"Because my greatest fear…is losing you," he whispered, in a tender voice, gently brushing her curly hair away from her face.

This time, it was Becky who was crying now. That was the sweetest, most adorable thing anybody had ever said to her. She couldn't believe her ears. No one had ever said anything like that to her, and to have it come from Jonathan made her want to cry even more. "Why is that your greatest fear?" she asked.

This is it, he thought, his palms growing sweaty with nervousness. He would have to be brave now, and face her decision, for better or for worse. "Because I love you, Becky. I always have, and I always will. And if I lost you, Becky, I would lose everything."

"Jonathan…"

This was it. He was surely setting himself up for rejection now. He braced himself for the inevitable backlash, the disgust of such a monster loving her. He knew the reaction; he had felt it before from his Granny and most everyone he had ever known. But he knew those would hurt a lot less than what he would feel if she rejected him.

"…that was the sweetest, most precious thing anybody has ever said to me. It's kinda funny, if you think about it. I mean, if I told myself a year ago all this would happen, I probably wouldn't have believed it, especially the part about you. Honestly, you've been kinder and sweeter to me that anybody else has in my entire life, and I really appreciate it." She wiped her eyes. "And I just want you to know…that I love you, too."

His eyes widened. She…loved him too? No one had ever said that they loved him before. He was speechless. He had no idea how to react or how to respond. Becky Albright, his former greatest enemy, the one that he had once tried to kill, said that she loved him. This…this changed everything. Could it be that…fear wasn't the most powerful instinct a person could have?

"But…how?" Jonathan asked, scarcely believing what he was hearing. "Why? Why would you ever think of loving somebody like me?"

"Because during this past year, I've gotten to know you, Jonathan, the real you, not the Scarecrow persona you put on to cover the hurt and pain you feel. And I like the person in there. You're not what everybody has said that you are for so long. You're not worthless! You're not weak! And I don't want you believing any of those lies the others have told you, because both you and I know that those aren't the truth," she said, conviction rising in her voice.

"Then what is?" he asked.

"That you deserve love and compassion just as much as everybody else," she said, her eyes radiating certainty and kindness.

Then, slowly, hesitantly, they both leaned towards one another, and their lips met.

And although the kiss was short and chaste, the passion and love behind it still lingered on their lips as they pulled away.

"Wow," he replied, starting to blush. That was the first time anybody had ever kissed him. Ever. And, to his surprise, he quite liked it.

Becky was blushing scarlet as well, the red of her face bringing out the freckles on her cheeks. "Y-Yeah."

They were silent for a few seconds.

"So…where do we go from here?" she asked, unsure of how to respond. How could she when the man she had come to love had given her a kiss? She had never really been kissed like that before. Oh, sure, her father sometimes gave her a kiss, but that was always on her brow and usually a sign of tenderness when he was sober, which she had come to despise as she grew up.

"I…I don't know," he answered, looking away. He had absolutely no idea what to do. The kiss had been unexpected for him, more instinct than actually planning. Funny how those things seemed to sneak up on him when he was around her.

"Should we probably get back to trying to stop Friitawa?" Becky replied, feeling the awkward tension in the room.

"That would be best. And then we can deal with this issue later." Crane agreed, feeling more comfortable now that the tension was gone. Oh, don't get him wrong, he loved it, but there was a time and place for such things to be discussed, and unfortunately, it wasn't right now, in the middle of a crisis.

"Yeah. Good idea."

"And no, we are not charging in there blindly, like you were going to suggest," he said, instantly voting down her previous suggestion.

She crossed her arms, frowning. "Alright, then what do you suggest? Because if I remember correctly, you were suggesting we wait in this hideout like sitting ducks, just ready for her to take a crack at us."

He glared at her. "Don't remind me."

Suddenly, Becky slapped her forehead. "Oh! Of course! How could we have forgotten? The chemical shipment! We can lure her with the chemicals! Hush said that you were working with her, correct? Then it would be reasonable to believe that you two were both working on something related to the fear toxin. If we can lure her to where the shipment is being kept, we can ambush them and take the chemicals, leaving them to Batman."

He slightly tilted his head back and forth. "Hmm, that might actually work. I can't believe I overlooked that. Good job, Becky."

She beamed. It wasn't often that she could figure something out that he could not. "So, when is the chemical shipment supposed to arrive?"

"It's going to arrive tonight. So get ready, we're going to need quite a bit of fear gas if we're going to make this operation work."