A Debt Owed

Probation hearing...it meant alot of different things.  For Edward Nigma it was pushed back a week and his anger was almost palpable. For Jonathan Crane it meant an appearance similar to the one that occurred when he lost his teaching job the first time. In front of different people of course, most of the staff that had been on the trustee board when he was first terminated for 'unorthodox teaching methods', which ironically he hadn't employed this time around, had been killed at his own hand.  this parole hearing would more than likely result in his termination again, and would also be followed by termination at Arkham Asylum..of course. Because everyone had learned that not only had his teaching certificate not been reinstated, but his liscence to practice Psychology had not either.  Much like after his last termination his doctriate was little more than a slip of paper.  Nigma had to admit he was lucky that it hadn't been suspended indefinately but between having a really good lawyer and of course Aurelie.  But after the events of the previous week Crane had ensured that Aurelie would probably not be helping him....

---

The haze was lifting off her vision, she didn't know how long she had been out, when she looked around all she saw was there sterile white of the tiled walls, the florecent lights that flickered when she looked at them...but only when she looked at them.  Her hands were strapped down, an I.V. Drip in her right arm, obviously the person who had done it had a terrible time finding the vein because her arm was bruised and there were several lines when the person had missed the vein. How had she gotten here? Where was here? "Ahhh" The voice was familiar, but different than the voice it actually sounded like. "Miss Gilbert, you have awakened..." A shadow moved in the corner of her vision, grasped her head under the chin, she could feel the cold plastic of a syringe wedged just under the fingers.  "I had worried you wouldn't wake up again for a few days."  It was raspy, almost irritated.  "Tell me Miss Gilbert what do you remember?" She didn't remember anything...barely registered that she was the Miss Gilbert what was her name? Why was she here? All she seemed to remember was...that when she tried to remember her head hurt.  "Where am I?" She whispered, was all of the previous life just a dream? Was she still trapped in the Asylum? Still a prisoner of Hugo Strange? Was that who was standing just outside her vision with a syringe of god knows what? Her arm hurt.  "Oh so you don't remember anything?" the voice cooed in her ear.  "All the better. I'm trying to recreate something...something special."  His voice rasped.  She felt the sting of a needle, in the side of her head. The implant designed to make it easier for her to be injected with chemicals. Few people knew about it...other than Eddie...and Strange.  
"So tell me Aura..."  She frowned, no one called her that...other than her father when she was growing up.  "Do you know who I am?"
"Hugo Strange." The words escaped her lips before she could control it. Her head still swimming.  The voice laughed, the Syringe pulled out, she could feel the poison, the chemicals flowing through her veins.  "No." He replied simply.
"Hugo Strange had no idea the power he instilled in you...and how creative you were in your use of it.  The warning signs for...'the event'.. as he called it.... of course the signs were obvious if he had bothered to learn Aurelie Gilbert the person...not Aurelie Gilbert the test subject. The 'Unhinged and delusional' girl from cell number 36.  Two cells away from Mister Edward Nigma, One cell away from Mister Jonathan Crane." She frowned at those names. How had she not noticed either of them? Because had spent most of her own time strapped to a chair not in cells with the 'normal' inmates.  

"If he had known Aurelie the person" the voice rasped "He would have known she has a penchant for folklore, fairytales, and ghost stories, she loves Ghost stories that involve sacrifices, bizarre rituals, usually japanese, because the japanese have a penchant for sacrificing maidens.  If he had know Aurelie the girl he would have noticed the events leading up to 'the event'  The rope mark shape bruises on the wrists of a few of the works hands, the large bruises that blossomed into beautiful tattoo designs, the butterfly shapped 'bruise' on the neck of the orderly who held Aurelie down and mentioned that she had a twin to doctor Strange.  All leading out into a full blown manifestation of the 'day without suffering' with Aurelie the person playing the part of Sakuya Haibara, and Strange being it's only real victim.  From that point on when he saw Aurelie Gilbert the person it was the same as when Aurelie saw herself, a blooming face.  It's funny but miss Gilbert has turned herself into a living version of Luna Sedata Syndrome." She felt her heart begin to beat faster. The voice laughed at the confused look on her face.  "Because essentially Luna Sedata is the loss of self from ones memory...and Miss Gilbert doesn't seem to have a sense of self....to anyone else it might appear that she's just far too nice for her own good but I know...."  She shook her head.
"So have you figure out who I am yet?"

She screamed something..it was unintelligable.  She wanted free.  The man stepping out of the shadows did nothing to help her identify him.  He was wearing a mask made from a thick burlap sack, his eyes shielded by blinders that looked alot like Yellow eyes, his mouth covered by the portions that made up what she assumed as a gas mask.  He was dressed under the portion made of the mask in an outfit she assumed was made to match it.  He ran a finger under her chin.  "You know it's strange that I didn't figure out who YOU were sooner.  One cell down, that unintelligble screaming on certain nights. Other than that we had some reasonably intelligent conversations when you weren't in hysterics."  He laughed.  

She whispered "Jonathan...Doctor Crane?" He laughed.
"Yes, now the second question, how man curses have you put on me? How close are we to repeating the day? Obviously your subconcious figured it out before your concious mind did." He lifted her free arm to show the long string of purple bruises. Those bruises forming on her arm in intricate patterns. A snake, holly leaves, blue and purple and glorious, the open skin between his glove and his wrist revealed a Large rope burn mark.  The look on her face was horrified.  
"I'm sorry.." She muttered He laughed.  "Don't be...this is perfectly incredible for research purposes,  it's no wonder Strange was horrified of you."  He laughed.  
"I wonder..."  She felt like screaming. If this went to the final stages, the nightmare Crane wanted to experience, she didn't want him to.  She had to get out. So close to repeating Strange's worst mistake. So close to reminding her what a powerful monster she was.  Crane watched as she struggled in the bonds.  Why did she want to run? When her reaction to his fear toxin was a delicious state of shut down? Wide eyed and horrified, she was still wide eyed and horried but she was struggling, not shutting down.  

He moved towards the table, containing several vials of fear toxin varying in strength and type he tapped the needle.  He heard something snap.  He assumed it was the leather restraint.  He turned around and...

Aurelie was gone.  He clicked his tounge, under the mask, "Aurelie...Aurelie...Aurelie..." There was no answer.  The large mirrored glass displayed an image that wasn't in the room.  It was a grungy wet looking place with ropes hanging around the centers of the roofing.  He chuckled. "Impressive, I'm curious as to what will happen when I open the door into the hallway?" He turned the doorknob.  It wouldn't open, he laughed. "Very clever, so what do you want me to do? treating me to a special nightmare are we dear?" He laughed.  Pecking at the glass, as if to answer as shadow, frizzy brown hair, white skin, walked past the window, running her hand along it leaving a red residue that resembled blood.  The mirror shifted, like it was asking that he touch the mark.  

He did so.

He wound up in the hallway displayed, the slip of a girl was visible turning the corner but when he followed her...there was nothing.  "Aurelie?"  He called once, an annoyed tone.  "Aurelie?" He crooned a sing songy voice.  "You didn't run this way when it was Hugo Strange..."  He growled.  There was a whisper, and echo 'Leave, get out, run'

He laughed.  "Ah, trying to make me run? Screaming in terror so that you can't what? WHAT AURELIE? HURT ME? MAYBE THAT's WHAT I WANT TO HAPPEN?"  He growled as a door slammed behind him.  There was a fire exstinguisher and an axe contained in a 'break in case of emergency' box.  He slammed his hand through the glass,grabbing hold of the axe.  It's weight in his hand let him know it was real...was all of this just a hallucination? A powerful one, the soggy smell of the hallway let him know.  He stepped through the door that had slammed.  What was behind it suprised him.  

---

Aurelie's breathing evened as she hid in one of the large boxes, she believed it was a kimono box, but considering there was nothing in it she couldn't provide an honest answer.  Crane...she didn't want to hurt him...didn't want him to have the same reactions that Strange did, but he kept pushing her...and eventually she knew he would get what he wanted, a recreation of the calamity in Arkham when Strange had presided over it. The room she was in was a maze of Kimono's lined of racks, she assumed her mind had produced the illusion from one of the games she played when she was in high school.  She pressed herself against the bottom of the box as the floors creaked with the weight of another person.  
"Aurelie."
'Go away' an echo of her voice it sounded scared, angry, threatning.
"Aurelie?" His steps were slow, checking every possible corner. Would he find her? Pulling the lid off the box was a simple enough task. But if she opened the box of her own free will could this power mask her?

---

Crane kicked down one of the Kimono stands.  The only exit from the room was a staircase leading down.  He looked to the left, a mirror stand.  A hair brush unpon inspection he discovered it was covered with black hair.  There was a lone Kimono box against the wall, short of her already being downstairs it was the perfect hiding place for the small slip of a girl.  He moved towards it...the lid started to move. Like it was being pushed open from the inside.  Was the girl coming out?  No, it was a woman, her hair dark and black, perhaps the owner of the hairbrush?  A blue kimono, lipstick smeared across her face. Clear blue eyes, not Aurelie's eyes, as her fingers touched the floor so did the mass of flowing black hair, a river.  He laughed "Who praytell are you?" He frowned "Aurelie's illusion? A ghost trying to scare me."
"I've been waiting for you."  A whisper, the womans lips didn't move when the words were said but curled upwards into a smile.  
"Waiting for me?" He chuckled.  Aurelie's attempt to scare him? She didn't know? Truly wasn't aware of his identity as Scarecrow, as the God of Fear Jonathan Crane.  
"Waiting for you."  The whisper again.  The woman lurched forward he didn't flinch, She reached out towards him manicured nails.  "Am I supposed to be afraid?"  He laughed, a flicker, the womans hair swirled behind her, around, like a living entity, she pointed towards the mirror on it's stand.  He glanced, seeing in it's reflection himself, and where the woman was standing the slip of a girl that he wanted to destroy so badly.  

When he turned back to the woman...she was gone.  

A distraction...or Aurelie...He wasn't sure entirely.

The stairs lead down, to a small garden and when he opened that it lead into...another hospital corridor.  "An impressive illusion."  He said.  Knowing that the girl was always close.  "But you don't seem to realize that I'm not a normal person."  He was still holding the axe.  A row of hospital gurneys, a bed with an I.V.  "If you're trying to scare me away...it won't work, because fear is something I no longer feel.  No, years of exposure to my own experiments has caused my body to no longer be able to produce the hormones necessary to feel fear."  He chuckle.  Slaming the axe into one of the hospital gurneys.  
It smeared with something like blood that began to spread into the walls.  

--

Aurelie was under the bed with the I.V. her illusion had saved her once, but she was beginning to see that Crane wouldn't relent. Wouldn't let her go until she showed him something...what?

"What do you want from me?" The whisper of her mind, asking questions as the walls began to shift, began to look like they were moving, covered with something...worms maybe?  She couldn't stand the thought of touching them.  She kept herself in a compact ball under the bed.  
"What do I want?"  He chuckled, slamming the axe against the I.V.  "What do I want?  Aurelie I'm suprised at you? You don't seem to know who I am..."  He laughed "I AM THE GOD OF FEAR. I AM FEAR, What do I want from you? TO SEE WHAT MADE HUGO STRANGE SCARED ENOUGH TO HAVE MULTIPLE PROTOCOLS IN EFFECT TO KILL YOU? I've seen that much," His voice quited.  His feet stopped near the bed.  "I Can see why Strange was afraid of you...this was a powerful hallucination, I'm not quite sure how you do it.  Such Wonderful illusions, why..." He mused.  "We might make a very...intriguing team Miss Gilbert..Or should I say Doctor Gilbert now?"  He slammed the axe into the bed.  The illusion shattered.

The Sterile halls of the underground section of the Asylum.  That special place where he had conducted so many of his experiments.  

"Aurelie?" He looked around, amused, the hospital bed he had slammed the axe into was very real. Very much so.  But Aurelie wasn't under it.  He pulled something out of his pocket, a Syringe, Fear toxin...wondering what kind of wonderful hallucinations she would have with an extra dose, what kind of horrors he could be dragged into.  He laughed, reaching through the air, trying to catch that slip of a girl.  He looked at the mirrored glass, the girl stood before him, her hair a white mass, her eyes red dripping blood pressumably, he reached out, grabbed the hair.  She shrieked and growled as she appeared before him.  His hand full of the white hair that flowed around her like the wisp she seemed to be.  "Aurelie." He said her name "LEAVE ME ALONE."  She shrieked.  "I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!"  
He laughed.  "Why? Isn't it natural human instinct to want to hurt someone who is trying to hurt them?"  She didn't fight as he pulled her hair back, the Syringe in hand.  
"Tell me Aurelie...why is it that you don't want to hurt me?"  

There was a sound of a door being knocked down, a swooping sound.

The Dark Knight had captured him before he got his answer?

---

Those events in Jonathan Crane's mind cemented the fact that no one was there to help him with this, Eddie had sold him out, and Aurelie, who might have helped him before, was probably not going to forgive him.  He sat before the probation board, the teachers whom he might have the urge to kill very soon.  They were blabbering, something about how his doctirate had not been reinstated, that he had no liscence to teach anything in the state of New York and that they could easily have him taken in for Fraud among other things.   

Then the door opened, the click click of the infernal high heels.  That voice he knew all to well "STOP THE HEARING!" She called out, he felt his face pale, blue eyes wide, confused, was he dreaming? Was this some bizarre desire come true?  What bizarre creature could have the compassion necessary to face torture at his hands and...  the words doctirate reinstated, liscence reinstated, a considerable donation made in honor of the Gilbert family that would fund both a new Library, under the condition that Jonathan Crane be kept on staff at the University.  The men and women of the parole board stared in shock at the woman before them.  A week earlier she had been his student, he presented her honors in her graduation, and then he had kidnapped her, tortured her, now she was...what? Spending a large amount of money keeping his job, reinstating his ability to live?  Why? Was she even human?  

This woman infuriated him.  Not because she tried to but becuase...she wanted to help him, even when he wanted to destroy her.