We're almost at the end.

I can't wait to see your reactions.

Also, I have been following the timeline of the Nolanverse movies, but I won't be writing the scenes between Batman and Ra's Al Ghul and everything else that transpired without Crane (since they are not the main focus of the story).

You guys can watch the final scenes of the movie Batman Begins on Youtube if you want to get a clearer grasp of the context. I am attaching a video to this chapter. It is part of a YouTube mix that shows the rest of the events that occur in the movie.

However, this AU differs from the main Nolanverse timeline, which you will find out as you get to the end.

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The GCPD and SWAT teams swarmed inside Arkham soon after Batman's departure. They easily rounded up the men working in the labs and also arrested Jonathan Crane. His hands were bound tightly, and he was thrown into the backseat of a police vehicle.

The effects of the fear gas had not yet worn off, and he was shivering, muttering the word Scarecrow over and over again. But the deadly alter did not take charge nor was Jonathan himself in the state to take control of the situation.

Thus, the third alter was looking around with fearful blue eyes, unable to comprehend what was going on.

They brought him to the Headquarters and threw him in a cell after putting him in a straitjacket. A glass of water was thrown at him to rouse him out of his trance-like state. As the water trickled down his face, something flickered inside him-a brief sense of awareness that he was in custody and there was no way out-before a haze enveloped him once again.

He did not remember how long passed with him thrown inside that cell, cowering on a chair with his limbs bound tightly in that straitjacket. But slowly, he was starting to wake up as the effects of the fear gas lessened.

The room no longer seemed as terrifying as it did earlier and after a long time, Jonathan regained control of himself.

He was in lockup, he reminded himself. If Ra's Al Ghul had come to Gotham, then the city was already in chaos, tearing itself apart.

There was no way for him to ascertain that for himself as the room he was in had no windows, just a door and that too was locked from outside. He tried to listen for any strange sounds coming from outside but there was a deadly silence, reminding him of the eerie atmosphere of a graveyard.

Even the voices in his head were silent for the time being though it was a very rare occurrence.

Slowly, his thoughts started to drift toward Charlize. She must still be in the hospital, he wondered. According to the plan, the Narrows would get destroyed first as that place was the closest to Arkham and most likely to be the first target of the vaporized water supply.

It would take a few hours for that destruction to reach Central District where Gotham General Hospital was located. He had no sense of the time either because it could have been a few hours till he was brought in or it could have been days. As for escaping-so that he could reach her in time and somehow take her to safety or administer the antidote if the fear gas had already reached her-was impossible since he was bound tightly.

All he could do was wait.

At last, the door opened and Jim Gordon stepped in, his face set in a grim expression. He was holding the Scarecrow mask in his hands and seeing it, Jonathan took in a sharp breath.

Sergeant Jim Gordon was one of the very few moral police officers left in Gotham. However, with the rise of Batman, he had started rallying up the force and was in charge of the operation against Crane and the illegal activities going on in Arkham.

He took the seat in front of him and held the mask in his hands. Jonathan recoiled as if the mask in itself presented something monstrous, something that he had no control over.

"What was the plan, Crane? How were you going to get your toxin in the air?" Gordon tried to investigate but he was in no state to respond.

He kept staring ahead of him absently, refusing to look down at the mask.

"Who are you working for?" The Sergeant demanded, his voice rising in agitation.

Jonathan snapped out of it, staring at him as if he had just realized he was there in the room with him. "Oh... It's too late now. Too late."

"For what? What were you going to do?"

"Not me. Him..." He mumbled, his eyes disoriented and his body trembling slightly, "You can't stop it now..."

By then, Jim felt it was futile to get any answers out of him. So he stood up with an annoyed huff and left the cell, throwing the mask to the guard who stood on watch.

The door slammed shut and the guard had also stepped out, leaving him alone.

Silence shrouded him again but a weak voice broke through, "You can still escape... You still have a chance..."

"Fuck off..." He hissed, looking down at the jacket that restricted his movement.

"If you stay here, do you know what will happen? If that Batman ended up saving Gotham like he's so hell bent on doing so, then we will be put on trial... Taken to court... Sentenced. To, ha, Arkham, considering that half of Gotham thinks you're insane now... Isn't that ironic?"

"I'm not leaving. I can't."

"Yes, you can... Just wait a little."

Jonathan had no idea what Scarecrow was implying. He was no magician to charm that jacket off himself and walk through the walls of the holding cell.

It was ridiculous.

But then the door opened and that guard who was standing on his watch came in.

"What'd you say, Doctor?" He threw the mask in his lap and looked at him with a grin, "Wanna play?"

Jonathan looked up at him incredulously, an insult right on the tip of his tongue. But before he could speak up, he heard Scarecrow.

"Plan B," Scarecrow cackled, his voice getting stronger, "You're not the only one with plans. This time, I had to make one in case we got caught."

He looked at the mask then back at the guard, realizing exactly what Scarecrow meant.

Plan B.

A contingency.

Sometime earlier, he might have put in some of his men inside the GCPD HQ to help him escape. Jonathan didn't remember probably because he might not have been in charge back then.

The guard quickly untied him and freed him of the jacket. Once freed, Jonathan picked up the mask, a slight tremor in his hands.

He didn't have much time and the silence in the HQ would soon be replaced with chaos if the police force returned and found the cell unlocked.

"Get me out of here," he told the guard, putting the mask on his face and once again, giving the control to Scarecrow.

The trembling in his hands stopped as Scarecrow took control. His foremost priority was to escape and then see whether Gotham had been destructed yet or not.

***

Charlize knew something terrible had been unleashed in the city and everyone was caught up in its grasp.

The doctors and nurses weren't much help in telling her what was going on but she sensed the tension in the air and the fear dripping from everyone's faces.

Most of the times, there was panic and discord in the hospital and often she would stare at the door, waiting for someone to walk in. Left alone and completely detached from the chaos outside, she felt constantly on edge.

The clock's hands ticked but it seemed time was still for her. In her waking moments, she would always be restless so mostly, the doctors would keep her sedated. And in the brief moments between sleep and wakefulness, she sometimes felt someone was there in her room, watching over her and making sure she was alright. But whenever she tried to reach out to that shadowy entity, it would vanish, almost as if it was nothing but a superstition.

She had no idea how long had passed in that monotonous blur. If felt as if the days were moving on a loop and she was stuck inside, unable to break free.

Once she was moved into a private suite, she was finally able to see the news. The nurse adjusted her bed and handed her the remote on her request.

After she stepped out, Charlize pressed the button, flicking through the channels one by one, pausing once she got to the news.

Her worst doubts were confirmed right then.

Every channel showed the headlines of Jonathan Crane's escape from police custody, the Narrows' destruction due to a lethal toxin released in the water supply, and Bruce Wayne's deliberate torching of Wayne Manor at his birthday party.

In just a few days, Gotham had seen the worst it ever had in years.

Her heart sank, taking in all the fear and destruction on display. Amid all those headlines was one word that stood out to her: Scarecrow.

Scarecrow at large, Gotham terrorized by fear and destruction.

The video footage showed a darting figure, face covered with a burlap mask. As she saw closely, she knew it was Jonathan but by then she also knew he was probably not in charge. He rushed inside an ambulance and as the person who was making the video followed, a spurt of white gas struck the man, released from Scarecrow's hand and fogging the view.

The video cut off to the reporter recounting the incident but Charlize couldn't hear the words. She felt a stabbing in her head, her hands reaching up to hold her throbbing temples tightly.

Shortly after, the nurse came in and seeing her as such, she had to quickly inject her with medication. The remote had fallen from Charlize's hands, so she stooped down and picked it up, switching off the television.

"It will be alright, Ma'am. Everything will be alright," she tried to calm her down.

Charlize barely heard her say something about Batman keeping the city safe but the medication was taking effect, numbing her to the noise and the pain in her head.

"Just rest now," the nurse laid her down on the bed, checking the bandage on her head as her eyes were fluttering shut.

She let the darkness engulf her, hoping that by the time she woke up, all that chaos would have ended. It hurt her beyond belief that the man behind the terrors gripping the city was one she knew and loved, one she could go to hell and back for, and yet he kept her in the dark to the biggest truth about himself.

Her thoughts were fragmenting into nothingness and she simply let go, dissolving into the sleep that came guaranteed due to the sedative. Her consciousness slipped away, replaced by a void that muted the pain in her head and her heart.

Sometime in the middle of the night, she stirred as the effects of the sedative began to wear off. She had almost felt a hand gripping hers, a rough thumb brushing over her knuckles.

Her eyes weren't open yet but her senses were slowly awakening, getting more alert of her surroundings. She knew she was in the hospital room but she wasn't alone.

Then she felt it again, two fingers pressing over her wrist as if checking for her pulse. She was very still, trying to convince herself that it wasn't a superstition and someone was actually there.

Gathering her strength but being cautious so as not to alert the person standing next to her bed, she gripped his sleeve, stopping him from fading into nothingness again.

Her hand came in contact with the soft fabric of a suit cuff and she quickly tightened her grip on his wrist. He stiffened, considering whether to inject her with a sedative and leave or stay.

"Jonathan... Stop." She breathed, knowing it couldn't be anyone else other than him. "Don't go."

His head hung low, contemplating the consequences if he got caught then and there. Scarecrow's voice was urging him to leave yet again but he let his heart win the tug-of-war.

He always did when it came to her. Always, when he was in control and not the Scarecrow.

He sank down to his knees, not retrieving his hand from her. She had sat up by then, looking at him closely to ensure that he was real and not a figment of her imagination.

He was crouched down on the floor, his head resting back against the wall and his wrist in her grip. Tilting his head, he looked at her, those blue eyes dim with guilt and fatigue.

"I'm sorry, Charlize," he spoke up, his voice muted.

"Why did you come here?" She asked, letting go of his hand and steeling her voice as glimpses of what he had done to the city flashed in her mind, making her head hurt again.

She was not in that half-conscious, dreamy state in which she had wanted him to stay. She was fully awake by then, and unlike him, she did not have a fractured conscience that would urge her to make questionable choices.

"To see you," he mumbled, "I didn't want to wake you up though."

"Have you come here before too?" She asked, recalling the earlier times when she had a suspicion that someone was there in her room in the dark.

"Yes. Maybe once... Twice."

"You shouldn't have," she released the breath she was holding, resting her head back on her pillow. "And what are you sorry for now? Don't tell me, because you're not. Or else, you wouldn't have done this in the first place."

"Charlize, I... I know you're angry at me and you should be. I ruined everything," he spoke up, but he found his words failing him.

How could he explain it to her without it seeming that he was feebly justifying himself?

"And this Scarecrow... Why did you not tell me before that you... That you weren't just the Jonathan I knew? That there were more sides to you..."

"Alters," he bit the word out, confirming her initial assumption, "Scarecrow is an alter."

Silence engulfed them after that confession and Charlize let the words sink in. She had so many questions but she didn't know how to voice them out as every answer could lead her to finding things about him that would horrify her.

Her other hand reached out for her phone but he didn't notice that.

"I didn't want him to hurt you," he mumbled, coming closer to her, "When I left your house that night and told you not to see me again... I wanted you to stay away from me for this very reason. Scarecrow... He hates you."

Very slowly, her fingers typed out a number and she hid the phone under the sheet, hoping the one she was calling would not blow her cover.

"But this is not just about me. If it was about me, I could have forgiven you but... You wrecked the city apart. I saw the news today and it is full of Scarecrow being a menace," she remarked, "All this madness, this fear... Was this really what you wanted?"

He looked guilty but there was something in his eyes that betrayed the conflict within. "I wanted power. And only fear can grant power in a city like Gotham."

"That's... That's twisted."

"You were not... You were not part of the plan. I was never supposed to meet you, know you, get close to you... Love you," his voice dropped to a low whisper at the last two words. "But... But it happened and you suffered because of it. I never wanted it to end up like this, trust me..."

"Love me?" She shook her head, eyes flickering in sorrow, "I don't think you ever loved me, Jonathan. You only loved the idea of me."

The words cut through him and he was taken aback. He only loved the idea of her... What kind of an accusation was that?

But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed true.

Perhaps he only loved the feeling of someone loving him and accepting him despite his flaws. Someone providing him comfort and a safe space to unburden all his worries.

The moments he loved her most was when he saw her as someone who could make him forget about the Scarecrow, a solitary light in the darkness that consumed him. She was a respite from the madness, a chance at a normal life he could never have.

She was right. He loved the idea of her and he let himself get pulled into her orbit, while knowing that he would become her undoing.

Even if he wanted to blame Scarecrow for Charlize's current state, he couldn't. Because he was responsible for it himself.

He was so shocked at the revelation that he didn't realize she had long since dialed the GCPD and put the phone on speaker. All of a sudden, the door to her suite burst open and armed police officers stormed in, Jim Gordon at their head.

Jonathan stood up alarmed, turning to look at Charlize who had tears in her eyes. He saw the phone in her hand, figuring out at once that she had alerted the authorities of his current location.

She saw the disbelief in his eyes as if even after everything, a part of him had expected her to be on his side. "I'm sorry, Jonathan, but I had to. You're a threat to the city."

The words hit him hard. But then, he accepted it, knowing that she was right. Anyone in her position would do the same.

He did not even feel betrayed by then. At that moment, he felt he deserved it.

"Arrest him," Gordon ordered and though him and his men expected Jonathan to resist, he stepped forward, offering his hands up to the Sergeant himself.

He slammed the cuffs, shackling his wrists, and ordered the police to take him away. Jonathan turned to look at Charlize for one last time, seeing a doctor standing by her side, checking her vitals.

A shove on his back told him to move ahead and he took in a sharp breath, following the officers outside where a police van waited for him, that once with twice the security than the last time he had been arrested.

"What the fuck, Jonathan? I knew letting you go to her was a mistake, I warned you! Now look, we are back in the chicken coop, all thanks to your darling Charlize!"

But he closed his eyes, ignoring Scarecrow's voice as he stepped into the vehicle. His fate from then on was rather clear.

A few days in Blackgate, then a court trial, and then punishment. Possibly a life sentence in Arkham, considering his mental state.

But he put up no resistance.

He deserved it.

***

This is probably the second last part of this AU. The next chapter will be up soon, depending on how much time I get to write this weekend.

I had so much fun writing these chapters that I am kinda sad that this AU coming to an end.

Anyway, see you soon with the next update.

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