(A/n: For those of you that don't know, a YouTube account named Seahorse Trash has been making a Hannibal musical. This song in particular inspired this chapter.)

Quantico, Virginia; just after midnight:

Ashley Al'Ghul's tired green eyes finally fluttered close as she slumps against her desk.

It's pitch black. She could feel the wooden floorboard pressed against her body as she lies and waits in the shadows. Her hair falls in dirty clumps as it sits in heaps on the floor. Her skin and eyes are discolored and everything about her was gaunt, but it didn't matter. She wasn't alive... she couldn't be alive.

Ashley's head tilted towards the door as it swung open with a squeak someone enters the room. Anticipation bubbled in her gut as she reaches outwards, latching onto the ankles of the girl. As the faceless girl fell, Ashley pulled herself out from under the bed.

As she scrambled to climb onto the girl, Ashley began to speak in a raspy voice. "It's been so long since we talked." As the girl begins to struggle, Ashley slams her wrists down and desperation and something almost manic fills her voice.

"I'm not crazy, I'm just scared." One filthy hand with chipped, grimy fingernails reaches out to stroke the girl's face. "Is this even your face? I miss you and I don't know what to do."

As Ashley started to carve, she continued to speak. Clumps of dirty hair began to mix with the blood that was starting to cover the floor. Someone begins screaming. Maybe it was herself, maybe it was the monster on the floor. "I have to tell you that I don't feel alive."

Her words are slow and deliberate. Two other voices seem to echo with hers: one female, one male. They were low and in sync with Ashley's as she switched to the other side of the monster's mask. "One slice at a time, I pull your skin back. You try to fight, I don't recognize you. I'm sorry, I'm trying to pull back your mask."

Ashley's wide green eyes flickered to a trickle of water that was intermingling with the blood. Confusion crossed her face followed by horror as she realized she was sitting on a girl identical to herself. Forcefully Ashley stood up, and a gasp leaves her lips as a bright light shines through the window. As her head jerks towards it, her eyes widen with surprise as the illusion of the room faded to that of an open road and a fast-moving car.

Ashley freezes like a deer caught in headlights. One second she was in the middle of the road, the next a black figure was tackling her out of the way. Her eyes focus on the bat symbol on his chest first and then shifted past his face to the glowing sign of Wayne Enterprises. For a split second, Ashley tries to recall if Scarecrow had dosed her with his toxin, for Batman's face looked like one big black and flesh mesh.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Batman's baritone voice seemed to center her. Ashley's green eyes narrowed as she pushed herself out of his arms. "Evidently, I wasn't."  Her American accent seemed to have melted away just as easily as her hallucination had only moments before. The vibrations of Ashley's phone going off gave her the perfect excuse to pull further away from her savior.

She held up one well-poised finger. "If you'll excuse me..." Her eye glanced at the time for a second before she answered. 1:17 am. "Professor, is something wrong?"

"O-oh sorry, did I wake you? And it happened again. I didn't know who else to call. I think I saw the killer."

Ashley nodded as she noted the wavering in his voice.  It was a 2-hour drive and she couldn't go by plane, which left shadow traveling. She was exhausted. Everything seemed to be weighed down by a fine lead powder but she would be there. She had to be there. "It's fine, I wasn't really sleeping anyway. Are you still at the crime scene?"

It was silent for a moment. "I'm in the woods. I should be nearby."

Ashley closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sounds promising. I'll meet you there, though it might take me a while."

Will's soft voice was barely heard over the roar of the cars. "That's alright. See you in a little bit?"

"See you in a bit. Bye."

"Bye."

As she hung up, the teen became almost painfully aware of the grimace on Batman's face. "You were sleepwalking in the middle of a busy street. You should go home and rest, not try to push yourself further."

Her green eyes almost seemed as dark as Gotham's night sky. "I already said I was going. Either offer me a ride or find me someone who'll give me one, because I'm going."

He let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a grumble before the top of the batmobile slid open. "Don't touch anything."

A grin crossed her face. It would have made her look almost comically manic if it wasn't for the sickly sheen to her usually healthy olive skin. She gave him an address and they sat in awkward silence for the next five minutes. "So, want to tell me what that was about? You never used to sleepwalk. Nygma and Crane would have mentioned it, or at the very least it would be in your file."

Ashley raised an eyebrow as she finally glanced to look at him. Batman was still wearing his mask. "Y'a know Batsy, I never took you as one to exchange notes with supervillains." She attempted to toss him a teasing smile, but it came across as rather Joker-like. It was too wide, yet it didn't seem to quite reach her eyes.

Batman let out a grunt and she blinked and let the smile drop. "Yeah, okay. I just got my head wrapped too tightly around the case I'm currently working."

He loosened his steely grip on the steering wheel after a moment and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "Tell me about it."

She hesitates for a second. "The killer wasn't trying to kill. In fact, she wasn't aware she did it."

"Wasn't?"

Ashley cleared her throat, which suddenly felt rather scratchy. "Will said she went back to the crime scene. The blood is was still all over the floor. I think it's safe to say she knows now. The victim went to the bed. Georgia was already there." 

She paused and attempted to steady her voice. "She dragged the victim down and tried to carve her face off one slice at a time like she was removing a mask." Ashley's voice was purposely slow. "Of  course, you'd know all about masks, wouldn't you, Batsy?"

Batman simply tightened his grip on the steering wheel but didn't reply.

"The victim fought back but didn't drop a single drop of blood. Something's wrong with her skin."

"Metahuman?"

Ashley shook her head 'no'. "Metahumans give off a different signature. It's hard to explain, but their souls just feel different." She pauses before continuing. "I think her liver's shutting down."

Out of the corner of his eye, Batman glanced at her. "None of that explains why she tried to cut off a woman's face."

"Yes, it does."Ashley glanced away from him and stared at her faceless reflection. "She can't see faces. This girl isn't a killer. She's acting out of fear and desperation. She feels unstable."

The teen grimaced slightly. Georgia's problems happened to be the type of problem you can only truly empathize with through experience. Someone who is 'mentally well' could never truly understand how it feels, and she knew descriptions could only go so far.

"Imagine you've lived your entire life wearing one of those virtual reality headsets. To you, everything you see on the screen is reality. Everything you see, everything you hear, that's real to you. It's just this dense, thick fog that weighs you down all the time. Sometimes it'll clear and you'll get a glimpse of what's real, but that never lasts. It can't because mental illness can be treated, but in most cases it simply doesn't go away."

She sighed at the silence that had settled in the car. " I promise, she's just as horrified as everyone else."