Darling Paranoia {DISCONTINUED PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION FOR DETAILS}

Chapter Six

"Master Wayne," Alfred called as he hurried down the corridor towards Bruce's office. Since Alfred had awoken him early the man had decided to get some of his actual work done. Pushing the door open, Alfred saw Bruce watching something on his computer.

"I saw," Bruce mumbled, "He's hurt, but Crane is alive... And in custody. What am I going to do about that? If I break him out, I'll lose Commissioner Gordon's trust-"

"Perhaps if he knew it was for his daughter's sake..."

"He thinks his daughter is dead, Alfred," Bruce grumbled, running a hand back through his hair.

"Then prove to him that she isn't," Alfred said simply, "I thought you said you had someone working on finding her- have they not been able to yet?"

"He has a lead," Bruce murmured, picking up his phone as if to check if he'd gotten a call, "Dick would have gotten this finished by now.."

"Master Dick is finishing his schooling at your request," Alfred reminded Bruce, "That way he will be able to take over the company at some point."

"I know where he is," the other sighed, closing his eyes a moment, "I still think if he was here, he'd have the job I gave him done. He would have gotten Shannon back to the manor within a week... It's been nearly two months now and all Jason has is a lead."

"You don't know if Master Dick would have done any better... And in any case, having the 'Red Hood' go after Shannon might be safer for everyone involved. After all, he isn't exactly affiliated with yourself.."

"Considering where he believes Shannon is, that probably is for the best."

"Where would that be? She hasn't gotten herself into any trouble, has she?" Alfred sounded concerned and he was. He knew the girl was in Gotham, and that was enough to be worrisome as the city was in no way a safe place for a mentally unstable girl.

"If Jason has found the right girl, she could have gotten herself in a bit of a sticky situation," Bruce frowned, "But I trust that he will bring her back, especially if it is as bad as he believes.."

"Where is she, though?" Alfred asked again, obviously wanting the answer that Bruce was avoiding. With a deep breath, the man looked to his butler.

"She's been working for the Ventriloquist and that dummy of his, Scarface," he answered lowly to which Alfred winced. Everyone in Gotham knew the reputation that came with Scarface and his handler, "Jason has a meeting tonight. The word is the puppet has been sending out a girl called Paranoia who wears a mask and has a machine on her leg to meet clients."

"So Jason is hoping to kidnap her during this meeting?"

"As far as I've been told, yes. That's his plan. Once she's in my supervision, I'll contact the Commissioner and see if he's willing to release Jonathan Crane to my custody and if that's a problem... Well, I have Jason, don't I?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The man leaned back in his chair, letting out a low whistle as the woman in the mask approached him. Her dress clung to her body, a slit up the leg showing off the machine that allowed her to walk. Jason smirked at her, motioning to the chair across from him when she paused.

"Take a seat, Miss. I already ordered us drinks- I hope you don't mind," he told the woman as she slid into the chair.

"Of course not." Her voice was soft, controlled. Jason took a moment to take her in silently, eyes flicking over her exposed features, comparing them to the picture that Bruce had shown him. It was a match, even without seeing her face. The dark eyes and hair were enough to convince him that he had his target.

"Now, I hear that your boss sells the best there is. But I'm not a very trusting man. Last time I bought, it was from some madman named Crane-" Her eyes flashed with something. Hope, perhaps... Concern.. "And it drove half my buyers insane when they used... Gave me a bad name and that took weeks to clean up."

"Mr. Scarface doesn't sell anything he hasn't seen tested," Paranoia said but her voice was slightly shaky.

"Is that so? Who does he test it on? You?" Jason asked, glancing around quickly to find the men who had come in with the woman. He wanted to get her out safely.. So far there were two targets, one which had been watching him since he mentioned Crane and the other whose eyes had been flitting to Jason every now and then. He had two guns strapped to his hips, it would be easy to take them out but his concern was that was someone unaccounted for or that the girl had a gun on her as well...

"No. I'm one of Mr. Scarface's girls- he doesn't test on me," Paranoia told him simply, tensing as Jason leaned in just slightly.

"Look, I don't want to scare you but there's someone watching us," Jason lied under his breath, "You got a weapon on you? This might get messy.."

"Y-Yes... I have a gun," she told him without much thought. With a smile, the man nodded at her and leaned back, grabbing the gun on his hip.

"That's all I needed to know Mrs. Crane," he replied before shooting under the table, hitting her knee and breaking the machine. With a scream, she dropped and Jason stood in time to send out two shots. One went into a man's skull and the other through the second's chest. There was shouting and more shots fired as Jason put his red helmet on. He had men in the restaurant as well, their job being to insure the Red Hood got out with the girl. One man came over to disarm Shannon from the gun she had detached from her thigh.

Pulling on his jacket, Jason fired another bullet at a man aiming towards him and rounded the table to find the girl glaring at him. He smirked beneath his helmet and leaned down.

"Who the hell are you?" she hissed, body shaking slightly as she grasped her bleeding knee.

"Not important, Mrs. Crane," he responded easily, "Now how about you go to sleep so we can do this easily?"