A Night in Hell | J. Crane [i] ✔️

Chapter III

When you're in an elevator with one of Gotham's greatest villains, it tends to get awkward. So many questions ran through Lilith's head, but remained silent, not wanting to stretch the Scarecrow's patience further.

The elevator came to a stop, but the elevator doors didn't open. Instead the screen behind the two doctors turned on to reveal Joker sitting on a throne of sorts, having no care in the world. "So, Jonny my boy! I heard from one of my men, you stole one of my doctors." Joker said leaning forward.

"She isn't one of your doctor's Joker." Jonathan replied with a tinge of annoyance in his disguised voice.

"Well, seeing how I'm in charge now, they're all my doctors. I need all of them to make my party a success for Batman!" The Joker retorted.

"Doctor Matthews is new, not to mention temporary doctor here, she doesn't know anything about Project TITAN. She won't be of any use to you." Jonathan snapped at the clown, Lilith could have sworn she heard a hint of defensiveness in his voice.

Joker leaned further to observe Lilith, and frowned. "Aw drats, and she's extremely cute too." His comment made Lilith very uncomfortable and she moved to the side so Jonathan was blocking her from the screen.

"If you do not mind, Joker, I have important things to do." Jonathan said.

"Well off course. Carry on." Joker waved as the screen blinked off. The elevator resumed its decent.

"Annoying clown." Jonathan grumbled. The elevator finally reached the basement floor, dinging as the doors opened. Jonathan allowed Lilith to exit first, following close behind her.

They were now in the Secure Access area of the Medical Center. Jonathan quickly walked through the gate, with Lilith trailing after him. In the enclosed space at the center of the room were four men; an Arkham security guard, two doctors, and a patient. They stared at them as they passed. The two doctors looked hopeless. Lilith followed Jonathan, who went around the corner.

"You're going to use your toxin on them aren't you?" She asked.

Jonathan looked at her over his shoulder. "Isn't it that obvious? Yes, I'm about to let the Batman witnessing my latest experiment."

They had reached the doors to the morgue. Lilith observed as Jonathon pushed the doors open and walked over to his gas canisters of his toxin, dragging a few back to the room that the men were trapped in and opened the door, throwing them in before re-locking it. Lilith then noticed that there were more canisters shoved into the vents near the ceiling. It was like he was going to gas the entire lower floor.

"Come here." Jonathan grabbed Lilith by the arm and took a long rag from a nearby table and wrapped it around her nose and mouth, tying it in a knot on the back of her head. "What good are you as a hostage if your mind shatters?" Jonathan ushering her into an area where she was well hidden from others. "Stay right here, close your eyes, and keep your hands over your ears." He ordered.

Lilith obeyed and watched as Jonathan went back to the room the men were locked in, pulling out a small detonator-like device and pressed the button right as the elevator dinged. The room was then flooded in fear gas, Lilith was extremely grateful for the rag.

She squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her hands over her ears, but she could still hear the men in the small room as they began to scream

"Please, Doctor Crane, don't do this!"

"There is no Crane..."

"They're all over me!"

"...Only Scarecrow!"

Lilith pressed her hands against her ears harder, trying to block out their cries. She sat like that for a while before everything was silent, she slowly opened her eyes. The thick gas stung her eyes, blinking away the tears away before she crept up to the glass. The four men had collapsed, and Lilith looked closer and saw they weren't breathing, she started to panic and let out a few cries, she then quickly turned in search of Jonathan, who was nowhere in sight. He must have went back to the morgue.

Lilith took a deep breath and willed herself to calm down, 'Batman was in that elevator, right? I've got to tell him about the gas before it's too late.' She went to move forward but another voice popped up in her head, making her stop. 'Forget about the Bat, he can take care of himself, although I can't say the same for us. Your finally not in Scarecrow's hands and you're going to run to the way he went? I thought you were smarter than that.'

Lilith froze at the voice. It sounded like hers but it was different. Colder, dare she say, darker? "Who are you?" She asked. 'Stop talking out loud, people might think you're crazy! To answer your question, I'm you're uh, what do people call it? Oh! Your conscious, although just between us, I prefer the little devil being that talks on your shoulders, like in those cartoons.'

Lilith ignored the voice and poked her head out of the gate to look around, she noticed there was a large hole in the wall to the right that wasn't there before. It opened up into one of the maintenance tunnels. 'Um, yeah. I would avoid going down there if I were you, oh wait. Hehe, I am.'

With a deep breath, Lilith rubbed the bridge of her nose. 'If you are my little devil, wouldn't you want me to go down there, cause mischief?' Lilith thought. The voice then laughed loudly which caused Lilith to cringe. 'Yeah but going down there isn't going to result in mischief, it's going to cause death! I'd really like to avoid it, now this is what you're going to do...'

After listening to the voice inside her her, Lilith was in the process of crawling through a vent that led out the Medical Center. Once she was outside, she saw Doctor Young and Security Guard Officer Cash head to Arkham East, she quickly followed them to where ever they were headed. Not aware that at her unknown destination, she will run into the same person she ran away from.