A Shadow Ascendant preview

"Would you please tell your mother than I'm fine, Cassidy? Tell her Aunt Julia says she's fine. Actually, put her on the phone, would you? – Yes, I know she's making dinner, just tell her that I need to talk to her – Love you too, pumpkin."

Julia sighed with annoyance as she heard her sister arguing with her niece before Amanda's voice squawked over the phone line. "Hello, Amanda – yes, I know you're busy – I just don't think you should have told Cassidy about what happened. She's only four, and she wouldn't have known if you hadn't – For the last damn time, I'm fine, Amanda. It was weeks ago – yes, I've been going to the therapist – well, I'll try and call you sometime next week – tell Cassidy I said happy Halloween – alright, bye."

After she had hung up the phone, Julia took out a microwave dinner and popped it in, watching the tray travel around in slow circles as memories of the events of four weeks ago crowded into her mind...

---

Oh darling, please believe me, I'll never do you no haa-aarm… Julia drummed her fingers on the dusty dashboard in time with the Beatles song impatiently. She was starting to feel too warm inside the car, even though the temperature had recently begun to drop as summer ended and fall began. She had shown up ten minutes late to pick up her friend, Dr. Kayla Brewer, from Gotham's Arkham Asylum, but Kayla still hadn't appeared outside twenty minutes later. She had seen a few police cars show up with sirens blazing and lights flashing but since then, everything had been calm and she was slowly losing patience with her friend for keeping her waiting.

She was starting to doze from the darkness, the heat, and the music when she heard the back door open and close. When she turned around, her face was inches from the barrel of a gun, held by a man whose face was the nightmare of every law officer and ordinary citizen of Gotham.

"Scream, and I'll shoot. Now, toots, I want you to drive. It's getting a bit…tense around here." The Joker's face cracked into a ghastly grin, stretching his red smeared mouth and scars. An icy fear spread though Julia as she put the car into gear and started driving towards the gate. Just after they made it past the empty security shack, an explosion ripped through the west wing of the asylum, prompting the Joker to laugh manically at the sound.

---

Now that she thought about it, a nice glass of something alcoholic would go well with dinner. Julia practically chugged a large glass of chardonnay and poured herself another to keep her hands from shaking while she ate at the table in her tiny kitchen. She shuddered and tried to collect herself, suddenly angry at herself for allowing her memories to get the better of her. It's all over, and it has been for a while, so get a fucking grip on yourself, she thought.

She dumped her half-finished dinner in the garbage. Her head was starting to fuzz over pleasantly from the alcohol. A knock on the door startled her and she crept cautiously to the peep hole, only to see a girl in a purple spandex cat suit and matching fluffy cat ears bouncing up and down impatiently outside her door. She threw the door open for her best friend, Tammy, who hugged her briefly before wandering into the living room and throwing herself across the couch.

"Girl, let me tell you, we're gonna have to walk. There is not a single damn taxi out there that isn't busy. I mean, yeah, it's Halloween and all, but Gotham celebrates it every year and every year there are no taxis! Got any good beer?"

Julia rolled her eyes. "Check the fridge. I'm going to put on my costume so we can leave." She left Tammy rifling through the refrigerator and shut the door to her bedroom. She had already laid out her costume, a gold- and black- striped, ridiculously short flapper dress, complete with a gold bead necklace, black fishnets and stilettos, and a black feather boa. She slipped the black feathered headband over her dishwater blond hair before getting to work on her makeup – thick, smoky eyeshadow and plenty of liquid liner as well as blood red lipstick.

When she stepped back out into the living room, Tammy gasped and clapped her hands with glee, still holding the bottle of beer she had selected.

"You look amazing! Let's hit the road, the rave should be starting soon. This is going to be an awesome night!"

Julia double-checked that her door was shut and her dress covered her ass before shutting the door behind them, mentally reminding herself to leave her fears behind. The Joker was back behind bars, after all.

---

She had driven exactly where the Joker had directed, prompted by sharp jabs of the gun to the back of her head. They had ended up at an apartment downtown, close to the heart of Gotham. The street was abandoned, as it was the middle of the business day, but the Joker had still hustled her roughly inside and up the stairs, occasionally slamming her against the walls of the stairwell. Julia tried to protect her face from the scrape of the brick walls but still ended up with bruises on her face and arms. When they reached an unnumbered door on what she thought was the fifth floor – she had lost track as fear and panic drowned out the rational voice in her mind that told her if she survived this, she would need to remember everything – the Joker yanked her head back by the hair so that her eyes met his, and handed her a key after sliding his gun into a pocket of his purple coat.

"Open the door. Quickly, now, wouldn't want to have to blow your pretty little face off – oh, wait, yes I would!" His snickers filled her ears as she slid the key into the door with shaking hands and went sprawling onto the dusty floor when he shoved her roughly forward and closed and locked the door behind them.

The apartment was practically empty, what she could see of it by the weak light that filtered through the drawn shades; the only furniture in this room was a desk and chair in the corner, surrounded by discarded papers. Three other doors led off to other rooms, one of which she assumed held a weapons stash, as the Joker disappeared and reappeared through its door carrying several larger, serious-looking guns and a few grenades.

He tossed all of these aside to grab Julia once again by the hair and throw her to the ground when she scrambled up to race towards the window. "Now, now, aren't you going to behave?" She didn't answer as she rolled on the floor, whimpering from the headache that had magnified after this latest contact of her head with a hard surface.

"Look at me. LOOK AT ME." His voice went from a clowny, joking tone to a harsh, raspy bark that compelled her eyes to meet his. It was the tone of a murderer, someone who could gut her right now and leave her there to bleed out while he went to have lunch or take a nap without any guilt or horror at his actions. A psychopath, she remembered Kayla had stated once when Julia had helped her study for a psychology final, lacks empathy and acts strongly amoral but is able to appear outwardly normal.

"Noooow, you're going to behave like a good little hostage, or…" he grinned again. "And I'm going to tie you up."

She scooted backwards to try to get away from him but he caught her arm with his hand and pulled her back. "Let GO of me!" she shrieked, only to be struck across the face with his free hand. Julia's head snapped sideways and her vision blurred. The Joker reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out a roll of duct tape.

"Well-uh, isn't someone a fighter?" She struggled as he taped her wrists and ankles together but could not free herself from his iron grip. Julia wondered with a sinking feeling how long she could fight, even this pathetically, before he would simply shoot her. The thought of her impending death sobered her long enough for the Joker to slap a piece of duct tape over her mouth.

He grinned and waggled his fingers at her in a goodbye wave before straightening up to whip a phone out of his pocket and stride into one of the other rooms, slamming the door behind him. Julia lay, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, tears streaming down her cheeks to drop on the filthy floor.

---

The walk to the abandoned factory was not short, but the alcohol the two women had consumed on the way numbed their feet inside their stilettos and warmed their bare skin, exposed to the chilled night air. Normally it would have been suicidally stupid to walk alone in this part of Gotham but it was practically the safest part of the city on Halloween, since most of Gotham's police force was on patrol in this district…and they were both drunk.

"Wooo-hooo!" Tammy howled when she heard the heavy bass beat and saw the flashing light coming from the second floor of one of the dilapidated buildings. "Let's go par-tay, Jules!"

They raced, laughing, across the remaining distance, mindless of the oily puddles they splashed through, and climbed the rusty fire escape and through a broken window into the room of closely crushed bodies.

Drinking champagne, made by the angel/Who goes by the name of glittering Gabriel/Drinking champagne made all the angels/Tears and pain, but I feel celestial…Julia slid into the mass and danced to one of her favorite songs, laughing alongside Tammy as they jumped and swayed. This had been exactly what she needed to take her mind off of everything. She was even able to laugh, albeit nervously, when she saw a skinny boy in clown makeup, but reached for another cup of neon blue punch carried on a tray by a girl in orange butterfly wings and a top hat and chugged before turning with a grin back to Tammy.

Drinking champagne to forget yesterday/'Cause I remember, the way, the way, the way/It ended that day, the day, the day, the day/That I walked away, away, away, away. Julia could almost believe that everything was normal, everything was fine. So she danced to forget, to recover the self she had been before the Joker…

---

Commissioner Gordon had personally interviewed her afterwards. His eyes wandered over the bruises and cuts splashed across her dirt-streaked face and filled with pity.

"Miss Gates, I know you've been through a terrible ordeal, and I know you probably don't want to have to relive what you've been through, but it is imperative that we question you as soon as possible if we are to have any chance to catch the Joker."

"I already told you, I can't talk to you. He told me not to talk to you. I only remember some of what happened, anyway…"

"I understand that you're concerned for your safety, but let me reassure you, the Gotham Justice Department will keep you safe-"

When she spoke, her voice was bitter. "No offense, Commissioner, but I doubt it. Arkham wasn't able to keep him locked up, so I don't see why you'll do any better this time. If I talk to you, he'll find me and he'll kill me, that's all there is to it."

Gordon pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Very well. But if you change your mind, or if for some reason you hear from the Joker, you can contact my office at any time."

"I'll keep that in mind." She felt bad for this tired man, aged by weariness and stress, but not so sorry that she was going to risk her own life to help him catch the Joker. She had managed to make it out of the man's twisted clutches alive and wanted to keep it that way. Julia had lied to the commissioner – she remembered exactly what had happened during every single moment she had been conscious, but it was not a time she wished to revisit.

When she had returned home, she sighed and collapsed on the bed, shaking with nerves…and anger. Who were these people, all of these men, to toy with her life? She was just a pawn in their hands, helpless to make decisions for herself – the Joker had taken her hostage but the justice departments of Gotham were trying to use her in their own way as bait…but she wondered if they had really considered what the Joker would do to a snitch. Julia doubted it would be pretty, and Commissioner Gordon would gain only trivial knowledge in exchange for her life. It was not an exchange she was willing to make.

---

It was around 3:30 am when Julia stumbled into her apartment. She danced into the kitchen, singing, "Aa-ah ah…I predict a riot, I predict a riot, I predict a riot. And if there's anybody left in heeeeere, that doesn't want to be out theeeeere…" to herself. It had been a good night - she had even danced with a few relatively good-looking men. She tossed her tattered headband across the room to land in the living room and went into her bedroom to fall face down on the bed.

"Ahem." At the sound of a voice which was all too familiar to her, Julia rolled over and screamed.