-Batman-

Three Months Later

It has just been three months since Catwoman and I rescued Katrina from the hands of Scarecrow, and yet things are still not going so well for Ms. Parkman. It seems that while I was gone, Nightwing had discovered that Rosa had aided Scarecrow into getting Katrina's files. Which we did end up arresting Rosa for and she did ended up pleading guilty for her crime. And surprisingly, the judge took pity on her for it. He also didn't charge her at all, but instead offered a plea bargain. The judge explained to Rosa, that he wasn't concerned at all about punishing her, but in fact, more concerned over the surviving child Crane experimented on, Katrina. So in exchange for her jail time, it was ruled that Rosa was to report to the officials, such as myself or the police, on a weekly basis for six months on Katrina's recovery and if there was any mental health concerns or behavior changes, she was to report to us immediately. Upon hearing this, I expected her to call constantly for the first month about Katrina's mental state, but what I didn't expect was for it to carry on for three whole months!

Both the police and I get messages about Katrina about three to four times a week, and each time, the message isn't all that great. The first message I received from Rosa was the day Katrina was released from the hospital. I remember how her voice sounded so upset as she spoke to me about this new behavior Katrina was displaying. Before Rosa got to the topic at hand however, she explained how Katrina, at the hospital, kept asking if Dr. Crane or anyone else had survived the fire. Rosa told me how she did what she was told by the judge and replied with a lie to Katrina's question. You see, the whole reason Rosa lied was for Katrina's protection program. It was created to keep her safe from Scarecrow and ever since she discovered who he was, we needed to make sure she wouldn't go out looking for him again. So for Katrina's safety, the judge ordered Rosa to lie about Crane's survival. Rosa told me over the phone, how she made it sound like to Katrina that only Katrina, Catwoman, and myself survived the blast and the others had died in the explosion. While in reality, Jonathan Crane had also survived the blast and was at the moment rotting in Arkham.

Anyway, the first emergency phone call I had received from Rosa about Katrina was about her sudden isolated behavior. Rosa explained how after she lied about Dr. Crane's death, which Katrina easily believed, Katrina instantly went into a deep like depression. Where basically, Katrina locked herself in her own room the minute she returned home and only came out when she need to use the restroom. Rosa said the only other time she saw Katrina that night, was when she was returning to her bedroom after using the bathroom. "Her hair and face was a mess, it looked as if she had been weeping for that monster for hours. And when I tried to get close to comfort her, she yelled at me and pushed me away before slamming and locking the door in my face! She's never done this to me before!" I remember Rosa saying in a worried tone. "It's probably just a phase of grief or trauma, this is quite normal in recent victims." I reassured, "Just give her some space and time, and I'm sure she'll be back to her normal self pretty soon." If only I could've know that this was just the beginning of Katrina's many issues and that they were about to get much worst.

You see, soon after Katrina's grieving stage was over, I had suggested that Rosa attempted moving onto phase two of Katrina's new protection program. Which required her to change Katrina's current appearance, school, and name. I know that sounds harsh, but please understand. It's for Katrina's own well being and safety against getting kidnapped again. Katrina understood the need for a new school and seemed to be happy for changing it when she was ready to return, but the name change and hair was a different story. Katrina really didn't want to change her hair and especially her name, if anything, she hated that idea. But through a bit of psychological pushes, Rosa was able to do both. Rosa was able to get Billy, and Sophie to influence her into getting the new hair color trend. Which was the color black and a completely fake trend. And by giving Katrina a new nickname, she was able to shorten her name to Kate. Which isn't all that bad, but what more could she have done? Katrina or Kate has been through enough as it is, especially when she lost all her new friends at the hands of Crane.

Speaking of friends, Katrina was actually invited to both Nathan's and Ali's funeral by their parents. She was even requested to give a speech at both of their funerals. Which surprisingly, Katrina ended up turning down both of their offers. Upon hearing this from Rosa and the worried complaints of both Nathan and Ali's parents, I figured it either had to do with Katrina not being that close to both children or not wanting to see her dead friends again. So I decided, with the consent of both the judge and Katrina's guardian, to create a fake funeral for Dr. Crane. That way, Rosa could easily get Katie out of the house and take her to Nathan's and Ali's funeral. When that day came for the funerals however, Katrina was asked to go one more time for both Ali, Nathan, and even Dr. Crane's sake, but she still refused. She even refused going to pay respects at Scarecrow's fake funeral. Which worried all of us.

Other than funeral requests however, Katrina has also recently received many offers for her adoption by many generosity families. Including both Ali's and Nathan's parents and myself, Bruce Wayne. Of course, Katrina didn't want to participate in interviewing the eligible families, but Rosa ended up forcing her to and Kate obeyed by listening and replying to each of our questions for us. Katrina even got to meet my alter ego, Bruce Wayne, when I was selected as one of the three families to be able to fully adopt her. All that was left now for Kate was to choose which of the three families she wanted to start a new life with, and sign the adoption papers of that family in front of the judge. And when that day came, when Kate had returned with the judge and adoption papers in hand, she had caught us all by surprise. Katrina had turned down every family offer by refusing to sign any of the adoption papers.

All three of us families were confused and outraged at the child's actions and when asked why she would refuse such amazing offers for a new life, Katrina simply shrugged her shoulders and muttered under her breath with a smile, "I already h-have a f-family." I don't know if it was either Kate's simple smile or tone that sent chills down my spine to her statement, but either way, it still had sounded so oddly sinister yet innocent. It was like, she still thought her parent's were alive, and would return one day to take her away. Or maybe I was just overreacting, and she just didn't want to leave her orphan family yet. But still, the way she said it made me ponder in the courthouse if she ever did dream of a such fantasy, or even believed what she had said. Either way, since the child had turned down all of our offers, there was nothing left us adults could do, but to leave her be and wait on the sidelines until she was ready for us. Which I doubted would be anytime soon, like the other two families had hoped.

It was almost like that the once sweet, innocent girl that everyone used to know was broken by the Scarecrow and was never going to come back out, but she surprised us all once again. Just last month, Katrina had come forward and told Rosa she was ready to return to school. Which we allowed immediately of course, but like we told her a month ago, she would have to be transferred to a new school and would have to be with her Gotham Guardian at all times when she left the orphanage. Kate, of course, agreed to our terms and returned to a new school called, Willow Creek the next day. Katrina however, only lasted an hour at Willow's Creek, before Rosa was forced to pick her up and to never return her. The reason being? Katrina had been terminated from the school and for very disturbing reasons.

I remember how Rosa had called me that night, she was frantic and very upset at the recent news she had just received from the school. It seemed that when Kate had arrived to her new school, she didn't receive a very warm welcome by her classmates, and especially the school's bullies when they realized she was a new kid. Rosa briefly told me over the phone how Katrina's new bullies approached her and started to tease her about her hair and scars. It wasn't until that they recognized who Kate was that she snapped and fought back when they started to make fun of her, her dead friends, and of Dr. Crane. I remember how my jaw dropped when I listened to Rosa as I learned about what Katrina had done to punish her bullies.

The teacher had explained to Rosa how, while Kate was being picked on, she randomly started to chuckle as they continued to tease her about Dr. Crane. "The way she chuckled, it was so disturbing, especially for her young age. It was like she was forming an evil plot within her head to kill or hurt others." The teacher had reported. Rosa also explained how shortly after the teacher heard Kate chuckled, the screams and cries of her new bullies filled the room as she attacked them. "At the sound of their screams, he turned to the source and saw something quite terrifying. Katrina, had tackled one of the three bullies and was now slamming the boy's bloodied head against the tiled floor." The Rosa sighs with a shiver as she repeated what the teacher had told her, "If it hadn't been for her teacher, Kate's guardian, or the other classmates, I believe Kate wouldn't have stopped, especially when she started to manically chuckle to her bullies screams."

"Please Batman, believe me when I say this, I've seen Katrina angry before, but I've never seen or heard of her taking it out on others!" Rosa had cried over the phone. "It's okay Rosa, I believe you. Now, please calm down and listen closely. I think it is time, we get Ms. Parkman a psychologist or even better yet a counselor. Katrina is obliviously very troubled and shouldn't be exhibiting any of these new behaviors. I am currently sending you a list of counselors and psychologists in your area to help her and I want you to take her to one tomorrow or at least as soon as possible to get her some medical help." I replied, "Oh and Mrs. Todare." "Yes?" Rosa asked. "If another incident or something like this happens again, I think it will be best that I take her off you hands for a while and take her to a place that I know can help her." I sighed. "W-where?" I remember Rosa asking worried. "The child's ward at Arkham." I sighed with regret before hanging up.

It seemed that Rosa had taken my cold words to heart about taking Katrina to Arkham and immediately took Kate to a counselor the very next day. I could easily tell through Mrs. Todare's desperate measures to get an appointment with a counselor the very next day, that she really didn't want to give up on Katrina or accept the fact that maybe Crane did get to her, but with the latest events happening to Katrina's behavior changes, I even have been starting to have my doubts that Kate would ever return to normal. Unfortunately for me, I was proven wrong.

The counseling had worked. Katrina was very quiet at first with her new counselor, Dr. Jane, but over a period of two weeks they almost become inseparable. Katrina was starting to smile a little more each day, stopped isolating herself, and even started talking to her orphan family about adoption! Everything seemed all too good to be true, until just a few hours ago, when something dramatically changed.

It was Katrina's 7th birthday today, and just a few hours ago, I received a quite disturbing phone call from Mrs. Todare. Through the yelling and pounding in the background of the phone call, I could tell that something was really wrong and I could barely understand what Rosa was shouting about before the phone line went dead. "She just came ---- from --- counselor an ---- early with a letter and caught -- -------- the latest ---- about the asylum's breakout. Katrina ----- that -------- is alive! She tried to ------ us, but Sophie and I ---- able to -------- her and lock her in her room." Rosa shouted before pausing, "B-but she's -------- herself now in her ---- and Katrina isn't --------- nor can we get in!" "P-please Batman, get here as soon as you can, I don't-" Rosa shouted before the line went suddenly dead.

Due to the recent outbreak at Arkham, I was unable to meet Mrs. Todare's needs at her residence, but instead asked Gordon to send a unit over until I could meet her there. Afterwards, when I was able to bring order back to Arkham, I learned that Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Riddler, and Penguin had successfully escaped before I had arrived, which concerned me and caused me to look at my beeping gauntlet to see two messages from Mrs. Todare and one from Gordon. As I read them, I couldn't help but feel my eyes widen and a chill go down my spine. "My God Katrina, what have you done?" I thought with horror before rushing off to Little Treasures Orphanage.

~You have 3 new messages~

Mrs. Todare: (Sent 2 hours ago) Thank you for sending a unit over Batman, and sorry if my phone call was cut off early. Our power went out unexpectedly and the unit just discovered our fuse box had been tampered with. As for the room, they're trying to break in now since it's heavily barricaded from Katrina's side. I'll update you as soon as we get the door open, promise.

Mrs. Todare: (Sent 1 hour ago) KATRINA ISN'T HERE!!!!! We just got the door open and found it empty!!! The window next to her bed is wide open, some of her items are missing, and she left a note for us on her bed! The officers had me inspect the letter while they contacted Gordon and Gotham's Guardians for Katrina's deemed runaway! AND IT GETS WORST!!! OTHER THAN THE LETTER, THE ENVELOPE CONTAINS SIGNED AND LEGALLY APPROVED ADOPTION PAPERS BY DR. CRANE AND KATRINA!!! Gordon's running through the legal paperwork right now, and will contact you shortly of the results, but it isn't looking good! I'm so scared, please get her soon!

Gordon: (Sent 25 minutes ago) Batman, I recommend you get over to the Todare's immediately. My men just found evidence of Katrina across the street from the orphanage and the results came back on the adoption papers. I regret to say this, but they have been just recently approved by Gotham's corrupt legal system and from what I know, there is nothing we can do about it to change them. Katrina is Crane's now.