A/N: Alright, I have made revisions and have changed the storyline a little but much of the story is still the same. About a quarter of the chapters have been revised so far, and I thought it was time to start posting again. I hope guys enjoy the changes. Review and let me know what you think. I'll try to update once a week. Read, review, and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own what is mine.

Chapter One

Downtown Chicago

Light washed over her, it was bright and it burned. She didn't make any noise though, just moved her hand to cover her eyes. She could feel their eyes on her. How much longer would this go on? How much longer would she be in pain? She longed for darkness there was something soothing about being housed in shadows, to be invisible.

Voices. They were murmuring…talking…questioning, but whom? Her? That can't be right. Jesus everything was fuzzy. She could feel the light, did it get brighter?

Hot… burning…A scream tore through the air, she jumped startled.

Christ!

That had been her, she looked down and all she could see was red…blood was everywhere. What the hell was that!

"Tell us what we want to know, Sergeant!"

Her head snapped up, it was then she realized that her hands had been restrained for some time now. A shadow loomed over her, she was grateful for the darkness but knew that something wasn't right. She found herself whispering no to this black mass.

Funny…the answer seemed to make it mad. Another scream and she could feel tears at her eyes. NO. She refused to cry… not here.

"Audrey Lynnette Douglas, Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corp, serial number 617489024." Audrey whispered… that was the protocol: name, rank, and serial number.

Her words seemed to echo around her.

"Why were you in the prison Sergeant!" Audrey ignored him and kept on with the protocol, she was growing light headed. She realized that she was losing too much blood and fast. So this was how she was going to die.

Audrey heard cursing. She looked at the shadow again, it had eyes. She hated that everything was out of focused. Brown eyes, like dirt…. She hated these eyes, they were hard and cruel and they shined at her as if she were a prize. How long had she been here?

"Sergeant, tell us what we want to know and you won't have to watch us hurt your comrade."

Comrade? Audrey's head was forcefully twisted to the side, on the floor laid another shadow. She squinted and shook her head trying to focus on what was before her. A body…Sean! Oh God, his greasy blonde hair swathed in front of his eyes, he was bruised and bloodied. Sean groaned as he tilted his head back to look at her.

"Don't say a word Gunny, that's an order." He managed to rasp out.

Out of the corner of her eye Audrey saw something red heading towards Sean. This time it wasn't her that screamed.

"SEAN!"

Her eyes snapped open, panting it took her a minute to remember her surroundings, her alarm clocked stared back at her reading three thirty in the morning. Twisting to lie on her back Audrey realized that she was covered in sweat and it wasn't her nightmare that had awoken her. On her night stand her cell was vibrating calmly. She reached over to look at who was calling her before flipping it open to answer.

"Douglas."

"Audi!" A chirping voice came through the line causing her to hold the phone away from her ear. It was too damn early for perpetually happy people. "I didn't wake you did I?"

"Don't call me, Audi, Bobby, I'm not a car. And no… you didn't wake me, what do you want?" Audrey ran a hand through her light brown hair; she could feel the oil that had started to accumulate in it and knew a shower was in the imminent future.

"Why do I have to want something? Maybe I just felt the need to chat." He sounded a bit offended.

Audrey snorted, "At three thirty in the morning, Bobby? I don't think so."

Bobby sighed, he had hoped that Audrey would play along, he was bored…night shift sucked. "I just got a message telling me to call you and let you know that Jensen wants to meet with you at eight this morning."

"Where?"

"That café on the corner of sixth."

"Do you know why he wants to meet with me?"

"Nope, probably has a job for you."

It was Audrey's turn to sigh knowing that there was a strong possibility that Bobby was right. So much for her vacation. "Hey maybe you'll get breakfast out of it, Audi."

Audrey smiled, Bobby was such an optimist. She could picture the twenty year old shoving his mane of black hair away from his eyes as he talked to her. "Maybe and stop calling me Audi, I'll talk to you later Bobby…lay off the Red Bull, huh? You sound far too hyperactive for this time of night."

"Not a chance, I can't live without my sweet nectar."

Audrey shook her head, "Night Bobby."

"Night Audi." She rolled her eyes as she hung up. Glancing back over at her clock Audrey saw that it was nearing on four. She knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep and decided that it was time to get up and start the day, a nice shower at the top of the list after a jog.

Gotham City

Rain drops splattered against the windows of Wayne Enterprises, from inside his office Bruce Wayne looked out over the city. He could see the occasional car driving along the roads or stray person rushing somewhere for cover, but it seemed like Gotham was pretty much deserted with hardly anyone outside. Bruce knew otherwise, he knew that somewhere out there someone was plotting for the demise of another and it only made his current mood bleaker than it already was.

He had been consumed by frustration lately, it seemed like Gotham had its very own serial killer now. Four bodies had been found. Each a month apart from one another and each had been posed in an imitation of a famous art piece. The media had taken to calling the killer The Artist, with the poses being that of the Da Vinci's Mona Lisa ,El Greco's An Elderly Gentleman 1590's, Delacroix's Aspasia, and Durer's Adam.

What was frustrating was that the poses were the only thing linking the victims, there was no other tie found and each death had been remarkably different from the other, it wasn't the same style. As far as anyone knew this could be one person or a group of people. Right now the police were leaning towards a group. Gender and age weren't a factor, neither was a particular look, like all the victims having blonde hair or all having green eyes. So why were these people selected?

There had been no fingerprints, no DNA, no hair strands, there was nothing that even gave a hint as to who was doing this, just that whoever this person or persons were loved art and that wasn't enough to go on. The last body had been found three days ago and it had shed no new light on to this case, but had given it another victim.

It wasn't just the murders that frustrated Bruce; he was limited in what he could do now. It had been over a year and the police were still on the search for Batman as strong as when they had started and he wasn't about to risk Gordon by being seen anywhere near him. No… Gordon had a family and a good career. If he was ever counted as an accessory or used as a means to get to Batman, Bruce wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Of course, he thought wirily that hadn't stop Gordon from getting in touch with his alter ego.

It had been a month after Rachel and Harvey's death and Bruce had let himself be consumed by Batman, he hadn't wanted to feel the pain of being himself. He had been down by the Narrows when he heard a scream and a round of gunshots. He was off before someone could blink. When he arrived at the source of the shots he found Gordon and his son waiting in the alleyway as if nothing was amiss before Gordon handed over news that several of the mob's thugs had escaped from jail and couldn't be found.

Since then Bruce had given Gordon a cell phone coded with a three digit number to press in order to alert Batman when something had happened. To make it untraceable Fox had keyed the signal to transverse through any three different open phone lines within a certain radius at a sub-audible frequency before the signal was then scrambled and an alert at the Batcave went off. There were more specifics to it, but that was pretty much the gist which was all Bruce needed to know before handing it over.

With a sigh, Bruce turned from the window and maneuvered his way over to his desk and started to make a mental list of everything that was to be done. There was a charity ball he was to attend tonight to raise money for the children's hospitals and while he didn't want to spend time with any off the people there, he would go because the cause was one that he found important and it had been one his parents had found important.

He also knew that he would be re-reviewing all the evidence for these murders before doing a patrol around the city. Bruce turned and looked over at the digital clock placed on his desk, it was nearing on two and he didn't think he had any meetings to sit in on and while he had a constant flow of paperwork on his desk he decided it was time to skip out and have a late lunch.