Batman Begins/Dark Knight The Teal Flower of Arkham

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, DC Comics ultimately own them all. I make absolutely no money with this story; I merely borrow the characters to star in my daydreams.

I don't have a beta-reader and English is as far from my native language as possibly could be, so should there be errors of any kind I do apologize here in advance.

Althea is the only thing I can claim as mine to any extent, even though she herself is vastly based on Pamela Isley, especially the Poison Ivy of Schumacher's "Batman and Robin". If you wish, you might even imagine Althea Poison Ivy's English AU -version. The Joker in my story is based on Nolan's Joker in "The Dark Knight", although he has quite a few similarities to the original DC Comics Joker.

Rated M for language, sexual themes in the later chapters, and violence/gore. Also before we get to the actual story, I will be re-doing this chapter before uploading a new chapter, this version just being a draft.

This story takes place after "the Dark Knight", in Nolanverse. We will begin a little before that, though… Please enjoy!

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**PROLOGUE**

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**_~*Three years ago*~_**

A heavy padlock clicked on its place as a young woman was doing her night rounds to lock up the super market she worked in. A nametag on her work uniform spelled "Althea" as the white plaque caught a glimpse of the late summer night's sun. Working in a super market was not her dream career, not by a long shot, but you had to pay the bills some way, and she was very aware that fighting for Mother Nature was not a well-paid job. Sure, working in a WalMart in a small town in New Hampshire was simple, boring and mediocre, but as for now, she didn't have any other plans, and it was a steady income.

The brunette was just walking back toward the tills after locking the storage doors when she heard an unusual racket from the entrance area of her workplace, and she knew her hopes that it wasn't a robbery were in vain, as she heard gunshots. Althea froze onto her tracks and soon a man walked past her carrying a bag emitting noises clearly stating that it was their loot. He stopped in front of her and lifted the brim of his fedora hat with his right thumb. He chuckled at the young woman's shocked expression and her face grew paler than a sheet.

"Don't look so stiff, toots, give us a smile", he cackled at her, revealing his face that was covered in grotesque makeup; his whole face was painted white, the surroundings of his brown eyes were black and his mouth – that was adorned with long, uneven scars on each side, ranging nearly to his ears – was covered with red, although some places were worn and his forehead showed creases that showed a glimpse of his Caucasian skin tone. The bits of hair that were visible from underneath his hat looked greasy and were dyed dirty green, and he held a butterfly knife in one hand and she didn't even think of disobeying him; she was absolutely terrified of the goon in front of her! She mustered a genuine yet slightly trembling smile, forcing herself to meet his eyes.

"That's a good girl", the man cooed and a wicked grin spread on his face as he took a step towards her. Althea's heart was racing and she felt like she was about to faint any moment, but she also knew that staying absolutely still was her best option right then. The grin on his face never left, and he reached her. The girl swallowed heavily and didn't dare make a sound. _'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GONNA DO, LEMME GO!'_ Her thoughts raced and she squeezed her eyelids shut as he was now not farther than a foot away from the young woman. She daren't even imagine what he might do to her next. She was fully aware that the man in front of her was not working alone, as she'd heard several male voices, and she couldn't stop thinking about her co-worker – she was doing the nightshift with only one other girl, who was a couple of years younger than Althea herself, making her just barely over eighteen. What had happened to her? She didn't know it then, but the other five members of the gang were assaulting her and leaving her to die in the store office.

The brunette drew a breath, not sure if she'd live to ever take one again, and prepared for the worst. What happened next was something she would have never expected; he patted her head and burst into laughter. Her green eyes flew wide open as she stared at the man, who had turned away to make his exit from the soon-to-be police-infested crime-scene. As he went, he turned his head to throw a last glance at the horrified store worker; "Don't stop smiling, babe, that's one gaawrgeous smile!" His laughter echoed in the store.

Althea's knees gave away and she collapsed on the floor, sobbing. The store keys fell from her hand and the air was soon filled with what obviously was the robbers' getaway car storming away from the store, and shortly after the sirens of the police cars. Althea had survived, whereas her co-worker had been brutally murdered. It was said that her face was twisted into a grin, caused by a chemical of some sort. After giving her statement to the police Althea quit her job. Little did she know how lucky she was to survive; the Joker rarely left anyone unharmed in his wake.

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It was a time for a change for Althea. With the money she had earned during the few years at the WalMart she wasted no time, and within a month of the store robbery she'd moved to New Jersey. The ever-so-slightly traumatized brunette was in pursuit of her life-long dream to do good in the name of Greenpeace, and she started to actively take part in their activities. What was initially her desperate attempt for normal life quickly changed; Althea's new home was called Gotham City, and unbeknownst to the brunette she had just stepped into the hyena's lair. Things started to slowly unravel to her, as it became quite clear that the city and its' officials made sure that no news of the notorious city's dubious events leaked outside the city borders, at least to much detail. Had she known what sort of a Hell she had moved in, Althea might have reconsidered the location of her new home.

Althea learnt quickly about the many criminals that plagued Gotham City. It was almost weekly that something bad happened, like a robbery or a murder, or some other criminal event. Yet she had decided to stay; she finally felt like she was doing something in order to help the nature, and she'd joined a small group of "extremists", shall we say, in the ranks of Greenpeace, who were planning something a bit unorthodox for the future.

It wasn't unheard of that the city of Gotham had an effect on his inhabitants. Likewise it was no coincidence that the notorious insane asylum, Arkham, was located on an island just off the coast of the city. Sometimes the city just took its toll on the people without them even noticing, and some were far more receptive than others...

A year had passed since Althea had moved to Gotham City, and the twenty-four-year-old young woman had dedicated most of her new life in Gotham to the unofficial extremist branch of Greenpeace (they called themselves "the Angel Wings", named after a plant called Caladium, also known as Angel Wings) and their goals. Most, if not all of the members, possessed rather extreme personalities, and Althea enjoyed analyzing and watching them immensely. She had grown up in an orphanage, and it was safe to say that the other orphans had some very different personalities, too, (mostly depending on the manner in which they were orphaned), and the more bizarre the personality, the more it drew her in; her closest childhood friends were quite strange, to say the least. Not to mention that Althea was rather extreme as well, but she didn't even realize it herself. Nature was her drug and she was proverbially high on it, twenty-four seven. Perhaps it was just a phase in the young woman's life – trying to find her place in the world – or perhaps it was more, who could tell? In her own way she was spiralling into madness, slowly but steadily. Even if the status of her insanity was not the conventional one, obsession was still a form of madness. Would she be able to snap out of it?

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**_~*Two years ago*~_**

It was an early winter day and the Angel Wings were finally about to spring into action. This is what they had been planning for a long time, and tonight it would happen; they were planning to break into the Gotham Museum of Natural History. Their goal was to steal some extraordinarily rare plant seeds, including those of a certain plant that had died out in its natural habitat in the Amazon. The plant was quite peculiar indeed, as it was known to be one of the very small amount of plants that were both herbivore and carnivore, alike. Why should a museum be privileged to host such extraordinary species? Besides, it seemed to Althea that Gotham could surely benefit from a naturalisation of some degree, anyway. The city was abysmally gloomy and corrupt, and perhaps it could do with a rebirth. After all, to quote a former Soviet leader, "sometimes you have to destroy in order to create".

After extensive research Althea had found out that the seeds of the aforementioned extinct Amazonian plant require a soil very particularly fertilized, but (and this being quite disturbing indeed) could also survive in live flesh, although no records could be found about such occurrences. Althea had volunteered as the host, and truth be told none of them had any idea how the seeds would react to and affect the host, but Althea was determined to have the species flourish once more. That's why, once they got to the glass cabinet that withheld the seeds, the brunette took a dagger to the outside of her left forearm and cut a deep gash, about five inches long, from her elbow to her wrist, and as soon as she'd placed the seeds in the gash a fellow Angel Wing stitched her arm up, before she bled too much.

However the gig didn't exactly go as well as they had planned... The Angel Wings hadn't counted on a certain six foot tall flying rodent to make an appearance and catch them, leading to their arrests. When Althea was examined at Gotham General later that night the doctors were horrified to find out that there was no way to remove the seeds from her arm; they had blended in with her flesh and were a part of her now. And was it merely the doctors' imagination, or were her eyes an unnatural shade of teal, as well?

You know, it's peculiar, the things the insane do...

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The Angel Wings were all sent to Blackgate prison, the leader of the gang for five years and the rest of the group for shorter amounts of time. One could say Althea was lucky, as she got away with just five _months_ instead of years, but then again she might yet have to pay a price greater than imprisonment.

Something odd had started to happen to the young woman; that much was clear to everyone. Her wavy brown hair had turned to a dark auburn instead, her naturally tan complexion had paled and seemed to have turned into a sickly shade of pale green, and the veins that were visible through her skin looked very dark green indeed. Her eyes had turned to bright turquoise and where she once had the stitches over the gash she'd inflicted on herself, there was now a floral pattern, looking almost like a tattoo. Besides...

"Tealdrop" or "Tealie", as her fellow Angel Wings now referred to her as (due to the combination of her eye-colour, skin tone and the fact that the one time she'd shed a tear, the colour of it had been teal instead of clear), had learnt that the peculiar little seeds that were now permanently a part of her granted her certain powers. She'd first found this out when one day a tiny blossom, almost orchid-like, had sprouted through the skin of her left forearm. Althea felt empowered; she was, at last, one with the nature she had so long lived to serve. Now; how to serve Mother Nature the best?


End file.

Batman Begins/Dark Knight, Crime, Drama