Disclaimer: I don't own anything DC or Batman including plot, characters ect, though I wish I did. I am following TDK plot and use some lines in this story, but I own none of that, only the OC.

I got the cover image from: . /michelle-trachtenberg-maxim-magazine-march-2011-issue-01

A/N: So, this is my first Batman fanfiction! I watched the movie last year for the first time and I loved it. I have always been a fan of Heath Ledger, and he did an amazing role as the character of the Joker. I had never liked Batman until I watched the Dark Knight and now I'm a big fan, it's one of my favourite movies.

Feel free to review and let me know if you like the story, but only if you want to. I hope you enjoy.

The line had barely been moving and her feet felt numb from standing in the same spot, unmoving for so long. She had been in this damn line, just standing in the same spot for a while now. Urgh! She hated banks.

All that she needed was to cash in a check for her rent money and then she'd be gone, but the woman at the front of the line was taking her bloody time. Isabelle started tapping her fingers against the side of her thigh as she grew impatient. Sometimes she just couldn't stand still and unfortunately this was one of those times.

The queue had just started to move forward when gun shots rang out. Isabelle's hands flew up to her head as she ducked down to take cover. She pushed herself back wards across the cold marble floor until her back hit the back of a table.

She crouched under it as her eyes darted around frantically, trying to see what was happening. Three men in clown masks had entered the bank and each of them held a gun.

"Hands up! Heads down!" One of them shouted.

She started to shuffle back slowly as far away as she could get from the robbers. She kept her head down and tried to stay under the edge of the long table. Then one of them came around the corner of the table two tables down.

Isabelle froze, like everyone around her so that she didn't attract his attention.

He came to the closest person to him and pulled something out of the bag he carried over his shoulder. He shoved it into the frightened man's hand, then moved onto the next closest person. After a moment, she realised that he was giving them grenades.

Another one rushed over to pull a woman who worked here over the top of the counter as she reached for a phone. He threw her to the floor as she shrieked.

"Get down! Now!"

The woman scrambled away from him and he looked around shouting at people to get down some more.

Isabelle could feel her heart pounding in her chest and the adrenaline rushing through her body. She was absolutely terrified.

"Obviously we don't want you doing anything with your hands apart from holding on for dear life." The man in the clown mask with the mohawk said.

Everyone had quietened down now, only a few frightened whimpers could be heard here and there.

A masked clown man hit the security guard. "On the ground. Stay on the ground!" He shouted as he frantically waved his gun around. "Nobody make a move! Nobody!"

As everyone turned their attention to him for a second, Isabelle crawled around a corner out of their line of sight.

Another gunshot went off, causing her to jump. She pulled her legs up to her chest and she waited. She saw one of the clowns duck to the ground. It was the one with the mowhawk.

"Do you have any idea who your stealing from? You and your friends are dead!" A man shouted out from somewhere Isabelle couldn't see.

She heard some more gunshots, each one making her jump. Then some shuffling of footsteps and mumbling. She wondered what was happening, but was too terrified to peek around the corner yet.

Just as the silence became too much, a gun went off, then she heard some frustrated grunts and multiple gunshots. There was a thump. Someone had been shot down, she realised, but whether it was the man shooting at the robbers or one of the robbers, she didn't know.

"Where did you learn to count?"

At the corner of her eye she saw a flicker of movement, but didn't dare move an inch. They hadn't seen her yet. The movement moved and started to head her way so she went around the corner to duck back under the table.

The man in the mohawk clown mask rushed past her to go around a corner. He came back a bit later with a couple of large blue bags. Probably full of money she guessed. The other man in the sad clown mask took the bags and threw them over on the floor.

Isabelle stayed perfectly still, and partially hidden under the table surface. 'Maybe if she didn't move, they would continue with what they're doing and she could stay here unnoticed?' She watched them both as they continued to pile the bags of money.

As the sad clown threw the last bags to the pile, mohawk spoke. "That's a lot of money. If this Joker guy was so smart, he would've had us bring a bigger car." He cocked his gun and pointed it at the man in the sad clown mask. "I'm betting the Joker told you to kill me as soon as we loaded the cash?"

The man turned to look at him. "No. no no no. I kill the bus driver." He said casually as he checked his watch.

"Bus driver? What bus driver?" Mowhawk said in a raised and confused voice.

Just as he did, a bus crashed through the building doors, hitting him and sending him flying back onto the ground. The smashed glass and debris flew all over the place and Isabelle turned away to avoid any hitting her in the face.

"Schools out. Time to go." Said a man in another cown mask as he emerged from the back of the school bus. "Guys not getting up is he?" He caught the bag of money that was thrown at him and he chucked it into the bus. "That's a lot of money." As he loaded another bag, he asked a question. "What happened to the rest of the guys?"

The sad clown shot him down. He walked away to grab a bag of money, further away than the rest that must've been hit when the bus crashed through the doors. He threw that in the back of the bus along with the rest.

As he was about to get in, a man says something. "Think you're smart, huh?" He continued to speak and spluttered a bit. The sad clown walked over to him.

Isabelle was too busy focusing on the clown with the mohawk that had turned on the sad clown before he was hit with a bus. He was lying three metres away from her. But what she noticed was the gun next to him that he had dropped.

She checked around the corner. The last robber was listening to the shot man as he bent down. She took the opportunity to quietly but quickly dart towards the gun. She reached out and grabbed the thing. It was heavy and cold in her hands.

Isabelle had used a gun before, but it had been a few years since she had practised.

She held it up as she stood and faced the robber. The robber had taken off his mask. "...makes you stranger." She heard the last of his sentence.

He stood up and turned, taking a couple of steps before he halted, noticing her pointing the gun his way. She had paused for a few seconds in shock at seeing his face.

It was white, with dark black paint smeared around his eyes and a blood red smile stretching up his cheeks in an evil looking grin. She had seen him before, on the news. 'The Joker! That was it.' He had been on the news a lot lately, doing all kinds of things and the weirdest of all was that he actually smiled into the cameras. As if he didn't give a fuck if they knew who he was or not.

He raised an eyebrow and took a step.

"Don't move!" She yelled at him. She didn't particularly want to shoot him, not that he didn't deserve it, it was just that she wasn't comfortable shooting someone. It was something she had never done.

She stood there, staring at him. She was concentrating hard on keeping her arms from shaking. The adrenaline was still pumping through her system. He was standing a few feet away, too close for her liking. He squinted at her and took another step. She squeezed the trigger before she could even think. She had shut her eyes as she did, hoping that she shot him in the leg or something, only injuring him.

No sound came, just a small click like sound. Her eyes snapped open. Her gun had jammed. 'No no no no no!' Her eyes widened in panic.

He smiled and stepped towards her. She took a few shaky steps back, dropping the gun to the ground with a sharp clatter. She was about to bolt but he managed to grab her arm before she could as he raised his other hand with the gun above his head to whack her.

She shouted in pain as he hit her head with the butt of his gun. She collapsed to the ground, sprawled out on the floor.

Her vision was fuzzy as she tried to cling on to her consciousness. She saw him take a few steps as he grew fainter and the darkness swallowed her, dragging her further and further down into her unconscious mind.